1948. State of Israel was quickly recognized in 1948 by the United States—which had coldly refused to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees after World War II. Based on land stolen from the Palestinians, the Israeli State became the US’s gendarme in the region.

1949. The CIA backs a military coup which overthrew the elected government of Syria.

1953. The CIA organizes a coup that overthrows the Mossadeq government in Iran. Mossadeq had nationalized British holdings in the huge oilfields of Iran.

The US aids the Egyptian government in hunting down pro-Soviet Egyptian communists.

1963. Supplies Iraq’s Ba’ath party (soon to be headed by Saddam Hussein) with names of communists, who the Iraqi regime then imprison or murder.

With full knowledge and complicity of the US, Israel launches wars against the Arabs in 1967 and 1973.

From 1973 to 1975, the U.S. supports Kurdish rebels in Iraq in order to strengthen Iran and weaken the then-pro-Soviet Iraqi regime. But as soon as Iran and Iraq cut a deal, the U.S. withdraws support, denies the Kurds refuge in Iran, and stands by while the Iraqi government murders them.

In 1976 and again, in 1982, Israel invades Lebanon — killing more than 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, seizing southern Lebanon and holding it until 2000.

1979. After the end to the rule of the Shah in Iran in 1978, Carter secretly puts U.S. forces on nuclear alert and warn the Soviets they would be used if Soviet forces intervened in Iran.

1980. Encourages Iraq to launch its 1980 invasion into southern Iran, which turned into a bloody eight-year war. Over 1 million people were killed in the war. U.S. opposed UN action against the invasion, removes Iraq from its list of nations supporting terrorism, allows U.S. arms to be transferred to Iraq. Encourages its Gulf allies to lend Iraq over $30 billion for its war effort.

In 1981 and again in 1986, the U.S. held military maneuvers off the coast of Libya in order to provoke a response from the Qaddafi regime. In 1981 again when a Libyan plane fires a missile at U.S. planes penetrating Libyan airspace, the US shoots down two Libyan planes.

In 1983 the U.S., which had invaded Lebanon in 1958, once again sends troops—supposedly as part of a multi-national "peace-keeping" operation, but in reality to protect U.S. interests, including Israel’s occupation forces.

1983. Takes no notice as Saddam conducts chemical bombing on Kurds at Arbil because Saddam is carrying on war against Iran who is anti-US.

1985. Encourages Israel to provide arms to Iran so that Iran and Iraq continue to kill each other and in this way become unable to threaten other US allies in the Gulf.

1985. Secretly begins shipping missiles to Iran itself. The secret plot collapses when it is publicly revealed during the "Iran-Contra" scandal of the mid-1980s.

1986. After a bomb kills two Americans in a Berlin nightclub, the U.S. charges that Qaddafi is behind it and conducts major air strikes against Libya, killing dozens of civilians, including Qaddafi’s daughter.

In 1987 the U.S. Navy is dispatched to the Persian Gulf to prevent Iran from cutting off Iraq’s oil shipments. During these patrols, a U.S. ship shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing all 290 passengers.

1988. Looks the other way as Hussein gasses the Kurds at Halabja, where five thousand died. During that time, the US increases its support for the Iraqi regime.

1990. Kuwait was overproducing its oil quota, undercutting Iraqi oil revenues and also slant drilling for oil into Iraqi territory. After warning the U.S. Ambassador that the situation was intolerable and that Iraq would take action—and after hearing from the U.S. Ambassador that this would pose no problem for U.S. interests—Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 but the US immediately condemns the Iraqi move.

1991. On January 16, 1991, the U.S. launches "Operation Desert Storm" against Iraq and its people. For the next 42 days, the military might of the main imperialist power on the planet, joined by its allies, was unleashed on a poor Third World country. U.S. and allied planes pounded Iraq. By the time the war was over, they had dropped 88,000 tons of bombs.

And since 1991, another 500,000 to 1,500,000 Iraqis have been killed by disease and malnutrition caused by U.S. sanctions

1996. Enters Taliban. The U.S. ruling class dreamed of a pipeline from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan into Pakistan in order to link Central Asia directly to Western corporations and markets.

In October 1999, the U.S. Department of Defense shifts command of U.S. forces in Central Asia from the Pacific Command to the Central Command which means that this area around the Caspian Sea will now receive close attention so as to protect the flow of oil to the United States and its allies.

September 2000. Intifada starts and the US mad dog Israel starts killing the Palestinians daily, assassinates selective targets, razes residential quarters to the ground, uses helicopter gunships, jet fighters, tanks, buldozers and machine guns over stone throwing Palestinian crowds.