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Andrew Allen

Mr. Sebestyen

Honors World Regional Geography

11/7/16

The Status of the United States in the Middle East

From the Iranian Hostage Crisis, to the Gulf War, to 9/11, and the following Iraq war and

war on terror, the United States has been heavily involved in the Middle East for a very long

time. Due to the oil exports, origins of three major religions, and history of instability, save for

the Ottoman Empire, the United States has felt the need to maintain a presence in the Middle

East. The U.S. needs to remove military presence in the Middle East, but remain diplomatically

involved to help maintain human rights because they create resentment with their military

presence, the money spent on defense is not worth the rewards, and the USA still needs to help

the citizens in Southwestern Asia retain their rights.

For many years, the United States has had huge presence in the Middle East. There are

American installments littered throughout the region. This threatens people's way of life and

privacy. This creates a great amount of hate for Americans, their home, and the way they live.

When Americans try to get Middle Easterners to live a more western lifestyle, this is threatening

to them. This is part of the reason for the constant terror attacks from groups like ISIS and Al-

Qaeda, and the executions of Americans by similar groups, like the Taliban. If the U.S. would

not have gotten involved in the first place, they could have avoided the hostility from Middle

Eastern groups. If America were to remove their presence from Southwestern Asia, it would

make the people of the area less spiteful of the United States. The hate echoing from the land that

led to the attacks of September 11, 2001 could have been avoided if the United States had let the
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Middle East be and take care of their own problems. They should take away the presence to

make the region less hateful towards them and avoid future attacks.

For the amount of money the United States government spend on supporting countries in

the Middle East and defense in the region, the rewards are not worth it. The most significant

export, and the main, if not only, export the United States is worried about, is oil. In the past, a

large portion of the oil used in the United States came from the Middle East. This made it

necessary to try to maintain good relationships and peace in the region. Now only ten percent of

the oil in the USA comes from the Middle East due to domestic production and alternate energy

sources. The United States no longer needs to rely on Middle Eastern oil, yet they spend,

according to The Washington Post, forty three billion tax dollars a year in the Middle East. That

is a mind boggling amount of money spend in foreign countries to get a small portion of the oil

used, when that money could go towards domestic issues such as hunger and improving

education. The U.S. is spending too much money to sustain relationships with these countries.

Although oil is extremely important to the American economy, the need for higher domestic

production, and a boom in the alternative energy industry, creating more companies like Tesla,

could help the economy even more. The United State is simply spending too much money in the

Middle East for what they get out of it, especially when their presence is making the

aforementioned issue of hate of the Western World grow.

Even though it is imperative that America takes away military presence in Southwestern

Asia, it is important that a diplomatic influence is retained within the area. As a world power, the

United States has a duty to fight for the rights of all people, as the country was founded upon

these beliefs of rights and freedoms for all people. This does not involve a military presence,

though. If the United States can keep communicating with countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia
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they can help to make sure that people have their rights. Even if the U.S. does not have a

standing military force ready in the Middle East, having the largest military in the world is very

helpful when negotiating these rights for the people. Although this is still seen as being

aggressive towards the leaders at the top of the government, the reason for leaving the Middle

East is to alleviate the tension between citizens and the U.S., because the citizens are the people

that become terrorists, not ambassadors and diplomats. There has never been an attack on United

States soil coming straight from a government in the Middle East, just groups that sprout from

civilians. The governments are the people denying rights, though. The United States needs to

stay firm with countries in not hindering the rights of their people, especially women in the case

of Saudi Arabia. In the case of Iran, the U.S. needs to ensure that Iranians can not continue a

nuclear program. In such an unstable region, one revolution could be the difference maker,

leading to a nuclear war and the end of the human race. While still remaining sensitive and

peaceful to countries, after the United States moves their military away from the Middle East,

they would still have to working relationships with Middle Eastern countries to help guarantee

human rights for all people in the world. There is a difference between reasoning with countries

with undertones of military aggression coming if demands are not met, and threatening countries

with an already existing American presence within the country.

The U.S. needs to pull their military from the Middle East, but keep fighting for rights in

the region because military occupation creates animosity, too much money is put into the Middle

East for how much is profited by it, and the fight for rights is a battle the USA needs to fight in

order to stay true to the values of the country..The United States presence in the Middle East is

unwarranted and unhelpful. After fighting for fifteen years, it is clear that there will never be a

true end to terrorism in the region, or anywhere for that matter. Leaving the Middle East can
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only help the terror issue by reducing tensions. The U.S. does not rely on Middle Eastern oil

anymore. The only business America has in the Middle East is fighting for the rights of the

people. Although keeping some sort of influence in the area, the United States has no reason to

have military involvement in Southwestern Asia.