How The U.S. Stole the Middle East

the middle east the part of asia that europeans see as the middle of what they see as the east sort of arbitrary whatever we call it the middle east this part of the world is literally where civilization started right here in modern-day iraq and over the years the borders here have been redrawn many times as empires have ebbed and flowed through this region by the way i didn't make this time lapse a very talented youtuber did and he deserves a medal for it or perhaps just a new patron thanks man anyway the most recent carving up of this region happened by european powers the french the british the russians i mean are we surprised no like of course of course it was the british of course it was the french of course it was europeans of course the lines they drew didn't really take into account language or ethnicity or regional identity they just sort of sliced it all up amongst themselves and said these are our new regions of power in the middle east eventually those european powers left but the lines they drew stuck around and became the skeleton for what the borders look like today and this is where our story starts in the 1930s here in the modern middle east at this point across the ocean there was this growing superpower that had spent the last century moving west taking over this whole continent and beyond deep into the pacific ocean we've talked about that a bit but things were changing the world had just fought a brutal world war that was fought with new weapons that were powered by this new important substance oil germany lost that war in part because they didn't have access to enough oil to keep up with this new style of warfare that relied a lot more on machines the young superpower realized that access to this stuff would determine who would be powerful and who would not so they stopped looking west for a moment and turned east with hopes of finding the fuel they needed to build their power the us presence in the middle east started with one little dot right here but soon that dot would expand into a sprawling network of alliances covert attacks flows of weapons money and the building of innumerable bases and eventually turning into full-on ground wars this is how the u. s stole the middle east ready and willing to employ all means necessary okay so it's the 1930s and the us doesn't have a significant presence in the middle east at this point but that's about to change because there's a company based in california that wants to explore this vast desert for oil 11 000 miles from san francisco there lies a primeval desert a mass of drifting sand and sun-baked earth one-third the size of the united states this was sort of a risky decision for the california company because first off they had no idea if there was actually any oil here they knew it would mean sinking into the desert the money of thousands of stockholders in a project that might well end in complete loss and second off this desert was a part of a very hardcore religious kingdom the fact that mecca is the source and the shrine of islam gives saudi arabia a central place in the islamic and therefore the arab world that was home to the holiest sites in islam run by a dogmatic royal family that did not like outsiders especially non-believing westerners but even still the king of the desert kingdom eventually gives the california company permission to explore almost a million square kilometers of this desert looking for oil and after a few years the bet paid off and on march 3rd 1938 in this little patch of coastal desert they struck gold well actually they struck oil but it might as well have been gold [Music] so throughout the 30s and 40s american oil executives workers and their families started flocking to the middle east establishing the first significant american presence in the region they set up little cities around the oil operation that were little slices of america full of the deepest sinful behavior like allowing women to drive and the consumption of alcohol here is another american colony complete with air-conditioned houses two hospitals and an outdoor movie theater this is the sort of stuff that is very off limits in saudi arabia it's literally illegal at this point so you have a lot of saudis who are not happy about their government letting the americans in to behave however they want but the oil kept flowing and soon the u. s government goes to the royal family and says listen the oil is flowing better than ever this is awesome how about we build a little military base attached to our little oil city so that we can you know protect you and protect us and protect the oil and stuff and the saudis are like okay um having the great satan come to our country for oil is one thing but letting them set up a full-on military base on our soil and especially when like everyone in our country is not happy with their presence in the first place but said the royal family all of this oil is really valuable and it's really nice and we're getting super rich so they're like yeah sure set up the base but there was one stipulation that the saudis had for the americans you are not allowed to literally plant a flag no flagpoles of the united states you cannot put your flag anywhere on this base instead you can put a little plaque on the side of the building so that your flag is not literally on our soil and that was the deal and that's exactly what happened the u.

