The Arab world is so awesome, why is it so chaotic now?
It would be too narrow-minded if we only look at it from the superficial perspective of religion! Today we talk about the beginning and end of the chaos in the Middle East.
1. The Wealth of the Poor
Historically, the Middle East was a large forest. Around 6000 BC, the vast area of the Middle East fell into a rainless desert area, eventually forming the Sahara that runs a thousand miles deep across Africa from north to south, and its extension - the Arabian Desert .
The Arabs , in ancient times relied on mountains and rivers to eat, and relied on deserts to eat nothing, and fell into poverty. This change in poverty lasted until 1925.
In World War , humans discovered that if they wanted to gain an advantage in pushing and shoving me, mechanized weapons made of steel were more effective than the human body. We have steel, but the oil that drives steel machines has become a commodity in short supply.
At that time, American oil companies were unparalleled!
80% of the total oil used by the Allied forces came from the country's oil companies, of which Exxon Mobil alone provided a quarter of the fuel used by the Allied forces.
The oil business in the United States is getting bigger and bigger, and the world's demand for oil is also increasing. At this time, people are focusing on the main oil-producing areas: The oil-rich Mesopotamia - the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) - The Ottoman Empire was still very large at that time, and the Mesopotamia was in the Ottoman Empire, not Iraq .
After the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was disintegrated into 40 countries, and the two river basins were assigned to Iraq.
In 1925, a joint geological exploration team composed of BP, Shell and several American oil companies began exploration work in Iraq.
In the early morning of October 15, 1927, a serious blowout occurred in Iraq's No. 1 oil well when it was drilled to a depth of 457 meters. The blowout was not controlled until eight days later. Before the blowout was controlled, oil spewed up to 95,000 barrels per day.
After more than 6 years of negotiations, the Turkish Oil Company was named the Iraqi Oil Company. BP, Shell, French oil company and American Petroleum Alliance each hold 23.75% of the company's shares, while Gulbankan, the promoter of Turkish Petroleum Company, obtained the remaining 5% of the shares.
The Middle East has begun the oil age.
According to statistics, the oil reserves in the Middle East account for 61.5% of the world's proven oil reserves, with a total volume of about 7,421 barrels, most of which are distributed in the five Persian Gulf countries, namely Saudi Arabia, Kuwait , Iraq, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
The cost of extracting a barrel of oil in the Gulf is only two US dollars, which is more than 80% lower than that of the United States and North Sea oil fields. Moreover, the quality of crude oil in the Middle East is still very good.
The Middle East has gone from poverty to the black gold age of oil!
2, Others’ Middle East
How does the United States control the Middle East, and how does it maintain world hegemony by controlling oil?
The Middle East not only has oil, the blood of industry, but its geographical location is also very important.
The Middle East connects the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and also blocks the passages between the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Especially after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Middle East became an important maritime transportation hub connecting the East and the West.
God not only allows them to eat, but also allows them to eat confidently and with great arrogance!
But!
Who wouldn’t be jealous of such a big piece of fat?
As early as the eighteenth century, established powers such as Britain and France began to penetrate the Middle East. After the end of World War I, Britain and France gained control of the Middle East, with Britain occupying an absolute leadership position.
After the end of World War II , European powers such as Britain and France tightened their power. There was a gap in the control of the Middle East, and the United States quickly occupied it.
On September 23, 1932, Saudi Arabia was founded. At that time, Saudi Arabia did nothing except underground oil. The United States came the next year and acquired Saudi Arabia's oil exploration rights with enough money, technology and sincerity to impress Saudi Arabia. The United States can search for oil in the vast Arabian desert and only needs to pay a lease fee of 5,000 pounds per year. After finding the oil, it can share the money with Saudi Arabia.
What a great thing!
Oil companies across the United States are staring at the oil blowout here.
After five years of arduous exploration, the first commercial oil field - Daman Oilfield was discovered in Dhahran in 1938.
The entire American oil circle is boiling, and more and more American oil companies are pouring into the Middle East.
What kind of shares, dividends, , what kind of technology output, what kind of investment and construction... As long as they can give it, it will rain down on the Middle East world.
The jobs that God has given to the Middle East have been snatched away by the United States.
So...
Are the other powerful countries in the world just watching the United States eat alone?
People adjusted their perspective to the Suez Canal.
Everyone knows the Silk Road . At that time, humankind's technological level was limited, and major trade required land transportation by people and horses. After the advent of the Age of Discovery, human trade gradually transformed from land routes to maritime transport.
As for the sea transportation connecting Eurasia , it is too far away to detour around the Cape of Good Hope. It is urgent to find a closer sea route, that is, the Suez Canal.
