question: Why is there so much conflict in the Middle East? Why are other countries like the US involved?
comment: In short: because of **western imperialism, particularly from the US** in order to keep oil prices low. After WWII Iran was on its way to become a stable democracy. In 1951, the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran, [Mohammed Mosaddeq]( URL_5 ), decided that it was time the Iranian people became their fair share of the profits generated by Iranian oil fields, instead of letting foreign investors take the lion's share. In order to do so, he planned on nationalizing the Iranian oil production. This would have meant an increase in prices for western buyers, so the US ordered a CIA and MI6 lead coup d'état known as [Operation Ajax]( URL_7 ) to overthrow the democratically elected government and install a ruthless, brutal and US-loyal dictator instead: [Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]( URL_8 ). The shah ruled with an iron fist and suppressed all democratic opposition, lead by socialist and communist parties, with brutality. This went on so long that the Iranian people became desperate enough to follow anyone who dared oppose the Shah. Unfortunately the person who lead the opposition was [Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini]( URL_0 ), who installed a Shia theocracy, which is in power still today. Thus, the US and UK set in motion a chain of events that transformed Iran from a prosperous young democracy into the fundamentalist theocracy we know today. The Shia theocracy of Iran then proceeded to fight for local dominance against its Sunni neighbours, particularly Iraq. In their attempt to weaken the Iranian government, the US supported Iraq's dictator, [Saddam Hussein]( URL_2 ) with weapons and money. By promising him a share of the profit from the oil fields conquered in the war against Iran, the US provoked a [war between Iran and Iraq in 1980]( URL_6 ), and funded the Iraqi dictator generously in his endeavour. However, the war did not turn out as expected by the US, and Saddam Hussein failed to annex Iran, and crucially did not capture any oil fields. Having invested massive resources into his army and expecting a pay-off from this investment, Saddam Hussain now turned towards Kuwait, thus leading to the [1990 invasion of Kuwait]( URL_1 ). As Kuwait was an ally of the US, this invasion was answered by the [first Gulf War]( URL_3 ). Ten-years later, after 9/11, the [US invaded Iraq for a second time]( URL_4 ), this time under the false pretences of having information that the Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction. This was a known lie, designed to lend legitimacy to a war violating international law. The fall of the Iraqi regime, and failure to build a stable state in the area lead to a vacuum of power, that eventually culminated in the creation of ISIS a decade later. So, while religious disagreements play a role in the destabilization of the Middle East, there is a direct and undeniable causality between Western and particularly US meddling and the current state of affairs.
passages: List of modern conflicts in the Middle East
  
  This is a list of modern conflicts in the Middle East ensuing in the geographic and political region known as the Middle East. The "Middle East" is traditionally defined as the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia), Levant, and Egypt and neighboring areas of Arabia, Anatolia and Iran. It currently encompasses the area from Egypt, Turkey and Cyprus in the west to Iran and the Persian Gulf in the east, and from Turkey and Iran in the north, to Yemen and Oman in the south.
   BULLET::::- 1975 to 1990 – Lebanese Civil War
  
  BULLET::::- 1976 – Syria invades Lebanon
  
  BULLET::::- 1978 – Camp David Accords
  
  BULLET::::- 1979 – Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq; Iranian Revolution; Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty
  
  BULLET::::- 1980 to 1989 – Iran–Iraq War results in 1–1.25 million casualties, Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran and rebel Kurds; large scale economic devastation and surge in oil prices affect the global world economy
  
  BULLET::::- 1981 – Assassination of Anwar Sadat
  
  BULLET::::- 1982 – Israel invades Lebanon
  
  BULLET::::- 1987 to 1990 – First Intifada
  
  BULLET::::- 1991 – The Gulf War
  
  BULLET::::- 1993 – Oslo Accords
   BULLET::::- 1994 – 1994 civil war in Yemen
  
  Section::::Contemporary Middle East.:3rd millennium AD.
  
  BULLET::::- 2000 - Israeli troops leave Lebanon
  
  BULLET::::- 2001 - Members of al-Qaeda attacked sites in the U.S.
  
  BULLET::::- 2003 - The 2003 Iraq War
  
  BULLET::::- 2004 to present – Shia insurgency in Yemen
  
  BULLET::::- 2005 - Syrian troops leave Lebanon as a result of the Cedar Revolution
  
  BULLET::::- 2006 - The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict; Saddam Hussein executed for "crimes against humanity"
   Each country is unique and has its own diplomatic agenda, government stability and military capability. The biggest threats to the player are Syria and Egypt, as they have larger armies and are capable of developing nuclear weapons. Iran, Iraq, and Libya can also carry nuclear arms and are capable of ending the game with them, with the exception of Libya - which often does not get a chance to use them during a war with Egypt.
  