s sets up its first military operation in the middle east in the form of a landing strip that is right next to this oil field okay so all of this infrastructure that the americans were building required someone to build it they needed a construction company and there was one construction company that the americans really liked that helped them build their oil city and their base this company was founded and run by a guy named muhammad now listen do you think i'm really giving you the backstory on the construction company that built the air base in the oil city just because that's interesting and i'd like to talk about construction no this is actually very relevant to the story and you'll see why very soon so the americans and the saudis are having this forbidden oil bromance and it's going really well and they are just the oil is flowing everyone's getting rich and meanwhile the rest of the middle east is looking at saudi arabia and they're like dude wtf why are you like in bed with america and like why are you letting them set up a landing strip in your country and the saudi royals are like do you realize how rich we're getting right now like if you were in our position you would do the same thing egypt okay so it's the 1950s and let's get back to muhammad the construction guy his company by this point is thriving the american presence in oil land is just exploding and he is building all of the stuff for it and so this guy is just has a giant business and he starts to have children well in fact he had a lot of children like 54 children because he had 22 wives because that is a thing in saudi arabia to this day anyway the point is one of muhammad's sons is named osama i told you this was gonna be relevant okay a reminder that saudi arabia is not the entire middle east so i'm gonna leave the osama bin laden cliffhanger for a moment to tell you what else was going on in the middle east at this time remember that it was the hunt for oil that brought the us to saudi arabia originally but now in the 50s and 60s there was a new reason for the us to think about the middle east and that reason is because there's another big superpower that has nuclear weapons called the soviet union who is coming into the region and saying to everyone come join team communism and the u. s is like hold my beer [Music] so in addition to oil the us is now involved in trying to not let the soviet union have any power in this region over in iran there was a democratically elected leader that the u. s didn't like they thought he was maybe a little too friendly with the soviet union so they worked together with the british to literally overthrow the government of iran so that they could install a dictatorial leader that was more friendly to the united states little side note here the airport that i fly out of here in dc is named after the guy who like gave the go-ahead for this coup in iran john foster dulles so i'm reminded of the whole iran thing every time i fly so the u.

s has its oil thing it's now involved in trying to prop up a dictator in iran there's another big thing happening that brings the us into the region which is that the newly declared state of israel is starting to piss off its neighbors and starting to look to the u. s for support and the us gladly offers it seeing israel as a friendly nation in the region that could be a big proponent of u. s interests so the u.

s starts to fund israel with tons of money and fighter jets and all of these things to help them fight their wars against their arab neighbors there was a debate happening in the united states on whether or not they should actually do all of this to support israel so intensely because they knew if they did they were going to piss off all of the neighbors in the middle east and all of the neighbors are the ones who had the oil in the end the us did decide to support israel and with that came a major backlash from all of these oil producing countries in the neighborhood there's a crisis of such proportion that we probably haven't even begun to grasp it yet as far as the country is concerned scenes like this are becoming all too common on both sides of the atlantic but for america they are more ominous they tell the arabs that their oil weapon is wounding america the country that supports and supplies their enemy israel eventually this backlash against supporting israel kind of calmed down there was some peace talks and anyway let's get back to muhammad the construction guy and his son osama because this is where it really starts to heat up and it is this world of religious authority and deeply rooted traditions that has now been challenged by the wealth of oil and the western invasion it has brought so it's now the 70s and mohammed bin laden the construction guy is now insanely rich his construction company is giant his 54 children are also rich and his son osama is growing up and he's in his 20s and is looking around at all of this stuff happening in iran and in israel and is starting to feel really uncomfortable with the notion of his family being so supportive of american presence in the middle east and his government this religious kingdom home of mecca and medina being so okay with the us so embedded in the middle east at this point these are ancient holy lands why is my government and my family supporting this great satan superpower coming in and becoming so involved in the middle east so bin laden sets out on a lifelong quest to fight back against these superpowers not just the us but also the soviet union invading the middle east he heads to afghanistan where the soviet union is invading afghanistan trying to take it over bin laden wants to fight back by the way the same year in iran that dictator that the u. s put in gets overthrown in a giant religious revolution that gets rid of the old dictator that the u. s liked and puts in a religious government headed by this guy ayatollah khomeini this new government takes a bunch of americans hostage and starts off hating the united states and i mean can you blame them if someone overthrew the person i elected i would be pretty pissed too so anyway back to bin laden he arrives to afghanistan with a few things number one a bunch of money remember his family is like super rich he also comes with construction infrastructure because he's like a construction guy like his family knows construction and infrastructure building but most importantly he comes with an obsessive dedication to fighting back against any superpower that is invading the middle east so osama joins in with all of these rebel fighters who are fighting back against the soviet union and they fight a long brutal war by the way the u.

