Geographically there is no established boundry about this region and the latest criteria for the countries which should be included in Middle East is’Oil and Turmoil’.That means those countries which pump the crude oil and are rich with petro-dollars like,Saudi-Arab,Iran,Iraq,kuwait,Qatar,Bahrain,UAE,Oman and those countries which make headlines for disturbances like Lebanon,Syria,Egypt,Palestine(filistin to arabs and Israel to jews),Afghanistan,Jordan, can be included in Middle East.
This part had been the centre of battles much before the world wars because of Jerusalem,the holy city,which has the distinction of being the place of worship for three faiths,Judaism,Christianity and Islam.History is that all the three prophets,Prophet Moses,Jesus Christ and Prophet Mohammed visited this city and revealed the holy scriptures,holy Bible(old testament),holy Bible(new Testament) and holy Quran respectively to their followers.
During first world war it was most unfortunate that oil had not been found in Europe whose industrial economies so badly needed it.Clearly its abundance beneath territories whose people (arabs) had no idea how to extract,refine,distribute or use it argued strongly for foreign involvement.Petroleum anxieties were therefore publicly denied and rarely made the headlines during worldwar1 and worldwar2.By midcentury(1950)Middle East’s staggering crude oil reserves were fully appreciated.This way arab people’s faith in prophet Mohammed and islam also was appreciated.
Just as the first world war was fought with an eye to oil reserves in Persia(Iran)and Mesopotamia(Iraq)so in the second world war the new reserves in Arabia and the gulf figured hugely.Saudi and other gulf oil reserves were a liquid Goldmine.Proven and probable reserves with 1945 projections(to the extent of 100billion barrels)the Middle East looked to have more oil even than the USA.
In the 20th century Oil was power and no country understood this equation better than USA whose everexpanding economy was in 1945 still supplying 2/3rd of the world demand for oil.If an element of fortune was present in the US acquisition of Middle East oil reserves,nothing could be left to fortune in their defence.Arguably both world wars have been fought over oil and demonstrably both world wars had been won over oil.
Post worldwars the cold war between two super powers USA and Soviet Union was the result of huge oil reserves found in Middle East.Even the Iran-Iraq war for 8 years and the two gulf wars later on in which Saddam Hussain and Iraq were the prime target of George Bush senior and junior were for the control of oil wealth in Middle east.
Another big factor causing disturbance in middle East was the resettlement of jews in Arab territories(palestine) which were under british control that time.Nazi germany under Hitler’s rule was persecuting jews and some 6 million jews were killed and remaining were homeless and running here and there.So Britain took the responsibility of rehabilitating them in palestine,by then an arab muslim territory,with the tacit support of US.Although this was a power game,which was highly objected by arab muslims and became a turning point for endless disturbances,jews were made to believe that palestine was the promised land of their prophets and Jerusalem was their own 4000years old city and their property.At this time US possessed atom bomb while the Soviet union did not.
14-15 May 1948 jews declared Palestine(filistin 0f arab muslims)as their own country and named it’Israel’.Filistin arabs were made homeless and arab muslim owners of huge middle east oil reserves,Saudi arab and all gulf countries were angry but lacking military power of US and Britain,so they made a hue and cry in UN which is a US controlled and financed body,and gave lip-sympathy to palestinian cause.
Jihad has undergone a massive resurgence in the classrooms of a few prominent muslim intellectuals in 20th century,after the British and french colonial rule in Egypt,lebanon,Meccaa-Medina,filistin,syria,jordan,Iraq etc.A new kind of radical islam in the Middle East has cropped up.In Iran,Ayatollah Khomeini(1902-1989)relied on a militant interpretation of jihad,first to energize the anti-imperialist revolution of 1979(against Shah of Iran) and then for 8 year war with Iraq,and to help found the islamic militant group Hezbullah,whose invention of the suicide bomber launched an appaling new era of international terrorism.
In Saudi Arabia,Abdullah yusuf Azzam(1941-89),argued that’Jihad and the rifle alone’ was incumbent on all muslims.’No negotiations,no conferences, and no dialogues’Dr Azzam proclaimed to his students.These views laid the foundation for the Palestinian militant group Hamas,which has since adopted Hezbullah’s tactics against the Israeli occupation.His teachings had an extraordinary impact on one student of his class of Islamic philosophy in King Abdulaziz University,Osama Bin Laden,who called for a worldwide muslim campaign of Jihad against the West.He like Hezbullah and Hamas financed and led an international terror outfit named ‘Al Qaeda’.This campaign climaxed with the attacks on New York and Washington,D.C,twin towers and Pentagon,on September11,2001.
