Iraq Class 2

Solutions to the Iraq War Part I: The British Experience (30 minutes with 60 minutes of Q&A)

The solution to the violence in Iraq requires an understanding of the history of Iraq. Iraq in the Aramaic language means "the land along the banks of the rivers." Historically, this area was called Mesoptamia which in Greek means "between the rivers." Both the Iraq and Mesoptamia names are describing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is the Fertile Crescent or cradle of civilization (Sumer, now Iraq, was the world's first civilization).

Iraq has been the seat of Islamic power since the 8^th Century when Baghdad was built by the Abbasid Caliphate. Baghdad was the leading metropolis of the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries. The Mongols (Hulagu Khan in 1257), destroyed the city in the sack of Baghdad in the 13th century. Iraqis today see "Operation Iraqi Freedom" or the US 2003 invasion as "the sack of Baghdad in the 21st century."

There are many historical parallels to the Mongol and British/American invasions. For example, the Grand Library of Baghdad also known as the House of Wisdom was destroyed in 1257 resulting in the loss of national treasure. Soon after the US invasion of Baghdad in 2003, Iraq's National Museum was looted resulting in the loss of national treasure.

The Ottoman Turks took Baghdad form the Persians in 1535. Mesopotamia was subsequently ruled by Iranian Safavids in 1609 and the Mamluk in 1747. The Ottomans ruled a final time from 1831 to the end of World War I. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the 1919 Treaty of Sèvres gives Britain what in 1921 becomes Iraq.

Iraq, both the name and the physical boundaries, were created in 1921 in a hotel room in Cairo. Winston Churchill, Britain's Colonial Secretary, was a key member of the delegation that created Iraq. Churchill led the effort to install a Sunni Arab King to rule over the Shiite majority and Kurdish minority. Later in his life Churchill described Iraq's forced union of different peoples as one of his biggest mistakes because the religious differences of the people were far more important than Iraqi nationalism would ever be.

The British Timeline (with emphasis on understanding solutions to the current violence)

1914 -1918 - British Mesopotamia campaign. The Berlin to Baghdad Railroad started in 1888 but was unfinished in 1914. Britain had started building warships fueled by oil in 1912 and had a refinery at Abadan (the British-controlled Turkish Petroleum Company was one of the world's earliest). The British "won" World War I but lost 92,000 soldiers in the Mesopotamian campaign. By 1918 Britain had deployed 410,000 men in the area.

1916 - In the Sykes-Picot Agreement Britain and France determined the area would fall under French influence.

1919 - Under the Long-Berenger Agreement, the French give the area to Britain for a 25 percent share in the Turkish Petroleum Company.

1920 - British Mandate and British colonial administrators rule the country. Local resistance to occupation produces an insurgency. A top priority was to fight the insurgency which at the time was called an emergency.

Three important anticolonial secret societies had been formed in Iraq during 1918 and 1919. They are the League of the Islamic Awakening, the Muslim National League, and the Guardians of Independence.

The grand mujtahid of Karbala, Imam Shirazi, issued a fatwa (religious ruling), pointing out that it was against Islamic law for Muslims to countenance being ruled by non-Muslims, and he called for a jihad against the British. By July 1920, Mosul was in rebellion against British rule. The southern tribes cherished their long-held political autonomy and needed little inducement to join in the fray. The country was in a state of anarchy the British used Royal Air Force bombers to attack the insurgency. The Great Iraqi Revolution of 1920 was a watershed event in contemporary Iraqi history. For the first time, Sunnis and Shias, were brought together in a common effort against the British. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

1921 - Iraq is created in a hotel room in Cairo by Winston Churchill. At the Cairo Conference in 1921, King Faisal is selected as Iraq's first King. Britain retains overall control.