s was secretly loving this loving that the soviet union was getting like beat back by these like rebel fighters so they end up sending loads of weapons and money and support to these fighters something that will come back to bite them a few decades later eventually osama and the afghan fighters beat back the soviet union it was 10 brutal years of war and by the end these fighters were battle hardened osama was now completely dedicated to his cause of fighting back against superpowers who are coming into the middle east so he returns back to saudi arabia where he starts raising money and awareness for his new group that he started while he was in afghanistan it's called al-qaeda and the mission of the group is to protect islam through violently striking back against big superpowers coming into the middle east and saudi arabia is like osama like do you have to do this dude do you realize how rich we're getting like saudi princes are living on yachts in the south of france and like flying in their private jets and they're like dude chill like it's fine we get it we don't like the united states but like can you like maybe chill our partnership with the united states is actually turning out to be really great and i know yeah they're really into israel and they're really bad and everything but like they buy our oil and they give us weapons and we're like doing just fine over here osama doesn't chill and the saudi government eventually takes away his passport not letting him leave and told him to hush up with all the anti-american holy war talk so osama finds another plan to maybe win back the heart of the royals saudi arabia has a next door neighbor named iraq who was run by saddam hussein who osama sees as a really bad muslim totally secular and brutal and he's just like not a good guy saddam is also cashing in on the oil boom he's building big palaces and statues of himself all over the country oh yeah and he also used the oil money to build a giant army like the fourth biggest in the world with this massive army saddam decided that he could maybe multiply his oil reserves if he popped down to invade this little tiny country of kuwait where there's also loads of oil this sort of freaked the saudis out if saddam with his giant army could grab kuwait what would stop him from marching right across this desert into saudi arabia so there's this moment that like oh it's like the moment of infamy of this whole thing where osama goes to the saudis and he says i volunteer as tribute he doesn't actually say i volunteer and tribute that was a hunger game i believe we have a volunteer but he effectively says i have me and my battle-hardened men who like can go in and fight against saddam and and defend the kingdom and the saudis are like um no we're not gonna like let this ragtag group of like rebel fighters fight off the fourth largest army in the world and osama's like well we beat the soviets like they're a big army with nuclear weapons and everything and the saudis are like yeah because you hid in the hills in caves in afghanistan prince sultan literally told bin laden verbatim quote there are no caves in kuwait and then he asks them what will you do when he lobs the missiles at you with chemical and biological weapons osama's response we will fight them with our faith and the saudis are like um awkward sorry dude like instead the king met with somebody else that he thought would make a much better fit than bin laden and his faith fighters dick cheney had flown to saudi arabia the day after saddam had invaded kuwait at this point the bromance between the u. s and saudi arabia had cooled a little bit as saudi had gotten more and more flack for being in bed with the u. s but even despite this he told cheney to come with as much force and as quickly as he could [Music] and that is exactly what dick cheney did ready and willing to employ all means necessary the us went insane here they recruited 37 other countries and then they sent more firepower in terms of ships and bombers and troops and all this stuff than you and i could ever imagine it was insanity and they totally crushed saddam within a few weeks they had pushed it on back and completely won over the hearts of the royals the bromance is back in business so now you have these saudis that are beaming at the americans for helping them fight off saddam and you have a bunch of bases that the u.

s set up to mount this attack way more than before the us came with all of this firepower and manpower and bases and artillery and then they just sort of never left something that really pissed off a lot of saudis who were very uncomfortable with us presence to begin with but the guy who was most pissed off than anyone in the middle east at this point osama bin laden who had not only been rejected by his own country but then who got chosen instead but the great satan the united states a power that osama had built his entire life fighting against so osama bin laden starts to double down on his original mission he leaves saudi arabia and begins coordinating very precise attacks that could really only be coordinated by a guy who was good at technical details of a construction company and who had lots of money to fund it he carries out attacks against the united states all around the world and by the late 90s he starts planning the attack that would change our world forever so this is just the first half of the story what happens next is something that we're all kind of familiar with in fact i think we're all still kind of processing the us presence in the middle east today and how that all went down but it deserves taking a look at and i'm not going to do that right now i want to make a separate video for iraq and afghanistan and israel and iran and dive into each of these cases to show how the u. s presence in the middle east is not just about oil in fact oil is becoming less and less of a vital aspect of the u.