Muslim Brotherhood party of Egypt,Al qaeda,Muqtada-Alsadr of Iraq(Mahdi Army),Iran,Hamas and Hezbullah,Syria all seem to be propagating Jihad of extremist kind.The reason of this extremism is not purely Quranic verses which definitely reccommend for forgiveness and killing women and children is totally forbidden in holy Quran.
So,Middle East remains a crisis ridden place forever.Now in 21st century there is no challenge to US,the only super power of the world after the disintegration of Soviet Union.But Arab muslims feel cheated by US and Britain as long as filistin arab muslims are homeless.Muslims all over the world(one billion+)sympathise with filistinis and see this crisis as a conflict between christians and muslims.What will be the fate of jews in this conflict only God knows because in this whole crisis they are a religious minority surrounded by oil rich arab muslims allaround.
Afghanistan,a failed nation,after the pullout of American and NATO forces in 2014 and Pakistan which is on the brink of a civil war among Pakistan army,Pakistan government and islamic jihadis and Federally Administered Tribal Areas(FATA) will become a threat to India and the whole of central Asia.Afghan taliban alongwith Al-qaeda and Pakistani taliban are at loggerheads with corrupt pak government and are having tacit support of ISI and looking out for the control of nuclear arsenal which are in plenty(about 100 nuclear Bombs).
Pakistan’s record of governing post-independence is pathetic.Out of 64 years,33 years Pak army has ruled over it and that too after throwing out the democratically elected governments.Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s dream nation was a secular democratic republic but there was another section in pakistan who was interested in making it a Islamic nation and Maulana Maududi was its leader.Till today this tussle between secularists and jihadis is going on and India is their common enemy.Today Pakistan is on the brink,socially as well as economically.China and India have made good progress economically during last 20 years but pakistan chose to train jihadis in 100s of camps and using them to spread terror in cities of India.LeT,Jamat-uddawa,Hizbul-Mujahidin and several such outfits have grown in Pak with the tacit support of ISI and during terror attack in Mumbai,their involvement was proved internationally but still pakistan is in a denial mode.Hafiz Saeed,the mastermind behind the Mumbai attacks was released after a few days token house arrest.
Pakistan refers to Kashmir as the reason behind tension between the two countries.But the jihadis trained in tribal areas have killed thousands of pakistanis and they have problems with all non-muslims,shias,ahmedias and so on and so forth.So it seems that jihadis want to control entire Pakistan and impose their sharia over it.They dont trust government,army and they want complete talibanisation.America and India are their enemy.So Pakistan is suffering from an internal war and to blame it on kashmir is just a distraction.Terror and bomb attacks inside Pakistan are much more than in Kashmir or any other Indian city.
Bogey of Kashmir by Pakistan is just diverting the attention from real danger of Afghan taliban,Al-qaeda and pak taliban which are a threat to its internal security as well as a threat to India,China and other countries of central Asia.There is no industrial development in Pakistan from last 60 years and its islamic jihadists have a single point agenda of waging a war against the world.what will happen once American and NATO forces leave Afghanistan is not clear at all.Therefore it is a matter of serious concern for India specially when AfPak taliban and tribals consider India their enemy.These tribals invaded Kashmir during independence and occupied a part of it which is known today as POK(Pak Occupied Kashmir).This is an illegally occupied territory and why India should have allowed this illegal occupation is not clear at all.
wiki-Leaks has released thousands of classified documents on internet which expose ISI’s direct involvement with Afghan taliban,Alqaeda.Pak army’s counterinsurgency measures in Swat valley and constant refusal to enter north vaziristan,the headquarters of Jalaluddin Haqqani and his sons,creates serious doubts about Pak intentions to fight taliban and help America in fighting terror in the region.Pakistan Army is playing a double game of allowing America to kill terrorists and civilians with Drone strikes in exchange of billions of dollars and at the same time help Afghan and pak taliban alongwith al-qaeda to strengthen them in Vaziristan to use them for terror activities against India.
So now the billion dollar question is what will happen to Pakistan when America stops 4billion dollars annual aid and its forces alonwith NATO leave Afghanistan in 2014?To Pak’s geostrategic location,to its vast population,to its vast nuclear arsenal,to its defunct economy,to hundreds of terror camps in vaziristan and its problem ridden Sind and Baluchistan only time will tell.In the name of national security they have only anti-India preparedness and no other economic reforms.Unemployment,lack of funds due to no new revenue earning, no tax reforms,there are chances of total failure and civil war.In that situation the neighbours of Pakistan specially India will have to be watchful and concerned about security threat to its borders.