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The US
The United States has had significant political and economic interests in Southwest Asia, or the Middle East, since the 1800s, when merchants, missionaries, and tourists began to visit the region. -
Period: to
Timespan
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INVASION
In August 1990, the country of Iraq invaded Kuwait in an effort to control Kuwait's large supplies of oil. -
Creation
The creation of the country of Kuwait in 1920 meant that Iraq no longer had any coastline on the Persian Gulf. -
Support
The US support for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 also focused attention on this part of the world. -
Join together
Thirty-nine countries joined in and within three months , by Febuary 1991 the Iraq goverment accepted a truce and agreed to withdraw from Kuwait. -
9-11
In 2001, after the destruction of the World Trade Center in NYC, the Us began a military operation in Afghanistan aimed at capturing the people responsible for the attack. -
ATTACK!!
The US launched a series of attacks on these mountain hideouts in October 2001. (The mountains of Afghanistan.) -
Invasion of Iraq
In 2003, the US launched an invasion of Iraq, after claiming that the Iraq goverment, led by Saddam Hussein, was developing nuclear weapons and offering aid to groups to groups like al-Qaeda, who were a threat to US interests in the region.