I honestly do not know.. Has the West and USA ever really done anything good for the Middle East - to outweigh the bad

[dahunan]

I can see the things I think were bad

But what good have we done for them and why should they hope for anything less than our failure?

 

[l0cke]

We got the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Well, we gave them weapons to fight off the soviets.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: l0cke
We got the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Well, we gave them weapons to fight off the soviets.

Yeah, but it is so unimaginably tragic that we screwed the pooch when it came to reconstruction investment after the war.

 

[nageov3t]

we buy their oil, that seems like a lot.

also, we prevented saddam hussain from taking over the persian gulf.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: loki8481
we buy their oil, that seems like a lot.

also, we prevented saddam hussain from taking over the persian gulf.

The whole world buys their oil, not just the West and U.S.

Your second point has become moot, sadly.

 

[jpeyton]

We've liberated 100,000+ Iraqis from breathing.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: loki8481
we buy their oil, that seems like a lot.

also, we prevented saddam hussain from taking over the persian gulf.

Uh.. do you think they NEED us to buy their oil? Like... they don't have anyone else who would buy it

Didn't we also increase Saddams power in the region and kill 1000's and 1000's of Iranians and Iraqis by proxy when we kept our Military Industrial Complex growing and growing selling weapons to both sides of a war?

can you think of anything else?

 

[ShinGouki]

"We got the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Well, we gave them weapons to fight off the soviets. "

I think Afghanistan is considered to be more within Central Asia rather than the Middle East, though it does border it and could be seen as part of the greater Middle East in some definitions. Would you also include Pakistan by this definition though? I guess you'd then also have to include the

Just asking since it has implications on the original question, are you referring mainly to the countries of the Arabian peninsula or are we including North Africa + The Persian Plateau.

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Besides helping bringing many of them out of the stone ages?....

But I'd like to know when the OP starts the history of the "west" and middle east.

 

[punchkin]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
We've liberated 100,000+ Iraqis from breathing.

... and saved the lives of countless more from genocide.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: punchkin

Originally posted by: jpeyton
We've liberated 100,000+ Iraqis from breathing.

... and saved the lives of countless more from genocide.

looks like we did a really good job of that .. eh?

do you add abu-ghraib into that and the destruction of their economy and their schools and such

do you also include that we helped bring Saddam to power ? and helped him become so powerful?

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Besides helping bringing many of them out of the stone ages?....

But I'd like to know when the OP starts the history of the "west" and middle east.

So you think British colonialism was something your God approved of?

 

[fleshconsumed]

Originally posted by: loki8481
also, we prevented saddam hussain from taking over the persian gulf.

Surely you mean to say "also, we prevented saddam hussain from taking over the persian gulf with the weapons we supplied him in the first place"?

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: punchkin

Originally posted by: jpeyton
We've liberated 100,000+ Iraqis from breathing.

... and saved the lives of countless more from genocide.

Sectarian violence doesn't qualify as genocide to you?

 

[ShinGouki]

"So you think British colonialism was something your God approved of?"

Why stop there, not heard of the Crusades? .

EDIT -- Do the Romans count as "The West" could go even further....

 

[gentobu]

I honestly do not know.. Has the West and USA ever really done anything good for the Middle East - to outweigh the bad

Oh please. It's clear from your responses in this thread that you already know the answer to your question, and have formed an opinion. You started this thread so you could make sarcastic, un-witty comments to anyone who tried to answer your "question".

 

[hiromizu]

We gave them FREEDOM. We gave them LIBERTY. We gave them HOE.

 

[ProfJohn]

Educate yourself to the number of empires that have conquered the middle east.
link

THE OP should also read about Lawrence of Arabia and the arab revolt that allowed the arabs freedom from the Ottoman turks that ruled them at the time.

The difference between the west and all the other countries and empires that had invaded the middle east? We set them free.

 

[badkarma1399]

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Besides helping bringing many of them out of the stone ages?....

Dude, we are talking about what the west did for the middle east, not the other way around.

 

[dahunan]

Originally posted by: gentobu

I honestly do not know.. Has the West and USA ever really done anything good for the Middle East - to outweigh the bad

Oh please. It's clear from your responses in this thread that you already know the answer to your question, and have formed an opinion. You started this thread so you could make sarcastic, un-witty comments to anyone who tried to answer your "question".

Straight up.. I made it known that I think we haven't done much of anything BENEVOLENT for them

I want to know... HAVE WE... sounds like you can enlighten me

Gulf 1 was not for the ME.. it was for our MIC

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: loki8481
we buy their oil, that seems like a lot.

also, we prevented saddam hussain from taking over the persian gulf.

BWAHAHA...riiight. Stop making things up. He invaded Kuwait and we went to war ~ but he didn't invade, nor had any intention of invading anyone else. The most we got was claims by the US army that soldiers were massed at the border, but we never saw released satellite photos.

The reality was that we didn't want one country controlling such a huge chunk of oil

 

[magomago]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Educate yourself to the number of empires that have conquered the middle east.
link

THE OP should also read about Lawrence of Arabia and the arab revolt that allowed the arabs freedom from the Ottoman turks that ruled them at the time.

The difference between the west and all the other countries and empires that had invaded the middle east? We set them free.

The Euros broke them into fragmented countries, and then colonized them after WW1 against their own will, as well as breaking promises. All those dates of "independence" isn't some romanticized benevolent "western nations" granting independence because they believed in freedom. It was a because they couldn't control the area (as a colony) plain and simple. The string of post WW2 independence dates should be proof of that because many European nations couldn't simply control it. In cases like Algeria, the "enlightened French" fought a bloody war of being an occupier before they gave up.

We (USA) promised to aid and support the Saudi Regime and keep them in power in exchange of oil; we all know the "Freedoms" of Saudi Arabia, right?

I have no idea how the fuck you think "we gave them freedom"...some convoluted twisted bullshit.

The Mid East doesn't owe us anything, nor do we owe them anything. That said, a lot of our actions towards the middle east hasn't fostered good will, and we reap what we soe

 

[Ozoned]

What's good? What's bad?

Israel, anyone????

 

[CADsortaGUY]

Originally posted by: dahunan

Originally posted by: CADsortaGUY
Besides helping bringing many of them out of the stone ages?....

But I'd like to know when the OP starts the history of the "west" and middle east.

So you think British colonialism was something your God approved of?

Answer the question so I know where you are starting from.

 

[magomago]

I'm going to assume he refers to contemporary history after the fall of the Ottomon