I hope that the regulars here might help me flesh out a list I’m compiling of instances where neoconservative policy has served to aid Islamic extremism or vice versa, irrespective of the extent to which this aid appeared to be the result of poorly conceived or executed policy. Current events in the Middle East, Netanyahu’s meddling in our election included, have pushed things so far that it’s getting very hard to ignore the elephant in the room. (So to speak.)
I like to work with bulletpoint-style lists. Here’s what I have so far:
- 1973. The Shah of Iran openly promises to keep raising the price of oil, angering the Nixon administration. CIA support for the Shah begins to erode at this point, leading to the 1979 revolution in Iran.
- 1979. Iranian student extremists take 52 Americans hostage in Tehran, effectively crippling Jimmy Carter in his race for re-election.
- 1980. The alleged deal between Khomeini and the Reagan campaign is done to insure that hostages are not released prior to the election. Hostages were instead released immediately upon Reagan’s inauguration.
- 1981. Ronald Reagan greatly expands shipping of arms to the mujahideen in Afghanistan.
- 1985. Iran-Contra.
(There’s probably some juicy stuff from our role in the Iran-Iraq War that I don’t know. Anyone?)
- 2001. 9/11. Bush doesn’t get a second term without it, doesn’t get a chance to invade Iraq without it. Attempts to locate and capture or kill Osama Bin Laden are transparently half-hearted.
- 2003. Invasion of Iraq leads to toppling of secular Baathist regime, replaced by sectarian Shia regime closely allied with… Iran.
- Throughout. Every outbreak of violence leads to fears of instability of the global oil supply, keeping prices artificially high. American oil companies register record profits during these times.
- 2012. Bizarre story of anti-Islam video released in US causes waves of protests by extremists in the Middle East, which are themselves allegedly used as diversionary tactic during assault on popular US diplomats in Benghazi.
I think all these things are linked. Further, I strongly suspect that I’m just scratching the surface here. Who can tell me what I’ve missed?