The Suez Canal was built and opened to navigation in 1869. It is a sea-level waterway that runs through the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt, communicates the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, and provides the shortest route from Europe to the Indian Ocean and lands near the western Pacific . It is one of the most frequently used routes in the world. It is also the junction between Asia and Africa and the main channel for people from Asia to Africa and Europe. After the completion of the Suez Canal, the Asia-Europe waterway was shortened by more than 8,000-10,000 kilometers!
Whoever controls the Suez Canal can influence the world - Do you still remember that Taiwan's Evergreen Shipping's super-large container ship "Changci" got stuck in the Suez Canal on March 24, 2021, causing a major traffic jam in both directions of the canal? After being blocked for 6 days, the Egyptian government lost 12 million to 14 million U.S. dollars every day in tolls alone, and global trade lost 6 billion to 10 billion U.S. dollars every day. It once blocked about 12% of global trade flows!
From an economic and strategic perspective, the importance of the Suez Canal is self-evident - if wants to control the Middle East, the Suez Canal is the top priority!
Britain, France and other countries are making a comeback! In 1956, the Suez Canal Crisis broke out - the second Middle East War.
Yingfa and Egypt and Israel launched military operations. About 300,000 people participated in the war. The war lasted for 10 days, with more than 2,000 casualties.
At this time, the boss of the world is unhappy! Such an important territory as the Middle East is something you can get your hands on?
The United States and the Soviet Union used oil embargoes and other methods to drive British and French forces out of the Middle East!
From then on, the United States and the Soviet Union began to compete in the Middle East!
3. The United States controls the Middle East
The local chaos in the Middle East originates from the war against Israel in the Arab world.
How come the more the Arab world attacks Israel, the stronger Israel becomes?
You said that there is support from the United States. We admit that Egypt, the big brother in the Arab world at that time, actually also knew this truth.
The so-called enemy of the enemy is a friend, and the Soviet Union and Egypt naturally came together. Especially at the time of the Suez Crisis, Soviet power entered Arabia.
The Soviet Union helped Egypt build an army of 1.2 million. In 1971, the United States was stuck in the quagmire of the Vietnam War, the economy was weak, and the Soviet power entered Arabia in a large and powerful way!
That year, the Soviet Union provided Egypt with 10 Tu-16 bombers , 100 MiG-21 fighters, 20 MiG-23 fighters , 1 Sam-6 missile brigade, as well as a large number of D-30 cannons, AKM assault rifles, double-barreled anti-aircraft guns, rocket launchers , etc.
The next year, 1972, it provided Egypt with a large number of high-precision weapons.
Not only is the price low - only a quarter of Western weapons, but the loan interest is extremely low - only 2%, and the repayment time is very long - 10-15 years to pay off.
Isn’t this equivalent to giving it for free! Who should be put on his body, and who should not take the initiative to lie in the arms of the Soviet Union?
The Soviet Union did not hesitate. In the third year of 1973, it "gave" Egypt a large number of high-tech weapons for free.
In this year - October 6, 1973, Egypt pulled Syria , another in the arms of the Soviet Union, and launched the fourth Middle East War!
It was really overwhelming at the beginning! At one point, it broke through the Israeli defense line by ten to fifteen kilometers. The United States immediately took action, using the latest weapons, the satellite in the sky, to fully support Israel.
Eventually ended in Israel's victory, which also led to Egypt to break away from the Soviet sphere of influence and became the first Arab country to recognize Israel.
However, in order to retaliate against the United States for supporting Israel, the Arab countries in the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia , decided on October 17 to reduce oil production by 5% every month and threatened a complete embargo. By October 20, Saudi Arabia announced an oil embargo against the United States. Other Arab oil-producing countries soon joined in, and the embargo was expanded to include the Netherlands and other countries that supported Israel, resulting in the 973 oil crisis.
The defeat in the Fourth Middle East War caused the Soviet Union to gradually withdraw from the Arab world.
The oil crisis also caused great harm to the United States:
American industrial production dropped by 14%, more than 50,000 people were unemployed, and GDP losses were as high as 10 to 20 billion US dollars.
The United States began to adjust its oil policy in the Middle East from a strategic perspective.
while increasing the country's oil reserves.
While taking back OPEC's oil pricing power, it convened many large oil-consuming countries and prepared to establish the "International Energy Agency" to compete with it.
At this time, the United States was also facing another huge problem, which was the oil crisis + Vietnam War quagmire + economic weakness = severe devaluation of the U.S. dollar, causing the world to no longer believe in the U.S. dollar. Britain, France, Italy, and West Germany all announced the decoupling of the exchange rate from the U.S. dollar, and the Bretton Woods system centered on the U.S. dollar and gold completely collapsed.
Faced with various problems, the United States found a new breakthrough. Through the oil crisis, the United States realized that having gold does not necessarily mean you are rich, but having oil you can definitely go sideways!
In 1974, William Edward Simon became the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. As soon as he took office, he led his men to find Saudi Arabia.
