In recent months, the Middle East has not been very peaceful, and in addition to the intricacies of internal contradictions, the situation has also become more severe due to the turmoil in the United States.
However, unlike in the past, the United States has not only failed to take advantage of the situation in the process of stirring up the situation, but has been overwhelmed. Not only has it been attacked hundreds of times, but it has also been ordered to be evicted several times by Iraq.
(Scene after the U.S. air raid on Iraq)
Although the United States has repeatedly carried out military strikes against the Houthis and militias in Iraq and Syria, they have had little effect and have even intensified their attacks.
The situation of the United States in the Middle East has not only doubled the political pressure of the Biden administration, but also reflects that the United States has fallen into a situation in which it has fallen into a situation in which it is difficult to support itself.
(1) Although the US military has withdrawn from Afghanistan, the US military bases scattered in the Middle East are still not peaceful
After the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, the power of the United States in the Middle East is not completely vacuum, and it can still rely on the construction of military bases in various Middle Eastern countries to control the situation in the Middle East.
When the Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out last October, armed groups in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Yemen have carried out hundreds of attacks on US military bases in the Middle East.
Due to the excessive number of attacks and harassments, Iraq's calls for the withdrawal of US troops in Iraq have become louder and louder, and not long ago, the Iraqi prime minister repeatedly issued expulsion orders to the United States, demanding that US troops withdraw from Iraq.
Not long after Iraq issued an eviction order, a U.S. military base on the Jordanian border was also attacked by drones, causing heavy casualties.
(Attack on U.S. military base in Jordan)
Since 2003, when George W. Bush sent troops on the grounds that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq have been the target of attacks by various organizations in the Middle East. Until the end of August 2021, when the US military withdrew from Afghanistan in a hurry, the "Taliban" began to make a comeback.
Some analysts believe that the reason why the US military has stumbled in Afghanistan is that the United States has confused the "Taliban" and the "al-Qaeda" organization and struck them together to produce bitter fruits. This forced the "Taliban"
Guerrilla warfare against the U.S. military, the U.S. military and the pro-American government of Afghanistan are locked in a never-ending war.
Although the US military withdrew from Afghanistan, the US military bases scattered throughout the Middle East are still not peaceful, and the reason for this is that the United States tried to root American-style democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq.
(A U.S. fighter strikes)
(2) In trying to restrain Iran, the United States no longer has enough influence
The frequent attacks on the US military have revealed a major problem in which the stability of US hegemony has been questioned.
At the beginning of the end of the Cold War, the United States shouted "the end of history," but 10 years later, the 9/11 incident shattered the American dream.
Twenty years after the U.S. military was mired in the war on terror, the U.S. power has declined significantly, and the Yemeni Houthis have attacked Israeli-related merchant ships in the Red Sea.
The U.S. military struggled to deal with it on its own, and convened 20 countries to jointly fight back against the Houthis. However, most countries were too busy to take care of themselves and refused one after another, and some of them only sent people out of the ship for the sake of the United States' face, and the scene was very embarrassing.
(Houthis fire missiles at U.S. warships)
In the eyes of the United States, the Houthis are the backers of Iran, and the fight against the Houthis is actually to restrain Iran, and once Iran is intimidated, the Houthis will dare to do so, but it is clear that the influence of the United States is no longer sufficient from the point of view of the low participation of allies.
It can only be said that the United States has been fighting a "war on terror" in the Middle East for 20 years, but not only has it failed to achieve the goal of the war, but has also weakened the combat strength of the US military in the end.
Looking forward to the next 10 years, the world will become more insecure, and the insecure environment will drive up the transaction costs of international trade, which will be even more detrimental to globalization. This situation is both a challenge and an opportunity for the development of the global economy, and it is up to each country to respond to it.
The rise and fall of hegemony has its regularity. Some scholars believe that the US hegemony has strong resilience and is always able to make strategic adjustments when it declines.
It's just that the 20-year "war on terror" has made Biden's Middle East policy unsustainable, the issue of safe navigation in the Red Sea has also made him anxious, and the attack on the US military base in Jordan has caused heavy casualties.