The Un-united States of Iraq:
I was reading my morning news which, of late, includes among others: The Moscow Times and
Ekurd.net. *(Mainstream American news alone is for
Sheep) I found myself motivated to update a previous post. It’s been several months since I posted my
thoughts on ISIS/ISIL’s appearance (Officially) on the world stage. I typically avoid devoting my blog posts to
current events, as conjecture and opinions can get one into trouble. It’s now 2015 and a LOT has changed in the
region since, much as a result of our weakened foreign policy.
Much indeed has changed in the world as a whole: terror cells
have sprouted up in every western country, of note. The oil market is experiencing a war of its
own, with powerful players being pushed to the brink. Militarization of police forces, government attacks,
conspiracy, abuse of privacy, and various other threats to the Unites States’ Constitution.
The wireless infrastructure that we, our employers, and our financial
institutions have become dependent on has proved to be unsecure. Amazing artificial intelligence projects are now
in development, including the first self-educating, self-programing robot. We
are living in exciting time, a turning point in world history, like the world
of the nineteen-teens, we are in relatively uncharted water!
Many people are
concerned with the instability that has been left in the wake of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ever-present fear mongering media has many people
and politicians convinced that the world is coming apart at the seams.
Though there are always
uncertainties and a single event may cause the pendulum of history to swing
back at any moment, things are not nearly as bad as all that. POTUS has declared the Wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan over, many are outraged but many are relieved. *(There’s always a third group that is simply indifferent
out there as well, but those people probably aren’t reading this blog.) I personally am very relieved! This may come as a shock to some of my friends, they are
probably saying to themselves right now, something to the effect of: “Just when we’re most needed, Obummer declares
victory and runs away!?” or “Why did
we send our men and women there to die, if we were just going to abandon the
place to terrorists!?” The reason
is, not abandonment of cause but of strategy.
To understand the Middle East,
and our relationship with them, we need to, yes you guessed it, understand the history!
(*See: http://www.timemaps.com/history/iraq-1500bc)
The Middle East was the cradle of
civilization, the earliest and greatest known civilizations appeared in ancient Summer
and Ur.
Google
Images: Victory Stele
Great conquerors such as the Akkadians,
Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians etc. constantly vied for control of the
region. The Persians lost to Alexander the Great’s Greek Army, The Greeks lost
to the Romans in the west and various Sarmation tribes of horse archers in the
east. The Romans alone fought against
the eastern tribes such as the Parthians, and the Sassanid Empire and their successors,
The Ottoman Turks, for well over a thousand years!
Google
Images: Ottoman Iraq
Google
Images: Iraq revolt of 1920 Map
The
British were professionals when it came to colonization, they had it down to a
science.
Google
Images: Colonization
If you look at any British colony
in history you will find at least one commonality: An empowered minority. In the Americas it was the social elites,
often with ties to England.
In Iraq they empowered the Sunni’s, which developed into an oil rich and
Stalin like regime. The idea being, the minority would feel threatened and be
self-motivated enough to fight for and maintain itself, without tying up the
resources of the British Empire.
Google
Images: British Iraq
It
worked well, too well in fact, but a quick glance into British history shows us
when colonialism became taboo
The region that we refer to as “The
Middle East” is a massive region, with very rich and diverse cultures. The cultural
differences, inherent in a history as described above, are divisive enough
without religion being a factor. Islamic
fundamentalist, or as I call them, non-westernized Muslims are simply fuel to
the fire. This problem is nothing new
though, anti-imperialist, post-modern society just doesn't have the stomach, or
the know-how to control a people that simply DO NOT want to be together. There is only one method of control, which effectively
brings democracy and stability to such a people. That strategy was the United States’ WWII
strategy of choice, a strategy that was discussed though not implemented in
Vietnam, and the strategy proposed by Gen. Patraeus’ version of the Army
Counter Insurgency Manual.
The idea is
that if a foreign power, or powers invade, destroy, and occupy a belligerent
nation for long enough, they will change the mindset of the up-coming generation(s) enough to allow them to self-govern, though permanent occupation is still likely.
The reason the “Neo-Con” politicians were railed on for not having an exit
strategy was partly because, EXIT WAS NOT PART OF THE STRATEGY! Or at least, not
anytime soon. The long term occupation strategy was effective in Japan, Germany,
South Korea, and etc. but the American public today will/should not support such long
term commitments.
