Global Geopolitics of the Middle East

Project description
This is Geography of Middle East class ENVI 423

Homework 1
Watch the 4-minute video clip in which former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that the US government created, trained, armed, and funded the ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan in the

1980s in collabotation with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. She described how the Republican administration of President Reagan and the Democratic-led Congress at the time supported the “brilliant

idea” of recruiting ‘mujahedeen’ with a ‘Wahhabi brand of Islam’ in order to beat the Soviet Union (but she did not explain that the main reason was to force the Soviet Union to lift a long time ban

on the emigration of Soviet Jews to Palestine): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzQ2KZWfjgs. In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan called the Afghan mujahedeen “freedom fighters” who “are

our brothers.” Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi ambassador to US at the time was quoted: “Bin Laden used to come to us when America—underline, America—through the CIA and

Saudi Arabia, were helping our brother mujahideen in Afghanistan, to get rid of the communist secularist Soviet Union forces. Osama bin Laden came and said ‘Thank you. Thank you for bringing

the Americans to help us. At that time, I thought he couldn’t lead eight ducks across the street” (watch also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqtSaIikQ-o).
Based on the above, write a concise critical thinking essay (200-300 words) in which you compare and contrast the ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan in the 1980s (as described in the video clip) with the ‘jihad’

in Syria since 2011 (based on the last 13 or so PowerPoint slides of topic 1). Homework 1 is worth 5 points (5 percent of your final grade). Sources for homework assignments must be cited briefly

and ONLY between parentheses in the text.