Iraq: History, Geography & Society

Demography •Population: about 33 million• Ethnic Make-Up: 75% Arabic, 20% Kurdish, and 5% Turkmen• Religions: 63% Shia, 34% Sunni, and <3% Christian

History

• Many empires have ruled “Mesopotamia” over time: e.g.• Sumerian (beginning 4th millennium until 24th century BC)• Babylonian (20th – 16th and 7th – 6th century BC)• Assyrian (14th – 11th century BC)• Persian (6th to 4th century BC) • Ottoman (1534 – 1918 AD)• British (after WWI until 1950s)

• world’s first agriculture was practiced here• world’s first cities evolved here• Sumerians were the first engineers of irrigation agriculture,

invented the wheel, and developed an alphabet• Babylonian King Hammurabi & first code of law (~1760 BC)

• Iraq became a center for Shia opposition to the Sunni Muslim caliphs

• 8th century caliph Al-Mansar built new capital for the Islamic world in Baghdad

• Tomb of Ali (Muhammad’s son-in-law, last leader of a united caliphate) in Najaf

• Tomb of Ali’s son Husayn (killed in struggle with Damascus rival) in Karbala

• Ottoman Empire last to control the area of today’s Iraq, before it became a British mandate after WW I

- today’s Iraq were three separate provinces under Ottoman rule1) Mosul (Kurdish province)2) Baghdad (Sunni province, with enlightened governor)3) Basra (Shia province, including “Kuwait”)

• from end of WWI until 1932, Iraq as British protectorate, Iraqi nationalist movement brutally repressed

• King Faisal ibn Hussein (a Sunni) put into power by the British, who kept control over oil industry and maintained military bases in the

area

• Iraqi monarchy comes to an end in 1958 when pan-Arab nationalists, viewing the system as a continuation of foreign rule, overthrew it

• proclamation of a republic under General Kassem (Qasim) as its head - nationalization of natural resources (i.e. oil) formerly in the

hands of foreign companies such as British Petroleum

• Qasim’s government toppled by CIA sponsored coup in 1963, bringing Ba’ath Party (Arab socialist party, initially from Syria) to power

• although ousted briefly, the Ba’ath Party eventually succeeds in 1968, and from that time on rules, with the eventual rise of Saddam Hussein

• by instituting reforms, criticizing Israel, allying itself with the USSR, reducing internal opposition, and increasing oil revenues, the Ba’ath party (after 1979 under Saddam Hussein) solidified its power

• the rest is history: Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), Gulf War I (1991), and Gulf War II (2003 until 2011?) (“Thanks for the Memories!”)

Was Gulf War II justified? Why did we support this war?

1998

Bill Clinton signs the “Iraq Liberation Act”.- Regime change becomes official U.S. policy

January 2001

Saddam’s removal becomes top priority of Bush’s national security team.

August 2001

Bush received a briefing with the title: “Bin Laden determined to strike in the U.S.”.

September 11, 2001

Al Quaeda attacks the United States.- Within hours Donald Rumsfeld asks his aides to see whether or not the evidence is good enough to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time as Osama Bin Laden.

July 2002

Scott Ritter, former UN Chief Weapons Inspector, stated that “while we were never able to provide 100% certainty regarding the disposition of Iraq’s proscribed weaponry, we did ascertain a 90-95% level of verified disarmament.” Later he added that “the CIA knew this … and they definitely knew that Iraq represented a threat to no one when it came to weapons of mass destruction.” Still, the Bush government tried to sell the war to the American people.

September 2002

Condoleezza Rice makes her infamous statement that “we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud" based on an alleged Iraqi purchase of uranium from Niger. Documents supporting this claim are later identified as forgeries.

January 2003

Hans Blix states that weapons inspectors had not “found any smoking guns”. President Bush repeats the false claim that Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Niger to develop nuclear bombs.

February 2003

Colin Powell presents the government’s case for war at the UN and says that ”what we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence”.

November 2002

The UN Security Council passes UN Resolution 1441 designed to force Iraq to give up all weapons of mass destruction. In the following months weapons inspectors search throughout Iraq.

March 20, 2003

The U.S. and the U.K. attack Iraq, thereby violating international law.

No weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) were ever found.

While “Coalition Forces” in the early phase of the war protect the Oil Ministry and the Ministry of the Interior in Iraq, the National Museum was left unprotected, and artifacts, reaching back thousands of years, where stolen. - Priorities?

March 17, 2003

George W. Bush states that “intelligence gathered by this government leaves no doubt that the Iraqi regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.” The UN weapons inspectors’ request that said intelligence be made available for verification went unanswered. Not able to persuade the Security Council that Iraq poses a threat, the US and the UK withdraw plans for a new UN resolution that would back military action.

The ethnic mosaic of Iraq in the aftermath of Gulf War I and II and the removal of Saddam Hussein remains a challenge, while Iran’s influence in the region grows, and while Arabs and others are pushing for more democracy.

Iraq’s Ethnic Composition and Religious Division

Questions

Who declared in 1992 that it was wise not to invade Baghdad and “get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq”?

Who said in 2000 that “if we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us. If we are a humble nation, but strong, they will welcome us”?

How many U.S. soldiers have died in the Iraq war?

How many U.S. soldiers have been maimed for the rest of their life?

How much money has the war in Iraq cost us?

Dick Cheney

George W. Bush

About 4,500

Over 100,000?

More than $800 billion

Last but not least, how many Iraqi civilians have been killed in Gulf War I and II?

We may never know, but estimates range from a minimum of 186,000 to more than 1 million

The Ground Truth?

Wedding portrait of a Marine who had been burned over much of his body during his service in Iraq.

The costs of geopolitics and lies ………………….

So, why exactly DO we fight wars?

Is this the “New American Century” American citizens are dreaming of andcan identify with? What do YOU think?

Déjà vu?“Oh ye Egyptians, they may say to you that I have not made an expedition hither for any other object than that of abolishing your religion … but tell the slanderers that I have not come to you except for the purpose of restoring your rights from the hands of the oppressors.”

“Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators …. It is the hope and desire of the British people and the nations in alliance with them that the Arab race may rise once more To greatness and renown among the peoples of the earth.”

“Unlike many armies in the world, you came not to conquer, not to occupy, but to liberate, and the Iraqi people know this.”

(Napoleon, Alexandria, 1798)

(General Maude (British Forces), Baghdad, 1917)

(Donald Rumsfeld, Baghdad, 2003)