1922 - The twenty-year treaty, which was ratified in October 1922, stated that the king would heed British advice on all matters affecting British interests and on fiscal policy as long as Iraq had a balance of payments deficit with Britain, and that British officials would be appointed to specified posts in eighteen departments to act as advisers and inspectors. Since the Iraqis were required to pay for half of the British occupation, Iraq was guaranteed to always have a balance of payments deficit.

1925 - The oil concession agreement, similar to the treaty betrayal of American Indians, contained none of the Iraqi demands for income sharing. The Turkish Petroleum Company was renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company and granted a full and complete concession for a period of seventy-five years.

1926 - The British establishment of an indigenous Iraqi army loyal to Britain is unsuccessful.

1930 - The new Anglo-Iraqi Treaty provided for a "close alliance" and gave Britain the use of air bases and troop movements for a period of 25 years beginning on October 3, 1932 when Iraq was admitted to the League of Nations.

1932 - Iraq is granted independence and the British leave with the exception of a few bases to protect oil interests.

1961 - The British Colonial Office separated part of what was Iraq to create the independent country of Kuwait.

1968 - The Arab Socialis Baath Party overthrows Arif with the help of a former CIA assassin named Saddam Hussein a-Majid al Tikriti.

1977 - The Iraqi government ordered the construction of Osirak south-east of Baghdad. In 1981, Israeli destroyed the facility in order to prevent the Saddam from using the reactor to create nuclear weapons.

1979 - Saddam Hussein seizes power and has many of his opponents killed. He continues to kill many people throughout his dictatorship.

1980 - Saddam starts the Iran-Iraq War and both sides are supplied by the US. The US policy was "dual containment" or keep both sides fighting as long as possible. The war ended in 1988.

1981 - Iran hostage crisis ends in the "Ronald Reagan miracle." The American hostages were held at the request of the Reagan administration in return for billions and a written guarantee from the US that the US would not attack Iran.

1983 - US providing all forms of assistance to include chemical and biological weapons.

1987 - On March 4, 1987, President Reagan admitted the US was trading arms with Iran. In the two years prior, the Reagan administration had denied providing Iran with weapons. As a point of "Iraqi honor" for the US betrayal, on May 17, 1987 Saddam Hussein had a Iraqi Mirage F1 fire two Exocet missiles at the USS Stark.

1990 - US Ambassador April Glaspie meets with Saddam Hussein on July 25, 1990. US satellites are showing Iraq is preparing to invade Kuwait. Glaspie informs Hussein, "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait." She reinforces the point with Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America.

1991 - Gulf War starts and ends. Economic sanctions last for a decade and kill over one million people according to the United Nations.

2000 – Saddam Hussein sends a serious economic message by insisting Iraq’s oil be sold for euros.⁴

2002 - The American public and world is told Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and is planning to use them against America (see Voices of Patriots in our Leaders Club program to hear directly from former Air Force Chief of Staff General McPeak). The Downing Street Memo confirms that the Bush administration has already made the decision to go to war even though the public is still told in March 2003 that diplomacy is being pursued.

2006 - The Lancet, one of the worlds oldest peer reviewed medical journals, estimates the number of Iraqis killed in the war at 655,000. On December 30, 2006, Saddam Hussein is hanged and increases the number of killed by one.

2007 – The commanding general of US forces in Iraq, David Petraeus, said that US forces would need to be in Iraq until 2017. He also said when asked in testimony before Congress is the Iraq War making us safer, "I don't know, actually."⁵

2007 - Foreign Policy Magazine named Iraq as the second most unstable nation in the world after Sudan. The US press hammers away that the surge is working and many Americans fail to see this deception. The truth, 2007 is the worst year in terms of casualties with no end in sight.

4. End hypocritical weapons of mass destruction policies and stop selling weapons.

One final observation that is important to always remember. Muslims in the Middle East are people like you and I. They will fight, as would most Americans, to repel a foreign military. They also love their children and prefer to live in peace.

End

1. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization

2. Peter W. Galbraith, The Case for Dividing Iraq, Time Magazine, 5 November 2006 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1555130,00.html).