The Gulf Wars & Afghanistan: Oil and Empires

Iraq and Afghanistan are two focal points in a broad arch of instability that runs across the Middle East and Central Asia. In Battle History of the United States Marine Corps: The Gulf Wars and Afghanistan, we examine the role played by the USMC in the last three wars to convulse the region—the First and Second Gulf Wars and the war in Afghanistan. The latter two have been the longest-fought confl icts in American military history.

In OIL AND EMPIRES we look at the history of the region, its repeated conquest, and the bloody wars that have been fought to control it. From the time of Alexander through the present era, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Mongols, and Turks have fought for domination. The 20th century saw the European powers consolidate their grip on the area only to eventually cede control, while over the last 50 years the world’s ever-rising need for oil has drawn the United States deeper into the affairs of the region.

EPISODES

1. FLASHPOINTS The history of the Fertile Crescent is one of unrelenting warfare that has spanned over five millennium.

2. REAP WHAT YOU SOW Iraq has long laid claim to Kuwait as part of its historical territory. In the summer of 1990, Saddam Hussein dispatched his army to forcibly annex Kuwait into Iraq.

3. BUILDING A SHIELD Stunned by the Iraqi invasion, the United States rallies its allies to defend the Saudi oil field while President George Bush declares that the invasion “will not stand.”

4. THE STORM BREAKS In what becomes the shortest military conflict ever fought by the United States, the Iraqi military is decisively defeated in less than 72 hours.