  Section::::States.:Egypt.
   Section::::History.:Modern conflicts.:Arab–Israeli conflict.
  
  The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 has given rise to the Arab–Israeli conflict, one of the major unresolved geopolitical conflicts.
  
  The Arab states in changing alliances were involved in a number of wars with Israel and its western allies between 1948 and 1973, including the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the 1956 Suez Crisis, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
  
  An Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty was signed in 1979.
  
  Section::::History.:Modern conflicts.:Iraq–Iran War.
   The modern Middle East began after World War I, when the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with the Central Powers, was defeated by the British Empire and their allies and partitioned into a number of separate nations, initially under British and French Mandates. Other defining events in this transformation included the establishment of Israel in 1948 and the eventual departure of European powers, notably Britain and France by the end of the 1960s. They were supplanted in some part by the rising influence of the United States from the 1970s onwards.
   A combination of factors—among them the 1967 Six-Day War, the 1970s energy crisis beginning with the 1973 OPEC oil embargo in response to U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, the concurrent Saudi-led popularization of Salafism/Wahhabism, and the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution—promoted the increasing rise of Islamism and the ongoing Islamic revival ("Tajdid"). The Fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought a global security refocus from the Cold War to a War on Terror. Starting in the early 2010s, a revolutionary wave popularly known as the Arab Spring brought major protests, uprisings, and revolutions to several Middle Eastern and Maghreb countries. Clashes in western Iraq on 30 December 2013 were preliminary to the Sunni pan-Islamist ISIL uprising.
   Section::::History.:Modern conflicts.:Lebanese Civil War.
  
  The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon, lasting from 1975 to 1990 and resulting in an estimated 120,000 fatalities. Another one million people (a quarter of the population) were wounded, and today approximately 76,000 people remain displaced within Lebanon. There was also a mass exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
  
  Section::::History.:Modern conflicts.:Western Sahara conflict.
   Section::::States.:Jordan.
   In the early 2010s, a revolutionary wave popularly known as the Arab Spring brought major protests, uprisings, and revolutions to several Middle Eastern countries, followed by prolonged civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. In 2014, a terrorist group and self-proclaimed caliphate calling itself the Islamic State made rapid territorial gains in western Iraq and eastern Syria, prompting international military intervention. At its peak, the group controlled an area containing an estimated 2.8 to 8 million people, 98% of which was lost by December 2017.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- List of historians, inclusive of most major historians
   At the same time, civil wars continue to break out across the world, particularly in areas where civil and human rights are not respected, such as Central and Eastern Africa and the Middle East. These and other regions remain deeply entrenched in permanent crises, hampered by authoritarian regimes, many of them being supported by the United States, reducing entire swathes of the population to wretched living conditions. The wars and conflicts we are faced with have a variety of causes: economic inequality, social conflict, religious sectarianism, Western imperialism, colonial legacies, disputes over territory and over control of basic resources such as water or land. They are all illustrations a deep-rooted crisis of world governance.
   BULLET::::- 1967 – Kurds revolt in Western Iran, the revolt is crushed
  
  BULLET::::- 1968 – Ba'athists stage second military coup under General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam Hussein is made vice president of Iraq
  
  BULLET::::- 1970 – Gamal Abdel Nasser dies; Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt
  
  BULLET::::- 1971 – The Aswan High Dam is completed with Soviet help in finance and construction; independence of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE
  
  BULLET::::- 1973 – Yom Kippur War
  
  BULLET::::- 1974 – The PLO is allowed to represent the people of Palestine in the UN
  
  BULLET::::- 1974 to 1975 – Second Iraqi–Kurdish War
   Section::::Modern Middle East.:1990s–present.
  
  The worldwide change of governance in Eastern Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and parts of Africa following the dissolution of the Soviet Union did not occur in the Middle East. In the whole region, only Israel, Turkey and to some extent Lebanon and the Palestinian territories were considered to be democracies. Some countries had legislative bodies, but these were said to have little power. In the Persian Gulf states the majority of the population could not vote because they were guest workers rather than citizens.
   Section::::History.:Modern conflicts.:Arab Spring.
  
  The popular protests throughout the Arab world of late 2010 to the present have been directed against authoritarian leadership and associated political corruption, paired with demands for more democratic rights. The two most violent and prolonged conflicts in the aftermath of the Arab Spring are the Libyan Civil War and Syrian Civil War.
  
  Section::::History.:Petroleum.
   Section::::States.:Syria.
   BULLET::::- 1954 – Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes president of Egypt
  
  BULLET::::- 1954 – Central Treaty Organization
  
  BULLET::::- 1956 – Suez Crisis
  
  BULLET::::- 1961 – First Iraqi–Kurdish War erupts in north Iraq.
  
