The Impact of Oil and Middle East Wars and Environmental Concerns

1
The Impact of Oil and Middle East Wars and
Environmental Concerns
2

• Countries in North Africa and the Persian Gulf
  export more oil than most other countries in the
  world.
• The control of oil reserves has been an issue in
  many of the wars fought in the Middle East during
  the 20th century.
• Many countries have been involved in wars in the
  Middle East.

3
Persian Gulf War

• The Persian Gulf War was a war between Iraq and a
  group of about thirty other nations.
• Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi oil by
  drilling under the border between the two
  countries.
• Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990, under the
  direction of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
• The Iraqi army took control of Kuwait in a very
  short amount of time.

4
Persian Gulf War

• The United Nations responded to the Iraqi
  invasion by demanding that Iraq withdraw its
  troops from Kuwait.
• The United Nations used the Iraqi economy to try
  to convince the country to withdraw.
• They did this by cutting off trade to the
  country. Iraq did not withdraw.
• Many citizens of Kuwait fled the country during
  the Iraqi occupation.

5
Persian Gulf War

• The U.S. and other countries began sending troops
  to Saudi Arabia over the next few months.
• The United Nations set a date for Iraq to leave
  Kuwait.
• Iraq rejected this date and refused to back
  down.
• The Iraqis remained in Kuwait after the date.

6
Persian Gulf War

• The U.S. and other nations attacked the Iraqi
  forces in January of 1991.
• The Iraqi army was defeated in less than two
  months.
• Iraq was then directed to recognize Kuwaits
  sovereignty and destroy all weapons of mass
  destruction (WMDs).
• The claims of Iraq having weapons of mass
  destruction were disproven.

7
U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan

• On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacked two
  targets in the U.S.
• AI-Qaeda is a group of radical Islamic terrorists
  based largely in Afghanistan.
• They hijacked four airplanes and crashed two of
  them into the World Trade Center in New York.
• The third airplane crashed into the Pentagon in
  Virginia, and the fourth crashed in rural
  Pennsylvania, before reaching its intended target
  of the White House.
• These terrorist attacks killed nearly 3,000
  people.

8
U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan

• Investigations into the attack have named Osama
  bin Laden as its organizer.
• U.S. President George W. Bush called on other
  countries to help wage a war on terrorism.
• The first goal of those nations that joined the
  U.S. was to find bin Laden, whom they believed to
  be in Afghanistan, even though most of the people
  carrying out the attacks were from Saudi Arabia.

9
U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan

• In October 2001, U.S. and British troops invaded
  Afghanistan in search of bin Laden.
• They bombed places where bin Laden was known to
  be.
• Millions of people from Afghanistan were homeless
  because of the many wars that have taken place in
  their country.

10
U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan

• After the invasion, more than 3 million refugees
  returned to their homes.
• The U.S.-led forces still struggle to control
  portions of the country.
• Osama bin Laden has not been found.

11
Iraq War

• Saddam Hussein was still the president of Iraq at
  the time of the invasion of Afghanistan.
• Officials in the U.S. government feared
  connections between the Hussein regime and al-
  Qaeda.
• They were also afraid that Iraq was building
  weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical or
  biological weapons.

12
Iraq War

• The United Nations sent inspectors to Iraq to
  check for WMDs.
• In 2002, the United States Congress passed an
  Iraq War Resolution that authorized the president
  to go forward with a war in Iraq.
• In March 2003, the U.S. bombed targets in the
  Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

13
Iraq War

• The next day, British, Australian, and Polish
  soldiers joined the U.S. in invading Iraq and
  defeating the Iraqi military.
• This effort was known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
  
• Saddam Hussein was captured and his rule ended.
• He was sentenced to death in 2006, after being
  tried for killing 148 people in the Iraqi village
  of Dujail.

14
Iraq War

• Iraq under Hussein was previously involved in a
  long war against Iran in which chemical weapons
  were used against the Kurds and Iranians.
• He was also responsible for the deaths of
  hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
• Husseins death sentence was carried out.

15
Iraq War

• Weapons of mass destruction have not been found
  in Iraq.
• It is difficult to determine how many Iraqis have
  died since the invasion, but as of 2007, more
  than a half million Iraqis may have died.
• Many deaths are due to sectarian violence or the
  disruption of adequate medical care.
• Over 4,000 Americans soldiers have been killed
  and over 25,000 have been wounded while fighting
  there.

