The Gulf Wars and the New World Order: An Agenda for the US and her Allies

The Gulf Wars, fought in 1991 and 2003 respectively, are inter-related with each other. These wars reshaped and totally changed the Geo-Political structure of the Middle East. Apparently, the Geo-Political importance of the Middle East has remained universal truth from the very first day of human being. In that regard, it has always remained like it in the eyes of world powers such as Romans, Greeks, Sassanid, Ottomans, UK, Russia and America. Chronically, US increased interference in the Middle East soon after the World War II (1945). Eventually, Saddam Hussain was Pro-Socialist and disliked American interference in the Middle East; that was why, US started to overthrow Saddam Hussain’s regime and control the Middle East oil resources. Due to that, the United States trapped Saddam Hussain into Iran-Iraq War for more than eight years, which became futile and fatal for both countries. Mercilessly, the United States trapped Saddam Hussain once again into devastative War between Iraq and Kuwait in 1990. After that, accusing Saddam of violating International Law, the US found reason to invade Iraq directly, which is known as the Gulf War I (1991). Awfully, Iraq was kept in war for than a decade. When the US failed to overthrow Saddam regime after devastative and savage attacks, she got passed resolutions from the United Nations to impose economic sanctions on Iraq due to allegation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). Valiantly, innocent Iraqis endeavored economic sanctions for more than a decade. After the inspection of world experts’ teams, they could find neither any sign of WMDs nor any stockpile of WMDs. Apart from that, the US led Coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003, massacre millions of people, collapsed its economy and ruined its infrastructure.

Nitrogen and Phosphorus Management in Mungbean and Sunflower Intercropping

Yield of some crops is greater for intercropping systems than sole cropping. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) residue is fragile and does not provide a lot of ground cover. The culture and morphology of sunflower, therefore, indicated that it had intercropping potential. In this regard, field experiments were used to test whether intercropping (sunflower and mungbean) by different rates of the N and P nutrients (Exp. I) along with different row combinations and sowing dates (Exp. II) would improve the ground cover per unit area, could increase yield and/or yield traits as well as improve soil fertility. Consequently, two field experiments were conducted in spring seasons of 2011 and 2012. In experiment I sunflower was intercropped with mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) along with sole crop of sunflower, mungbean were studied at three rates (30, 60, and 90 kg ha-1) of each N and P including one control treatment. In experiment II, in addition to the intercropping of sunflower-mungbean, one and two mungbean 7 rows at different dates (0, 7, 14 and 21 days) from date of sunflower planting within the rows were studied. Both experiments were conducted in randomized complete block design at Agronomy Research Farm, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, Pakistan (34001’12.69” N, 71o27’54.80” E). The Exp. I was arranged in a split plots where crops (soles and intercrops) assigned to the main plots and nutrients (N and P) to subplots. Each experimental unit of the experiments was replicated four times. Data were recorded on crops phenology, yield and yield traits. Competitive indices e.g. the land equivalent ratio (LER), area time equivalent ratio (ATER), competitive ratio (CR), aggressivity ratio (Ag), relative crowding coefficient (K) and monitory advantage (MAI) of intercropping on sole crop were also calculated. Between the cropping systems (sole vs. intercrop) no statistical advantage was observed in plant phenology, yield or yield traits of sunflower and mungbean. However, increase in given N-rates had significantly (P<0.05) delayed days to flowering and days to maturity in contrast to increasing P to the crops. Leaf area index (LAI) increased by 45-51% in sunflower and 50-72% in mungbean with each increments of N and/or P over control treatment. Plant height increased in the range 5-10% in sunflower and 19-30% in mungbean with increasing the given N and P rates. By increasing N, the above ground biomass of sunflower increased about 17-30% and biomass of mungbean increased about 44- 100%. Similarly by increasing P over the control treatment the biomass of sunflower increased about 20-26% and biomass of mungbean increased 70-73%. With increase in N the Grain yield (kg ha-1) of sunflower enhanced by 27-58% and mungbean by 47- 112%. Likewise with increasing P-rates over the control, the grain yield of sunflower increased by 40-48% and mungbean by 71-94%. This increase in grain yield was mainly associated to the increase in sunflower head diameter (21-35%), grain number (10-18%) and thousand grains weight (35-47%) and pod number (63-87%), grains per pod (0-28%) and grains weight (10-21%) of the mungbean. By increasing N to the crop with mild increases at the higher P the oil content of sunflower grains showed a trivial reduction of 0-6%. By increasing the given N and/or P rates to the crop over control treatment the N content in the grain increased in the ranges from 5-28% and in the straw 3-24%, which ultimately resulted in a significant (P<0.05) increase of N uptakes in both grains and straw. Nodule number and weight in mungbean crop showed a drastic reduction (P<0.05) up to 50% by the increase in N fertilizer rates, however, there was a stable slight (P<0.05) increase in nodule number and their weight by increasing P-rate to the crop. Except LAI, none of the observed parameters showed advantage of intercropping over the sole mungbean crop. Competitive indices did not show any remarkable advantage of the intercropping. In Exp. II sunflower did not show any reflective changes (P<0.05) in any of the observed parameters except LAI. Nevertheless, days to maturity delayed by delay in sowing of mungbean with a nonsignificant (P<0.05) difference in yield and yield traits, which resulted in a nonsignificant change in yield and biomass. Intercropping did not show any reflective (P<0.05) results over the sole crop for yield and yield contributing traits of mungean. The study suggested that mungbean under the given factors could not show any profound increment in yield or net return, however, a possible intercropping for sunflower canopy needs to be investigated with sunflower sowing dates and planting geometry for more valuable outcomes.