Year of first American military and paramilitary intervention in Muslim nation:
(Most of the early ones were in response to piracy. The point is, we have been sending our soldiers into Muslim nations regularly for 200 years, while (until 9/11) no Muslim armed forces had put one soldier on U.S. soil for any reason. We have been "protecting our interests" and making "shows of force" and propping up or destabilizing governments in the Muslim world, for a long, long time.)
1801-1805 Libya. Our first war on terrorism (we called them pirates, then). They were doing to our ships, the same thing they did to our airliners in the 1970s.
1815 Algeria. Same story.
1832 -- Sumatra (modern Indonesia) - A naval force landed and stormed a fort to punish natives of the town of Quallah Battoo for plundering the American ship Friendship.
1838-39 -- Sumatra - December 24, 1838, to January 4, 1839. A naval force landed to punish natives of the towns of Quallah Battoo and Muckie (Mukki) for depredations on American shipping.
1851 -- Turkey. After a massacre of foreigners (including Americans) at Jaffa in January, a demonstration by the Mediterranean Squadron was ordered along the Turkish (Levant) coast.
1858-59 -- Turkey. The Secretary of State requested a display of naval force along the Levant after a massacre of Americans at Jaffa and mistreatment elsewhere "to remind the authorities (of Turkey) of the power of the United States."
1882 -- Egypt -- July 14 to 18. American forces landed to protect American interests during warfare between British and Egyptians and looting of the city of Alexandria by Arabs.
1903 -- Lebanon -- September 7 to 12. U.S. forces protected the American consulate in Beirut when a local Moslem uprising was feared.
1943-1945 - operations and occupation in North Africa during WW2.
1953- Iran - CIA overthrew Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran. The chief U.S. agent was Kermit Roosevelt Jr., grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. atimes.com
1958-1963 - Iraq - First evidence of CIA support for Saddam Hussain in 1959, in his failed assassination attempt against Abdel Kassem, the Iraqi left-nationalist dictator. In 1960, Kassem helped set up OPEC. He continued to be targetted by a CIA destabilization campaign, leading to the bloody 1963 coup, when the Baathists first came to power, and killed Kassem. (His body was displayed on Iraqi television, just as Saddam's sons would be displayed in 2003.) During this period, the CIA provided lists of names to the Baathist cadres, to make sure all the right people got killed (Communists, nationalists, Nasserite Pan-Arabists). Thousands died. As soon as the Baathist Party came to power, the U.S. started supplying weapons to Iraq, which were used to fight an ongoing Kurdish insurgency.
1958 -- Lebanon. 15,000 Marines were landed in Lebanon to deter Nasser's Pan-Arabists.
1958 to today - U.S. "tilts" toward Israel, in their war with Arabs. From 1958 to 1967, Israel develops a nuclear weapons capability.
234 Instances of Use of United States Forces Abroad, 1798 - 1993:
history.navy.mil
Naval History:
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