16
Major Environmental Issues

• The water supply in Southwest Asia is very
  limited.
• Finding a source of fresh water for farming and
  drinking is a struggle throughout the region.
• Israel has very few fresh water sources.
• The Sea of Galilee provides its primary supply of
  drinking water.

17
Major Environmental Issues

• Many Southwest Asian countries must use
  desalination to get fresh water.
• Desalination is a process for removing the salt
  from salt water in order to make it suitable for
  drinking and farming.

18
Major Environmental Issues

• There are very few major rivers in the region.
• The Tigris, Euphrates, and Nile rivers are the
  longest and most powerful.
• These rivers run through just a few countries of
  the entire region.
• Rivers are the main source of water for drinking
  and for power in many Southwest Asian countries.

19
Major Environmental Issues

• So countries without major rivers must also find
  other ways to generate electricity.
• Many Southwest Asian cities are based around
  ports.
• These cities usually have major industries.
• Ports make it easier to ship the things produced
  by industries.
• Port cities with major industries usually pollute
  their water supplies.

20
Major Environmental Issues

• Oil is the main export in Southwest Asia.
• Huge ships and oil spills pollute the waters of
  the Persian Gulf.
• Many natural resources are in the ground and must
  be taken out.
• The process of removing them is called
  extraction.

21
Major Environmental Issues

• Oil is the largest natural resource in Southwest
  Asia.
• Drilling oil from the ground requires heavy
  machinery that often endangers the environment.
• The process of refining oil also creates
  pollution.

22
Major Environmental Issues

• Refining oil means making oil from the ground
  ready to use in machines.
• Refining oil produces toxic chemicals.
• This is an enormous problem for the environment
  in the Southwest Asia.

23
Water Supply

• Southwest Asian countries often get into disputes
  over their policies on water rights and other
  natural resources.
• Water rights are agreements about how countries
  can use the water in a region.
• Water rights often cause political disputes.

24
Water Supply

• Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians on the West
  Bank, all depend on many of the same scarce water
  resources.
• Israel has the most power, so it has been most
  effective in claiming water.
• Much Israeli water is also cleaned after it is
  used once, and is then reused.
• Ways have to be found to make sure that everyone
  has access to enough water.

25
Water Supply

• The Euphrates River flows through Turkey, Syria,
  and Iraq.
• These countries all rely on the Euphrates for
  farming and for electricity.
• The river begins in Turkey and flows to the
  Persian Gulf.
• Turkey built two dams on the Euphrates in 1984 to
  harness its power for electricity.
• These dams make the river less powerful.

26
Water Supply

• Syria also built a dam on the Euphrates.
• By the time the river reaches Iraq, it is much
  smaller and less powerful than it was originally.
  
• Water supply in Iraq is also diminished and
  farming is very difficult.
• In 1975, a war almost broke out between Syria and
  Iraq over water rights.

27
Oil Industries

• Disputes over access to other natural resources,
  like oil, also cause conflict.
• The largest source of oil in the world is the
  region bordering the Persian Gulf.
• All the countries that border the Persian Gulf
  have large oil industries.

28
Oil Industries

• Many wars have been fought over oil in Southwest
  Asia.
• These wars have had a major impact on the
  environment.
• For example, much of the oil refining machinery
  in Iraq was badly damaged in the Persian Gulf
  War, in 1991.
• The Iraqi government did not repair the equipment
  that makes refining oil safer for the
  environment.

29
Oil Industries

• For years, pollution from Iraqi oil refineries
  leaked into the water supply and in the air.
• Today, the Iraqi oil industry is not productive
  because of the current war in Iraq.
• However, many of Iraqs oil refineries were
  destroyed and burned during the war, so that the
  air was polluted.

30
Oil Industries

• During the first Gulf War, Iraq used pollution as
  a strategy for fighting.
• Iraqi soldiers dumped over three hundred gallons
  of oil into the Persian Gulf.
• They also burned hundreds of oil wells in order
  to keep the U.S. from taking control of their oil
  industry.

31
Oil Industries

• Oil is the basis of most of the economy of the
  Middle East, but pollution from the oil industry
  is one of the biggest threats to its environment.
  
• This pollution endangers the water supply in
  particular.
• Since there is not much fresh water in the
  region, these environmental problems directly
  affect the lives of Middle Easterners.

32
Summary

• Describe the causes and effect of the Persian
  Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom and U.S.
  Invasion of Afghanistan.
• Why is water and oil important in the Middle East
  and which one is more important to the Middle
  East?