In the timeline below, I'm not even including Afghanistan, long a proxy war between the US and Russia ... nor am I including the usual focus on Israel and Palestine. This is just an overview - a brief timeline - of the chaos that has been caused in a large part by the US, Britain, and France in the nations of Iran, Iraq, and Syria over the last 100 years. Follow along....if you can.....
1911: WWI: Russia
and Britain occupy Iran. Britain stays10 years.
1916: Britain and
France develop the Sykes-Picot Agreement, a secret Plan to divide the entire
middle east outside of the Arabian peninsula.
1920: Britain receives Palestine, Jordan, and what is now Iraq, and installs
Sunni elites into power. France occupies what is today Syria and Lebanon.
France transfers some Lebanese territory to Syria, and continues occupation of
both until 1946.
1921: Britain
withdraws from Iran, and Reza Khan becomes Shah of Iran.
1941: WWII begins. Iraqis overthrow puppet British
government in Iraq. Britain and Russia occupy Iran and Iraq to guarantee oil
supplies for the Allied effort. Shah Reza Khan is deposed by the superpowers; his
son Reza Pahlavi is installed as new Shah of Iran in return for western access to oil. Britain stays in Iraq until
1948.
1943: Lebanon gains independence from France; Britain
occupies both Lebanon and Syria to avoid alliances with Germany.
1948: State of Israel established. Syria, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria declare war on
Israel. Syria undergoes years of internal revolts following their defeat, many
based on ethnic and religious rivalries.
1951: Iranians elect Mosaddegh as Prime Minister.
1953: Mosaddegh nationalizes oil fields, and is subsequently overthrown in US-UK led coup d’etat. The Shah assumes complete
control and crushes opposition with torture and secret police with US-UK support.
1958: Iraqis revolt against British-installed Monarchy
and Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist party assumes control.
1966: Ba’athist Party also takes control in Syria, but the group
is divided between pro and anti Iraq factions.
1970: The
Anti-Iraq wing of the Ba’athist Party, supported by the military, overthrows the
Syrian government and installs anti-Iraq Ba’athist Hafez el-Assad as leader.
1975: Civil War breaks out in Lebanon.
1976: Syria begins a 30 year occupation and effective control
of Lebanon.
1978: Iranians revolt against the Shah; The Iranian
Revolution installs Ayatollah Khomeini in a theocratic state.
1979: US refuses to return the Shah to Iran to face
trial; students take Americans Embassy hostage for 444 days.
1980: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invades Iran, receiving
financial, military, and chemical weapons from the US.
1988: Hussein’s Iraq launches chemical genocide against
Kurdish minority in northern Iraq.
1990: Iraq annexes Kuwait. US, France, UK, and Syria enter the Gulf War
against Hussein; Kurds rebel in the north.
1998: US President Clinton signs Iraq Liberation Act,
calling for “regime change” in Iraq.
2000: Syria’s Hafez el-Assad dies; his son Bashar al-Azzad
takes control.
2001: Al Qaeda attacks the United States. US State Department meets with Iran secretly
in Switzerland to obtain cooperation on the overthrow of the Taliban in
Afghanistan and al qaeda throughout the region.
2002: President Bush refers to Iran as being part of the “Axis
of Evil” and US-Iran relations deteriorate quickly.
2003: US-led coalition enters Iraq and overthrows
Hussein. Shi’ite led coalition government installed, with a semi-autonomous
Kurdish region in the north.
2005: A series of assassinations of Lebanese officials is
blamed on Syria’s Assad; protests and pressure from the west result in Syria’s withdrawal
from Lebanon.
2008: Lebanon’s new Cabinet establishes Hezbollah, a Shi’ite
paramilitary organization, with legal status. Hezbollah is committed to driving
the Americans, French, and British out of the Levant, is funded by Iran, and
allied with Syria’s Assad in the Syrian Civil War.
2011: US Troops leave Iraq, and Sunni-Shi’ite struggles
accelerate. The “Arab Spring” spreads to Syria and full-scale civil war ensues,
resulting in over 100,000 deaths and 2 million refugees. Anti-Assad forces include Kurds and ISIS (“Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant”) allies in the northeast of Syria.
2014: The Sunni-dominated ISIS military assume effective
control over eastern Syria, and begin successful invasion of Western Iraq.
News outlets and US Government Hawks reduce the march of ISIS to that of "al qaeda linked militants" - a simpleton's version.
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