I've read several books on the history of the Middle East to try and figure out how we got to where we are. But they had an Israel/Palestine focus and it was like looking at the problem through a knothole. The subject is larger than that. I'm reading an excellent book that covers the fall of the Ottoman empire and the creation of the modern Middle East. It's David Fromkin's Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. Here is a review from Amazon that says it pretty well...

Is the Palestinian Problem an "Ancient Struggle"? I only just picked it up and started it a second time. This time however, I ploughed right through it. It is tremendous to remind ourselves in this time some of the REAL causes of Middle East conflict. Remind ourselves that much of the current problems were laid between 1914 and 1930. This is a frustrating work because you can see the root of so many problems and you have to bear through the story knowing how it ends, or continues as it were. The root causes of the Middle East conflicts are not ancient, they are fairly recent. Much of them based on the Western systems "inflicted" on them during the times described here in Fromkin's book. Fromkin has an easy style and his research and study cover an exceptional breadth. Rather than looking at certain isolated instances, he throws up a mosaic of the whole region and how it intertwines with the West and the East. If you never understood what the Ottoman Empire was or why the Middle East seems so complex, pick up this book.

As I read the book I am horrified at how the people who made the decisions that created the modern Middle East had almost zero understanding of the people and lands. It's also clear that it was oil that drove the process. Some things never change. This is essential reading if you want to have a clue as to the root causes of the violence in the Middle East. They want their world back.

Democrats, Republicans and U.S. Hegemony in the Middle East
A bloody history

What there is no disagreement about among the ruling elite—whether Republican or Democrat—is the need to hold onto Iraq as part of a strategy of domination of the entire oil-rich and strategic Middle East. Control of the region has been a central objective of U.S. international policy for six decades. Domination of the area is a foundation stone of the National Security Strategy (NSS-USA) adopted as the official doctrine of U.S. foreign policy in September 2002. Iraq and the roots of the "national security strategy" Although the NSS-USA is perceived by many as a creation of latter day neo-conservatives, its roots are bi-partisan and extend back to World War II. In the latter stages of that war, the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, dominated by big banking, oil and other corporate interests, were determined to restructure the post-war world to ensure the dominant position of the United States. The key elements in their strategy were: first, U.S. military superiority in nuclear and conventional weaponry; second, U.S. domination of newly-created international institutions like the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and the establishment of the dollar as the world currency; and third, control of global resources, particularly oil. In pursuit of the third key element, the United States was intent on taking hold of certain strategic assets of the British Empire, regardless of their wartime alliance. Among those assets was Iraq.

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  thanks to Politics in the Zeros

Eric Margolis has some thoughts on the end game of this 100 Years War in the Middle East.

Why West is losing

The threat today facing America "is the defensive jihad (holy struggle), an Islamic military reaction triggered by an attack by non-Muslims on the Islamic faith, on Muslims, on Muslim territory." Muslims are increasingly fighting back. The Muslim world believes it is under total attack led by Bush -- a massive effort to crush all who oppose U.S. domination, destroy Islam's inherent political role, eliminate Muslim charities, impose western values on the Islamic world and maintain puppet rulers -- "spreading democracy" in Bush's lexicon. Terrorism is merely the tactics of the poor fighting the rich. The ultimate taboo "U.S. military operations in the Muslim world," he adds, "validate bin Laden's contention the U.S. is attacking Islam and supports any country willing to kill or persecute Muslims." Scheuer, breaking the ultimate taboo, observes of Washington's "one-way alliance" with Israel that "Israelis have succeeded in lacing tight the ropes binding the American Gulliver to the ... Jewish state and its policies." The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are lost causes, Scheuer concludes. The U.S. is totally unable to create legitimate governments in either chaotic nation, only puppet regimes, supported by American bayonets.

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