Iraq

A timely country study

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use.

Flags obtained from:http://www.cia.gov/cia/publicatio

ns/factbook/© 2010-Jon Benignus

20th Century Iraq• Conquered by the U.K. from the

Ottoman Empire

• Given independence in 1932–British established a monarchy

• Ba’ath party took over in 1963

Saddam Hussein• Leader in Iraq

since 1968• President since

1979• Killed ½

million Iraqishttp://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38160000/jpg/_38160566_saddam_hussein_ap300.jpg

Genocide• 300,000 Kurds

–Chemical Ali

• 150,000 Shias and Marsh Arabs

• 50,000 Police State

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/4637/terr35a.html

Wars• Iran/Iraq War

– 1980 – 1988– 450,000 Iraqis dead

• 1st Persian Gulf War - 1991– Invades Kuwait– U.S. liberates

Kuwait– 90,000 Iraqis dead

http://i-cias.com/e.o/iranirqw04.htm

Sanctions• Prevent Trade

with Iraq

• Myth – Hit Saddam in pocketbook

• Reality –Children starve

http://www.megastories.com/iraq/images/apriltrip/measles.jpg

Iraqi Death Toll

0100,000200,000300,000400,000500,000600,000700,000800,000900,000

1,000,000

Genocide War Sanctions

Iraqi Deaths

Iraqi Freedom

• 2003– War is

over in a few weeks

• Saddam’s army evaporates

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Iraq-War-Map.png

Iraqi Insurgents• Terrorists from

Saddam’s followers

• Also Al-Qaeda

• Many people taught to hate the United States

• Use IEDs– Improvised Explosive

Devices

• Or car bombs http://truthout.org/imgs.art_01/3.irq.celb.burn.tnkr.jpg

Three Factions• Kurds in the north

– 20%• Sunnis in the

middle – 20%• Shia in the south –

60%• Oil in Kurdish and

Shia areas• Sunnis used to be

in controlhttp://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5669856

Ayatollah Sistani

• Most respected Ayatollah in Iraq

• Not happy with U.S. occupation

• Knows that Shi’ites will win from Democracy

http://www.alsiraat.com/shasiat/images/ola-sistani1.jpg

Sectarian Violence• Sectarian

mean religious

• Sunnis bomb Shia shrines and mosques

• Shia bomb Sunni mosques

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5572723

Moqtada al-Sadr • Father was well

respected Ayatollah• Moqtada is young

and ambitious• Has used violence to

get U.S. to leave Iraq• Using violence

against Sunnishttp://www.msnbc.com/news/1895362.jpg

Militias & Troop Surge • U.S. sent extra troops to Iraq in 2007 –

2008– Reduced violence in Iraq

• Want to train Iraqi police in proper police methods

• All U.S. troops have left the cities

• All U.S. troops out by end of 2011

Elections - 2010 • Parliamentary Elections

held

• Nouri al-Maliki won– Prime Minister– Shia Muslim– Is starting to behave just like

a dictator– Arrested his Sunni vice-

president right after U.S. troops left

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_parliamentary_election,_2010

Elections - 2010 • Shia

– Maliki89 seats

– Sadr70 seats

• Sunni– Allawi

91 seats

• Kurds49 seats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_parliamentary_election,_2010