Bush's Iraq Plans:
Reincarnation Of Failed 1930s British Policy
by Issam Nashashibi & Abdelatif Rayan
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By all U.S. media accounts, Saddam Hussein's days are
numbered. Moreover, Pentagon pundits predict a massive U.S. 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 guide?
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Bush's Iraq policy is reminiscent of 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 U.S. 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 [U.S.] 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 from any Arab concern, especially the Palestinian
cause. For him and his hard-line advisors, removing Saddam presents the U.S.
"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 & Abdelatif Rayan
By YellowTimes.org Guest Columnists (United States) Issam Nashashibi & Abdelatif Rayan. Reprinted with permission.
Issam Nashashibi, an Arab-American political activist and long-time activist for Palestinian human rights, is a US-based
Director of Deir Yassin Remembered [an organization of Jews and non-Jews whose objective is to build a memorial
for the victims of the Deir Yassin massacre]. He encourages your comments, and can be reached at inashashibi@hotmail.com
Abdelatif Rayan is a Washington-based Middle East consultant and journalist. He encourages your comments and can be reached at rayan22124@yahoo.com
YellowTimes.org is an international news and opinion publication.
YellowTimes.org encourages its material to be reproduced, reprinted, or
broadcast provided that any such reproduction identifies the original
source, YellowTimes.org.
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