  BULLET::::- 1963 – Ba'ath Party comes to power in Iraq under the leadership of General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif
  
  BULLET::::- 1964 – Abdul Rahman Arif stages military coup in Iraq against the Ba'th Party and brings his brother, Abdul Salam Arif, to power
  
  BULLET::::- 1967 – Six-Day War, Israel occupies the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip
   The Greater Middle East is a political term, introduced in the early 2000s, denoting a set of contiguously connected countries stretching from Morocco in the west all the way to Pakistan in the east. Various countries of Central Asia are sometimes also included. According to Andrew Bacevich in his book "America's war for the Greater Middle East" (2016), the career soldier and Professor Emeritus at Boston University states that this region is the theatre for a series of conflicts dating back to 1980, which heralded the start of the Iran–Iraq War. Since then, the U.S. has been involved in balancing conflicts amongst these culturally interconnected nations in order to further its interests in the region. The Greater Middle East is sometimes referred to as "The New Middle East", or "The Great Middle East Project".
   Against most expectations, the processes of globalization hence proved highly turbulent and have generated new conflicts, hostilities and exclusions throughout the world. Oppositional individuals and groups are now able to participate in global culture and politics through gaining access to global communication and media networks and to circulate local struggles and oppositional ideas through these media. 
   Section::::Territories and regions.
  
  Section::::Territories and regions.:Territories and regions usually considered within the Middle East.
  
  Traditionally included within the Middle East are Iran (Persia), Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt. In modern-day-country terms they are these:
  
  Section::::Territories and regions.:Other definitions of the Middle East.
   Section::::Modern and contemporary refugee crises.:Near and Middle East.:Iran–Iraq war.
  
  The Iran–Iraq War from 1980 to 1988, the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the first Gulf War and subsequent conflicts all generated hundreds of thousands if not millions of refugees. Iran also provided asylum for 1,400,000 Iraqi refugees who had been uprooted as a result of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq (1990–91). At least one million Iraqi Kurds were displaced during the Al-Anfal Campaign (1986–1989).
  
  Section::::Modern and contemporary refugee crises.:Near and Middle East.:Iraq War (2003–present).
   BULLET::::- March 21 – April 6, 2003 Battle of Basra
  
  BULLET::::- March 23–29, 2003 Battle of Nasiriyah
  
  BULLET::::- March 24, 2003 Attack on Karbala
  
  BULLET::::- March 24 – April 4, 2003 Battle of Najaf
  
  BULLET::::- March 26, 2003 – Operation Northern Delay
  
  BULLET::::- March 28–30, 2003 Operation Viking Hammer
  
  BULLET::::- March 30 – April 4, 2003 Battle of Samawah
  
  BULLET::::- March 31 – April 6, 2003 Battle of Karbala
  
  BULLET::::- April 2–4, 2003 Battle of the Karbala Gap
  
  BULLET::::- April 3–12, 2003 Battle of Baghdad
  
  BULLET::::- April 6, 2003 Battle of Debecka Pass
  
  Section::::West Asia.:Iraq.:Coalition Provisional Authority.
   Section::::Modern and contemporary refugee crises.:Near and Middle East.:Lebanon Civil War, 1975–90.
  
  It is estimated that some 900,000 people, representing one-fifth of the pre-war population, were displaced from their homes during the Lebanese Civil War.
  
  Section::::Modern and contemporary refugee crises.:Near and Middle East.:Kurdish refugees, Turkish conflict, 1984–present.
   The experiences of September 11 categorized by President George W. Bush as ‘the first war of the twenty-first century’ and the first major war in the age of globalization brought into focus the contradictions generated by this phenomenon. We are now experiencing an extremely complex phenomenon which both divides and unifies the world we live in. While connecting parts of the world that were previously cut off it also ignores and bypasses other regions, and along with this produces enemies whilst it incorporates participants. The circulation of commodities, technology, money and ideas facilitate networks of terror as well as trade and travel. Although it was supposed to promote democracy it was often the case that globalization forces inhibited it leading to an intensification of local and global political conflicts as was the case of the Middle East.
   Section::::Demographics.
  
  Section::::Demographics.:Ethnic groups.
  
  Arabs constitute the largest ethnic group in the Middle East, followed by various Iranian peoples and then by Turkic speaking groups. Native ethnic groups of the region include, in addition to Arabs, Arameans, Assyrians, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Jews, Kurds, Lurs, Mandaeans, Persians, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, and Zazas.
  
  Section::::Demographics.:Migration.
   Each country in the game has a diplomatic relationship with every other country, with that relationship varying from Military Pact (best) to War (worst), through a number of stages.
  
  In addition, there is a special relation mode, called "Attack means disaster", which seems to accrue when all nations with the ability of holding nuclear weapons, possess such. Under such mode, all other relation forms become obsolete.
  