1. Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq

3.  Always been a prosperous land  Damascus (Capital)  Farmlands Cotton, wheat, fruit, and vegetables Methods are OUTDATED  1/3 of country is irrigated  Rainfall is unreliable  People are moving to the cities and giving up farming  Government Response Building Dams Problems with Turkey and dams up river

4.  1970 General Hafez al-Assad takes power Makes ALL political and economic decisions  2000 his son Bashar Assad takes over Begins to reform  Market-based economy system  Pressure from the U.S. gets him to pull out from Lebanon in 2005

5.  Fertile Crescent and Civilization Tigris and Euphrates Rivers Grow grains, fruits, and vegetables  Oil discovery in 1920’s Spent billions of dollars to develop the country Airports, roads, schools, universities, hospitals, dams, industry, and rebuilt ancient city of Baghdad

6.  Series of Conflicts Saddam Hussein Iran-Iraq War, 1980  Both sides severely damaged – huge debt Persian Gulf War, 1991  Invasion of Kuwait for oil reserves Iraqi Freedom, 2003  Threat to “National Security”  Removal of Saddam and start of Democracy