A Review of Chapter 9, 10, 12 and 13

In Chapter 9, the author gives an analysis of the cause, details, and the impact of the partition of Palestine. The problems emerged in World War I when Britain made a promise to the Jews that one day the Jews could have their homeland. When the war ended, with the permission of Britain, more and more Jews started to immigrate to Palestine, which resulted in the panic of the Arab Palestinians and they urged the Britain to take actions to protect their interest. The British first policy was to curb the entry to Palestine, which aroused the opposition from the Zionists and did little help to placate the Arab-Palestinians. By the end of World War II, Britain continued with the restrictive immigration policy against Jews though many Zionists supported Britain in the war. That made radical Zionists launch a series of activities against Britain. Finally, the partition of Palestine, as a solution to end conflicts, was adopted by Britain, U.S., Soviet and UN. However, the partition laid the ground for the latter wars and rebellions. The objection to UN’s plan from Arab Palestinians led to the first Arab-Israeli war, which contributed to the creation of Israel, the destruction of the proposed Palestinian state, and the new conflicts between Israel and its neighboring Arab countries. Based on ongoing disputes with Egypt, Israel mounted another war, collaborating with Britain and France. That triggered the rapid development of nuclear weapons in Britain, France, and other countries. Then with the closure of the Straits of Tiran by Egypt, the third Arab-Israeli war began. Though Israel won the war, it created many problems: another large scale of migration of Palestinians; mistreatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories; endless conflicts between the new Jewish settlers and the former Palestinian land-owners; the pending recognition by the international authorities in the newly-occupied regions. The fourth Arab-Israeli war, initiated by Egypt again, changed the military, political, and economic positions of the Middle East countries and caused profound global consequences later. The fifth Arab-Israeli war, aiming to destroy PLO bases, brought destruction to the Lebanon’s democracy. Failure to deal with the problems of Palestinians within occupied territories resulted in two intifadas.

The core point of the Arab-Israeli conflict is who should be the owner of Palestine. Both Arabs and Jews should have sovereignty over the Palestinian territories if we consider the specific time and scale of settling in a place. The author pointed out that the conflicts emerged in World War I and continually escalated in the next decades. The permission of Britain resulted in large Jewish immigration to Palestine, which threatened the interest of Arab Palestinians. As one of the oldest dwellers of Palestine, Arab Palestinians had the right to defend their homeland. The tricky point for the Arab-Israeli conflict is how to divide the Palestinian territories to make both sides satisfactory. Apparently, the UN’s partition plan was not perfect and caused strong dissatisfaction from Arab Palestinians. Thus, without the Britain’s promise or the imperfect partition plan, those Arab-Israeli conflicts could have been avoided. The author organized the whole chapter in a good sequence, which let the reader easily follow his ideas and understand each event. That’s his strength in this writing.

In Chapter 10, it examines the revolution and war in the Persian Gulf and the role that oil played at that time. The fourth Arab-Israeli War contributed to the 1973 oil embargo, which led to the rising of world oil prices. Rising oil prices, together with rising food prices and high rents in the cities, caused severe inflation in Iran. The inflation worsened the economic conditions of the poor. Massive demonstrations and protests against the government broke out, which halted the oil production in Iran, triggered the soaring of world oil prices, and led to the revolution. To strengthen the control over oil price in the Gulf, Iraq invaded Iran when Iran was in chaos. In this war, Iraqi development of nuclear weapons was also destroyed. At the same time, non-OPEC members developed new oil supplies, and new energy-efficient systems to cope with the high prices. That, combined with other factors, made the oil prices fall drastically. The falling oil prices made both Iran and Iraq deep into debt during the first Gulf War. Attempt to erase the substantial debt to Kuwait and take control of more oil supplies, Iraq started the Second Gulf War. However, no country supported Iraq for invading Kuwait. Finally, the Iraqi army was forced out from Kuwait by U.S. and its coalition troops.

According to the arguments of the author, the Gulf Wars are more like wars for scrambling oil. But it is true that oil is the common wealth of the world and the oil reserve in the Gulf is more than one-half of the total amount on the earth. So, the oil supplies and prices play a critical role in the global economic stability and development. Every country was cautious if Iraq took any actions. The Second Gulf War greatly threatened the sufficient oil supplies to the U.S., which undoubtedly made the U.S. furious. The end of Gulf Wars not only determined the distribution of oil supplies but also opened another new round of oil contest in the world. Behind the oil competition, we may also see the contests among countries. All the U.S. and its coalition troops were well prepared with high-tech weapons and equipment, while Iraqi army was not weak, either. Both of military strengths were tested in the wars. The comparatively weak lost in the battle. The final result teaches us a lesson that lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attacks.

