Middle east Crisis part 3 iraq

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

MIDDLE EAST CHAOS part 3

IRAQ

 

Iraq, the home of the garden of Eden, Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, Sumaria, Babylon, Assyria, the birthplace of civilization itself. With Bagdad as its capital, it used to remind us of Aladdin, Arabian Nights, caravans, magic carpets, genie's, bazaars and all the images from movies and tales of the past.  A place that I always dreamt of visiting, but never will. Today it brings forth vastly different images.

 

Modern Iraq was ruled by the Ottoman empire until its dissolution in 1917, at the end of WW1. Under the French/British plan to divide the middle east it became part of the British Mandate. On November 1, 1920 the region became a British Mandate under the League of Nations and was called the "State of Iraq". Britain brought in a (Sunni) Hashemite king from what is now Saudi-Arabia to rule, sparking widespread discontent and rebellion.

 

In 1932, Iraq gained partial independence from Britain, although the British-appointed King Faisal ruled, the British military had special rights in Iraq. The Hashemite's ruled until 1958, when King Faisal 11 was assassinated in a coup by Brigadier General Abd al-Karim Qasim. Qasim ruled for 5 years before being overthrown in 1963 by colonel Abdul Salam Arif.  His brother took power after his death and lasted until 1968 when he was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party. The Ba'athist government was ruled by Ahmed Hasan Al-Bakir , but was slowly eclipsed by Saddam Hussein.

Iraq is a majority Shia population mostly in the south and east, Sunni in the north and west and Kurd in the north. There have been disputes with the Kurds off and on for years. Iraq was supported by the United States as part of the Cold -War diplomacy. They were on opposite sides in the Israeli-Arab conflicts of 1948, 1967, 1973. There were attempts to unify Iraq and Syria by the mutually ruled Ba'athist party. This idea was rejected by Saddam Hussein.

 

Saddam Hussein formally seized power as president in 1979. Saddam Hussein was a secularist, but the Ba'athist party was Sunni, the majority of the country was Shi'ite. Saddam Hussein initiated reforms, including universal compulsory education including university, free national medical care and farm subsidies. He also was brutal to all that opposed him and executed many. The Ayatollah Khomeini, the new leader of the Iranian Revolution hoped he could incite Iraq's Shi'ite population to rise up in a Islamic revolution. Saddam Hussein then launched an invasion of Iran in 1980, hoping to topple the Iranian Government. He was supported by Saudi-Arabia, the gulf states, Russia and the United States. The eight year war ended in a standstill costing a million casualties.  The war finally ended in 1989 with a peace plan brokered by the UN and the western powers.

There was an ongoing dispute with Kuwait over portions of  Iraq ceded to Kuwait by the British. This dispute reached a crisis in 1990. There is some debate as to the signals sent by the U.S. in this matter. The U.S. and Iraq had reasonable diplomatic relations at this time. The official line was that the U.S. made it clear, not to invade Kuwait. The ambassador was April Glaspie who had several conversations with Iraq before this invasion took place. You can judge for yourself , as the transcripts of the hearings on this matter are available here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Glaspie  .  Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, The UN, led by the U.S., launched operation desert storm in February 1991. Saudi-Arabia was used as the staging area for this war.  The Iraqi army was destroyed with approximately 30,000 dead.  While Saddam Hussein was left in power he was under UN Sanctions and compelled to allow inspections of certain sites.

 

After the war, U.S. troops remained in Saudi-Arabia and this was a contentious issue with many Saudi's including Osama Bin Laudin. Bin Laudin made it known that the stationing of foreign troops in the home of Mecca and Medina was an affront to Islam.  Although he and his associates were exiled out of Saudi-Arabia, they were able to engineer the attacks on the world trade center and pentagon on September 11, 2001. This brought about an invasion of Afghanistan , destruction of Bin Laudin's bases in Afghanistan , and the overthrow of the Taliban government and a beginning of the war on terror.

 

The U.S. under the second Bush administration was increasingly inclined to remove Saddam Hussein from office. He was linked to an attempted assassination of his father, George Bush Sr., he was paying $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel. There began a concerted effort to gain international support for the removal of Saddam Hussein. Eventually claiming that the dictator had weapons of mass destruction that would end up in the hands of al-Qaeda.  On March 20, 2003 the invasion of Iraq began, it did not take long to overcome the Iraqi army. the Iraqi's in general were happy to be rid of Saddam Hussein, but not happy about the occupation. While there was not a clear stated policy,  the plan was to bring a democratic government to the center of the middle east. While the intentions may have been well meaning, it was a very difficult endeavor. The new Government, was majority Shia, the former army was mostly ruled by Sunni Officer corps. Most of these members lost their positions,. and some became affiliated with al-Qaeda and eventually ISIS.

 

President Obama campaigned on ending the U.S. involvement in Iraq. The Obama/ Clinton premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and a government that was not inclusive of the Sunni minority left a void of power that was soon filled by ISIS. When confronted by Sunni fighters the Iraqi government forces often refused to fight for a government for whom they had a weak allegiance. The question remains how long would the U.S. commitment need to be to insure a lasting democratic government in Iraq?

 

PART 4 TO FOLLOW