1945

February

President Roosevelt meets King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard USS Quincy in the Suez Canal, forging an alliance said to guarantee US access to Saudi oil.

1948

May

State of Israel declared.

1953

August

CIA-assisted coup in Iran.

1979

December

Islamic revolution in Iran.

USSR invades Afghanistan.

1980

September

Iran-Iraq war starts (ends August 1988).

1989

February

Last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan.

1990

August

Iraq invades Kuwait. US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia for first time.

1990–91

January–February

Gulf War. US-led ‘Operation Desert Storm’ expels Iraq from Kuwait. Saddam Hussein remains in power.

1993

February

Islamist terrorists bomb World Trade Center.

July

Foreign Affairs publishes Huntington's ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’.

1996

August

Osama Bin Laden declares jihad against the US.

1998

February

Bin Laden and co-signatories issue ‘World Islamic Front’ declaration of jihad against ‘Jews and Crusaders’.

May

Brenner's ‘The Economics of Global Turbulence’ published in New Left Review.

August

Al-Qaeda bomb US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

1999

June

US closes six embassies in Africa due to bin-Laden related threats.

August

UN report says 500,000 Iraqi infants killed by sanctions on Iraq since Gulf War.

2000

March

Chalmers Johnson's Blowback.

September

Second Intifada begins.

October

Blum's Rogue State.

Suicide bombers attack USS Cole.

2001

August

Bush receives CIA report entitled ‘Bin Laden Determined to Attack America’.

September

9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Bush tells Congress al-Qaeda hates America's ‘way of life’. here is new york opens.