In Chapter 12, it examines the direct and indirect consequences of 9/11 to the U.S. and the rest of the world at that time and in the future. The 9/11 event turned the separate conflicts in the Middle East into one globalized issue. 9/11 enabled the U.S. to send a military force to Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan, the conflicts did not disappear as the creation of the new government in Kabul. The nation was disrupted and impoverished by wars. The planned invasion of Iraq by the U.S. also resulted in various problems: the destruction of Iraqi government buildings, industries, schools, and other public infrastructure, etc.; unemployment for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people; the possible partition of Iraq; the decline of Iraqi oil production. The “war on terror” raised by the U.S. intensified the existing problems in the Middle East and other regions. Many countries used the “war on terror” to curb and suppress those domestic conflicts that even occurred before 9/11, especially in India and in Israel. Lastly, 9/11 and the subsequent wars deepened and prolonged the global recession.

9/11 not only brought direct economic loss but also negatively impacted the confidence for consumption and investment to the U.S. To the world, the global war on terror started. It would be better if the author could give more details about how many countries used the “war on terror” to curb and suppress those domestic conflicts that had nothing to do with the terrorism. The consequences created by the new global terrorism are far more serious not only in the countries named in the article but also in other parts of the world. The most notable are, the new terrorism resulted in both the severe violation of human rights and U.S. intervention in domestic affairs of other countries. The “war on terror” offered a good excuse for U.S. and its allies to get rid of dissidents, which also reinforced the role of the world economic and political leader of the U.S. The world democracy was undermined further. Another weakness of this chapter is a lack of a consolidated explanation for why terrorists organized the 9/11 attack. A transition paragraph to link up with the stories in previous chapters would increase fluency of the article.

In Chapter 13, it discusses some pressing environmental problems and possible solutions after an examination of some human activities that produce carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs and nitrous oxide. Some environmentalists held that mass use of coal and oil could cause the environmental and economic problems, and they proposed the energy conservation to solve the issues. Environmentalists also argued that tropical deforestation could trigger floods and soil erosion; the tropical woods were difficult to recover after deforested; the populations living in forests would be affected after the woods environments disrupted; deforestation increased the amount of carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, the extensive use of cars contributed to a significant quantity of waste gases, including carbon dioxide and other toxic pollutants. Approaches adopted to curb auto use didn’t solve all the problems, particularly for the poor and the single mothers. Besides carbon dioxide, methane was also an important gas that contributed to the greenhouse effect. Human created most methane from rice cultivation and animal husbandry. The latter also contributed to other problems to human and environment: the hunger in poor countries but obesity and diseases in wealthy countries; the widespread deforestation; the degradation of grasslands; and the contamination of water resources. It was suggested to reduce the cattle herd. CFCs, which was used as coolants and in spray cans, contributed to ozone depletion and global warming. In response to that, restrictive policy for the production of CFCs had been made, and the results were satisfactory. The gas nitrous oxide was released during the use of the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. The use of nitrogen fertilizers led to global warming, groundwater pollution, and algae blooms, so farmers were encouraged to use less synthetic fertilizers. The global climate change has drawn significant attention from many countries in the world. Both corporations and governments made remarkable efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Regarding the greenhouse effect, we will inevitably think of some gases that may trigger the global warming. The wars also can create gases and other destructions to the environment. For example, the Second Gulf War brought destructive influence to Iraqi environment because of the extensive leakage and burning of oil. That indirectly destroyed a large number of seabirds and marine lives in the Persian Gulf. It also caused a global pollution. Therefore, to reduce the global warming, we need also eliminate wars. To summarize, no matter what conflicts we have before, now we only have one earth and we are facing the same problem—global climate change. If we don’t take actions to stop or slow down the global warming, the polar ice could melt and then sea level would rise. That would create series of problems to human. While we strengthen the economic and political development, we also need pay attention to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. The strength of this chapter is, the author gives a thorough and objective analysis of the current views towards the global climate change and leaves the reader to make decisions.