America and the Middle East: Terror and Iraq
Dec 19, 2015
America and the Middle East: Terror and Iraq
I. Introduction
• Clash of Civilizations?• Toward a New Foreign Policy?
II. Islamists and Jihadists
A. Birth of the Modern Islamist Movement1. Rise of the West/Western
Imperialism2. The Failure of Modernism
a. Establishment of Israel and the Six Day War
3. An Old Saw: Apostasy
II. Islamists and Jihadists
C. Islamists--Fighting the Near Enemy1.Failure
II. Islamists and JihadistsD. Jihadists--Fighting the Far
Enemy1. The Making of a Terrorist: Osama bin
Ladena. Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966)
• The Sixth Pillar
II. Islamists and Jihadists
b. Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan (1979-1988)c. The First Gulf War
2. War with America
III. The "War on Terror"
A. Afghanistan (2001-?)
IV. Iraq
A. "Axis of Evil" and the Stated Rationale for War
1. WMD's and Terror Links
B. Underlying Rationale For War1. Toward a New Foreign Policy
a. Vietnam
b. Preventative War
IV. Iraq
2. Search for a New Middle East Policya. Reverse Domino Theory"
IV. Iraq
C. Pre-War Debate1. Objections
2. The Silence of the Lambs
3. Selling the War
4. Planning?
IV. Iraq
D. The Invasion of Iraq (March, 2003)1. "Mission Accomplished"?
E. Summer 2003: Drift
IV. Iraq
F. Insurgency (Summer 2003-Present)1. The Administration's Response
2. Growtha. Abu Ghraib
IV. Iraq
G. The Shia Moment1. Elections
H. Civil War1. Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds
V. Assessing Iraq
A. Tactical Failure?1. Absence of Planning
2. Flawed Assumptions
3. Absence of a Regional Plan
4. Failure of the CPA
5. Over Reliance on Force
V. Assessing Iraq
B. Strategic Failure?
VI. Mounting Criticism
A. Problem of Unilateralism
B. Rhetorical Problems
C. U.S. Reputation
D. The Realist Critique
E. Vietnam Again?
F. Unity Ended
Osama Bin Laden
U.S.S. Cole
Ethnic Iraq
Selling the War
Rhetoric and Reality
Insurgents
Sunni Triangle
The Al-`Askarī (Golden) Mosque, Samarra
VII. Conclusion
• Where Next?
• The Real Issue