In the movie "Three Kings" the Gulf War has just ended and USA has signed a ceasefire. This movies is about a few US soldiers coming across a map of Saddam Hussein's gold. This map was found stuck between the butt-cheeks of a captured soldier. The original plan was to find the stash and split the spoils. They had a fool proof plan which got a lot more complicated when they run into an Iraqi civilian population right where the gold was located. These civilians gave the men a different perspective on the war. Troy, one of the soldiers, gets captured. They save a group of Iraqi prisoners, including several rebel leaders, this begins their own private conflict between the Iraqi army and themselves. They get help from Iraqi rebels who sell them cars, bought with the gold they stole. Through all this Troy is being tortured. He is forced to drink oil. The soldiers come back to find Troy with a damaged lung. The soldiers give the prisoners a bar of gold each and help them try to cross to the Iranian border. The American army intervenes with the whole plan and arrests the soldiers. The soldiers offer the gold to the army in return for the refugees receive a safe passage. The soldiers were cleared of all their charges, the stolen gold was returned to Kuwait.

In Iran a Shiiite revolution was taking place and the shah was replaced by Ayatolla Khomeini. The Sunni leader, Saddam Hussein in Iraq was very concerned. Ayatollah Khomeini was anti-American so he supported Iraq in this conflict. The fear of revolution sparks war in Iraq. Iran and Iraq fought over the control of the Shatt Al-Arab and Arvand Roud waterway. The Arvand Roud was an important channel for the oil exports from both states were sent through there. This war was all about religion however, they claimed territory from each other. During the Iran-Iraq war, Kuwait had been a close ally and helped out with the finances for that war. When the war ended Iraq could not repay Kuwait. Iraq then decides to invaded Kuwait in 1990, where 30 countries joined a coalition against Iraq (including many Arab countries). Israel could not join for the fear of losing the support of the Arab countries. Kuwait was then liberated after four days. For the fear of losing the Arab support, George Bush Sr. did not invade Iraq or remove Saddam from power. Saddam fired upon Israel trying to get them involved. Threats of poison gas was present. Kuwait brought up the price of oil, and Iraq thought Kuwait was stealing from them. Kuwait refused to lower the price of oil and Iraq took that as a sign of aggression towards themselves.

The main control of the Middle East belonged to France and Great Britain during this time, and Egypt began aligning themselves with the Soviet Union and Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. There is a dramatic change in the influence of the region from the US and the USSR. The change began after the British and the French made a deal with the Israelis to fight first which allowed the Jewish people to use the canal. The French and the British back out of the crisis when the US threatened to cut the oil supply. The Six days war resulted in the Egyptians planning an attack on the Israeli. This continued with the Israelis first strike policy, and they caught wind of the attack due to there large base of informants and destroyed all the air force on the ground on the surrounding Arab countries meaning they could not attack. They continued to advance and took over the Golden Heights, West Bank and the Sinai Peninsula, but then had to retreat due to the fear of taking over all the Arab nations. The planned to give back the land if peace followed. This war only lasted six days, but had a large affect on the Israelis and the Egyptians making a peace agreement in the Camp David Accords which is still present today. 

In 1916, the Ottoman Empire broke into different parts. With this change, the two Colonies of Great Britain and France lead to more division on the shared territories through mandates. Great Britain then continued to take over the Middle East. Great Britain promised the Jews and the Arabs a homeland in Palestine and independence in the region. It is better known as the  Arab-Israeli conflict. Britain made things worse following the first World War as the mandates promised resulted in much tension between the Arabs and the Jews. The United Nations then decided to step in while Great Britain left and  despite many efforts they had been unsuccessful in creating world peace as the conflict in the Middle east seems to be a insolvable problem.