ABSTRACT
September 11, 2001, is one of those dates that Americans will remember and reflect on for a very long time. Paradoxically, the answer to why September 11 happened can be found not just in some of the obvious flaws in US policy in the Middle East. Its support for repressive regimes, its failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its sanctions against Iraq—but also must be understood, in part, as a result of the remarkable success of US policy over the preceding fifty years. In economic terms, the cost of pursuing US policies in the Middle East is not so easy to calculate. The normal definition of US interests in the Middle East throughout the cold war era had consisted of essentially three points. One was to ensure that the Soviet Union, second issue was oil, and the third was the special relationship between the United States and Israel.