William Edward Simon
At that time, Saudi Arabia's oil reserves accounted for one-third of the Middle East's oil reserves, and one-fifth of the OPEC organization's internal . The so-called "capture the thief first, capture the king", once you get Saudi Arabia, you will get Arab oil.
Simon said:
Brother, do you think this is the case? Israel is a fool. No matter who he wants to fight, no one will listen to him except me. So be it, I will tell him not to go to war with you in the future. I will also give you weapons to help you train soldiers and build military bases . I will protect you! Not only Israel, but no one around you dares to challenge you. I will give you money back so that you can live like a rich man and live a stable life.
There is only one condition: in the future, oil must be sold in U.S. dollars .
Saudi Arabia is also a sensible person. After thinking about it, it decided that it could not agree, so it called other oil-producing countries and they all agreed to the policy of " US dollars trading oil ".
dollar oil system, that’s it!
The United States also took this opportunity to redefine the hegemony of the US dollar, try its best to conquer the Europeans, and completely penetrate the economy and military into the Arab world.
4. The chaotic Middle East is the food of the United States.
In order to shine the light of the beacon around the world, the United States has spread "freedom" and "democracy" in the world and has become many non-governmental organizations . The more famous one is the National Endowment for Democracy .
This foundation is making waves in the world!
The National Endowment for Democracy has four "core grantees": the American Institute for International Democracy and the American International Republican Institute, which are mainly responsible for supporting local political groups; the American International Labor Solidarity Center, which is mainly responsible for promoting trade union organizations and labor movements; and the International Private Enterprise Center, which is mainly responsible for wooing private enterprises. Through these four organizations, the National Endowment for Democracy has become the "black hand" behind separatist riots, "color revolutions", political crises, lies and rumors, and value infiltration around the world.
Almost every "freedom" and "democracy" event you can think of has their shadow.
The "Velvet Revolution" in Serbia in 2000 overturned the then Milosevic government.
In 2003, the " Rose Revolution" broke out in Georgia , and the president was forced to step down.
At the end of 2004, Ukraine's " Orange Revolution" pro-American forces came to power.
The " Arab Spring " in 2010...
6 The young Mohamed Bouazizi was unable to find a job due to the economic downturn. Under the heavy financial burden of his family, he had no choice but to start a hawker. During this period, he was brutally treated by the local police, protested and set himself on fire, and died from his injuries.
This was the trigger for the entire "Arab Spring", which quickly swept the entire Arab world.
On February 11, 2011, the Egyptian president stepped down.
The Libyan War broke out on March 19, 2011. On July 15, 39 countries including the United States and NATO recognized the Libyan opposition regime. On October 20th, Gadhafi was killed.
On November 23, 2011, Yemeni President Saleh stepped down, Yemen's 33-year-long "Saleh Era" came to an end.
March 6, 2011 The Syrian civil war broke out...
The King of Jordan dismissed Prime Minister Rifai and appointed a new government;
Oman dismissed all ministers and announced the implementation of elections to choose the legislature;
Bahrain released some political prisoners and dismissed all ministers;
Kuwait’s cabinet announced its resignation and Prime Minister Nasser stepped down;
…………
Why did the United States mess up the Arab world?
There are two reasons. Let’s talk about the first one:
Due to historical reasons, Arabia still had the shadow of many European countries at that time, so that later they planned to use euros to settle oil. This touches upon the reverse scale of the United States.
The United States does not hesitate to disrupt the Arab world, but also wants to completely drive European forces out of the Middle East!
So much so that France, the sovereign state of Libya, took the lead in bombing Libya, and he said this to the United States at the time:
If you want it, then I will destroy it so that no one can get anything.
The Arab world is just a pawn of "America First". And the chaotic Arab world can prevent any other force in the world from getting involved here - the United States can shuffle the cards!
Reason two:
Arabia’s oil is better with the surname “Mei”.
Since the Arab chaos, it has become very convenient for the United States to obtain oil from the Middle East. Do you still remember the song - "I Steal Oil for the United States".
Syria’s oil production in the first half of 2022 was approximately 14.5 million barrels, with an average daily production of 80,300 barrels. However, the United States stole as much as 66,000 barrels of oil per day from the eastern region it occupied, equivalent to about 83% of Syria’s daily oil production.
From 2011 to June 2022, the US military was illegally stationed in Syria, and US-supported armed forces carried out illegal mining and illegal smuggling, which directly caused the Syrian oil, natural gas, mining and other industries to suffer losses of approximately US$107.1 billion.
In this way, the United States dominates the Arab world, firmly controls the Middle East, firmly controls oil, and maintains American hegemony in the chaotic Arab world!
The troubled Arabs discovered black gold in the darkness, but they did not know whether black gold would ultimately bring light or darkness...
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