The Illusion of Iraq
"Between the Rivers", Mesopotamia, has suffered a series of invasions and conquests over the past 5,000 years, resulting in a land with a diverse mixture of cultures, languages and religions. From the 16th century until 1917, it was part of the Ottoman Empire. The British occupied the area, which consisted of the three Ottoman villyets, or provinces, of Mosul in the north, Baghdad in the center and Basra, the southern port area.
The British victory over the Turks was accomplished with the aid of King Faisal, son of the Sherif of Mecca, who had taken over Syria. Faisal was helped by Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell, both pro-Arab and anti-Turk.
The oil-rich northern province was occupied almost exclusively by Kurds. In 1920, President Wilson promised them their independence in the Treaty of Sevres, thereby guaranteeing their cooperation. The British, however, ignored the agreement and combined the three provinces into a single new country, which they called Iraq. They gave the new country to Faisal in 1932.
Saddam Hussein came into power and began his program of uruba or Arabness. Ignoring 7,000 years of history, ignoring the rich diversity of architecture, music, cuisine and rutuals left by the Smerian, Assyrian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Elamite, Urartan, Persian, Byzantine, Mongol, Mamluk and Ottoman conquests, ignoring its eleven living languages, some twice as old as Arabic, Hussein tried to create a country of pure Sunni Moslem Arabs. In the decade starting in 1970 he exiled those who were classified as Persian or Ottoman subjects, replacing them with Arabs imported from Egypt (who he eventually stopped importing because he considered them too lazy and uninterested in his dreams of conquest).
Later he tried to make the Kurds into Arabs, practicing genocide when that didn't work to his satisfaction. His wars and other attempts to control the whole region, all part of the same mad dream, have repeatedly brought his made-up country to the brink of disaster.
The world was divided up in the early twentieth century, frequently along the lines of rivers, ignoring cultures, languages, traditions and religions; ignoring promises, too. Mistakes were made.
We are living with some of those mistakes now, as well as with a madman's illusions and delusions.
Comments (2)
The world never lacks a megalomaniac does it?
Yes, we are still paying for mistakes made by 19th century colonialists and the 20th century and its "War to End All Wars."