>Because Egypt was taken. You're forgetting the mutually
>exclusive logic of the cold war
>Who is the country we give the second most money to in the >world? Egypt. And we used to have big pals in Iran and
>Saudi Arabia as well. Which covered most of the oil and most >of thefirepower in the region.
Michael
while israel was principal u.s. middle east surrogate, egypt became increasingly important as it reversed course from soviets to u.s. during 1970s...
shah pahlavi's iran became u.s. surrogate as well...purpose was to check 'radical' iraq, block soviet overland access to region, police oil-rich persian gulf...
re. cold war lens, dulles told arab states they had to choose side...eisenhower doctrine 'protecting' arab states from 'communist aggression' wedded u.s. to supporting regimes no less oppressive than those it opposes...algerian/bahrain/ kuawaiti/saudi arabian regimes have had u.s. support to repress domestic popular movements...u.s. regional domination is domination sustained by relations with handful of elites... michael hoover