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CounterPunch
March 13,
2003
Iraq Deja Vu:
Reincarnation
of Failed 1930s British Policy
by ISSAM NAHASHIBI
and ABDELATIF RAYAN
By all US media accounts, Saddam Hussein's days
are numbered. Moreover, Pentagon pundits predict a massive US
victory over Saddam's rusty military machine.
Will Bush's Iraq policy bring a real
victory to crown America's hegemony in the Middle East and elsewhere?
Could history be our guidance.
Bush's Iraq policy is reminiscent to
the 1930s British "re-occupation" of Iraq. By March
1921, almost four years after they invaded Mesopotamia, the British
created Iraq as a new entity managed by "a suitable Arab"
who was a member of the Hashemite clan, King Faisal I. In addition,
the British supported and promoted narrowly based groups--such
as tribal leaders--over the growing, urban-based nationalist
movement.
In pursuing this policy, the British
were attempting to achieve their military objectives of securing
their route to India and controlling strategic oil sources. By
the mid-1930s, Iraq exported oil via a pipeline to refineries
in Haifa, Palestine.
Palestine, at that time, was in turmoil.
Palestinian Arabs were rioting against the Zionist-promoted Jewish
immigration to Palestine. Faisal was alarmed about Jewish immigration
and expected that "bloodshed would certainly result"
from such a demographic change. However, his concern was mostly
centered on the negative effect of any bloodshed in Palestine
on Iraqi-British relations as confirmed by the August 1936 British
Foreign Office's "Report on the Repercussions in Iraq of
the Creation of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine."
Although public sentiment supported Arab
Palestinians against such foreign encroachment, Iraqi governments
were careful not to shatter Iraqi-British relations while repeatedly
warning Britain about the destabilizing effect of Iraqi public
opinion's pro-Palestinian sentiments. Their official policy on
Jewish immigration to Palestine resembled walking a tight rope:
it avoided offending British sensibilities without inflaming
public opinion.
To mollify public sentiments, Iraqi governments
fostered unofficial support for the Arab cause in Palestine.
As a result, Iraq became the center of pan-Arab anti-British
activities and a mecca for Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian nationalists.
Despite these strong nationalistic anti-British
public sentiments, the British managed to coerce the Iraqi government
into entering WWII in support of Britain. The immediate effect
of this British political pressure was riots in Baghdad and the
killing of several hundred people, mostly Jewish Iraqis.
Perceived as a threat to their interest,
the riots were countered by British military intervention and
the resignation of the Iraqi Prime Minister, Rashid Ali, in favor
of a new "suitable Arab". With British blessing, martial
law was established and the new government started to act against
the "subversive" nationalist forces that dominated
Iraqi public life.
Thus started what the nationalists described
as the "second British occupation of Iraq," which also
included efforts of "re-structuring" Iraq with complete
British and American supervision as reported by The New York
Times. The British resumed full control of the education system
while the Americans dominated the media. All nationalist and
militaristic materials were banned and deleted from textbooks.
In addition, the army was purged or neglected.
Clearly, there is nothing new in the
current U.S. military scenarios to invade Iraq especially what
Administration officials allude to in their post Saddam plans.
Such policies confirm the Administration's intention to conquer
and occupy Iraq. They also call for disarming Iraq and "downsizing"
its armed forces while getting Iraq ready for a "democratic
transition" and the removal of senior officials of the governing
Ba'ath Party. "Much of the bureaucracy would carry on under
new management," a US official added.
These officials were silent about their
quest for a "suitable Arab" to implement their post
Saddam plans; perhaps another member of the Hashemite clan currently
ruling Jordan. They also concealed their intention to pull Iraq
from its Arab roots and make it a NATO member by altering nationalist
and religious forces in Iraqi society.
Iraqi opposition groups have signed on
to the Administration's plans and are fully cooperating with
their Washington handlers to create a "federal, non-Arab
demilitarized Iraq" as Kanan Makiya, the group's ideologist,
envisioned post Saddam Iraq in his speech at the American Enterprise
Institute (AEI) symposium two weeks ago.
Makiya further detailed the thinking
of "some Iraqi circles" that are "working closely
with some agencies of the [US] government" in planning for
post Saddam rule. He argued for a "federal" Iraqi government,
which "cannot be thought of any longer, in any politically
meaningful sense of the word, as an Arab entity." He went
on to say that a democratic Iraq has to be "a non-Arab Iraq."
That is the Iraq that "can bring
Western civilization" and "values" into the Middle
East added Serif Egali, of the Turkish-USA Business Council,
another participant of the AEI symposium.
For President Bush, who has not conveyed
any convincing argument to justify waging war against Iraq, the
success of his Iraqi adventure must be more than eliminating
Saddam and his cronies. It is nothing less than crafting a new
Iraq that is divorced form any Arab concern, especially the Palestinian
cause. For him and his hard-line advisors, removing Saddam presents
the US "with a historic opportunity" that is "as
large as anything that has happened in the Middle East since
the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the entry of British troops
into Iraq in 1917," expounded Makiya.
It is an opportunity to create Middle
East realities where newly re-constructed "entities"
will have neither basis for shared political culture, unity of
emotions and aims; nor shared sufferings and hopes.
If history is our guide, the Iraqi people
will defy this plan just as they resisted the British 1930s plans
that failed to maintain a "suitable Arab regime" because
the original British sin, creating the Palestine problem, is
still with us.
Issam Nashashibi,
an Arab-American political activist, is a US-based Director of
Deir Yassin Remembered.
He can be reached at inashashibi@hotmail.com.
Abdelatif Rayan
is a Washington-based Middle East consultant and journalist.
he can be reached at rayan22124@yahoo.com.
Yesterday's
Features
Bill and Kathleen Christison
On
the Road to Iraq: First Stop Amman
Uri Avnery
An Approaching Emergency
Ray Close
A CIA
Analyst on Forging Intelligence
Michael Neumann
An
Unfounded Rush to Cynicism: a Rebuttal of Perry Anderson
Gary Leupp
Bush's
"Press" Conference
Kurt Nimmo
Perle's Slurs: Smearing Sy Hersh
Terry Jones
Bush
Goes in for the Kill
CounterPunch Wire
Vietnam 2 Pre-Flight Check
Alexander Cockburn
What Will the US Find If It Invades Iraq?
Robert Fisk
Blix
Undermines Bush War Plan
Website of the Day
The
Blix Report
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