Our strategy was not a
secret government conspiracy, it just wasn't advertised. Israel among others, warned
against our plans for occupation. An article came out in the New Yorker, back in
2004 by Seymour Hersh titled, “Plan B” it explained the issue quite well,
the article begins:
July, 2003, two months after President Bush
declared victory in Iraq, the war, far from winding down, reached a critical
point. Israel, which had been among the war’s most enthusiastic supporters,
began warning the Administration that the American-led occupation would face a
heightened insurgency—a campaign of bombings and assassinations—later that
summer. Israeli intelligence assets in Iraq were reporting that the insurgents
had the support of Iranian intelligence operatives and other foreign fighters,
who were crossing the unprotected border between Iran and Iraq at will. By
early August, the insurgency against the occupation had exploded, with bombings
in Baghdad, at the Jordanian Embassy and the United Nations headquarters, that
killed forty-two people. A former Israeli intelligence officer said that
Israel’s leadership had concluded by then that the United States was unwilling
to confront Iran; in terms of salvaging the situation in Iraq, he said, “it
doesn’t add up. It’s over. Not militarily—the United States cannot be defeated
militarily in Iraq—but politically...”
Hersh goes on to reference a statement by Ehud Barak:
"the former Israeli Prime
Minister, who supported the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq, took it
upon himself at this point to privately warn Vice-President Dick Cheney that
America had lost in Iraq; according to an American close to Barak, he said that
Israel “had learned that there’s no way to win an occupation.” The only issue,
Barak told Cheney, “was choosing the size of your humiliation.”
I’ve repeatedly used the term “Our/The Strategy”,
as if there was a single agreed upon strategy that both the American
politicians and military had agreed upon, that was/is not the case. Ben
Franklin said: “Democracy is the absolute
worst form of government, accept for all the others.” The people that make
the decisions in our country have their own reasons for doing so, they may be
personal or not, I don’t wish to paint with too broad of a brush, but the Human
Factor is a very important one. Agenda’s
change with the wind in D.C., military leaders may be up for review or retirement,
interests may be re-prioritized, and public opinion will sway in whatever
direction the media wishes it to… There are many reasons why the best
strategies are passed over, or altered along the way.
The nature of our political system makes long
term commitments, of any kind, difficult. In fact the 1980's and 90's were notorious for American attack and abandon actions. A sort of "We'll help you fight, to a certain extent, and or until we don't want to anymore" interventionist policy. As you might guess, it didn't go over very well. (e.g. Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Contra, Afghanistan I, Gulf War I, Mogadishu, etc.) Sure we knocked some heads but what did we get out of it? and at what cost?
There was another strategy that was on the table at the time, which called for the creation of a three state nation of Iraq. Someone with half a brain either by touring or reading a history book, realized that there were many different people and cultures in Iraq, and a partitioning of the state according to cultural borders, would be more a stable solution than trying to unify a nation of people that hated each other. Unfortunately the occupation theory won out, at least the American led strategy won out, there were other nations active in the region as well. Israel, once they realized what America was going to do, began to implement its own plans for what they believed was our inevitable failure. The Article continues:
There was another strategy that was on the table at the time, which called for the creation of a three state nation of Iraq. Someone with half a brain either by touring or reading a history book, realized that there were many different people and cultures in Iraq, and a partitioning of the state according to cultural borders, would be more a stable solution than trying to unify a nation of people that hated each other. Unfortunately the occupation theory won out, at least the American led strategy won out, there were other nations active in the region as well. Israel, once they realized what America was going to do, began to implement its own plans for what they believed was our inevitable failure. The Article continues:
“Israel’s immediate goal after
June 30th is to build up the Kurdish commando units to balance the Shiite
militias—especially those which would be hostile to the kind of order in
southern Iraq that Israel would like to see,” the former senior intelligence
official said. “Of course, if a fanatic Sunni Baathist militia took control—one
as hostile to Israel as Saddam Hussein was—Israel would unleash the Kurds on
it, too.” The Kurdish armed forces, known as the peshmerga, number an estimated
seventy-five thousand troops, a total that far exceeds the known Sunni and
Shiite militias.
Israel and many others, including our own pro-partition strategists, believed
that Iraq would become three states sooner or later. The Kurds took advantage of
the aid and solidified their position as an independent state, though not
officially recognized as a nation they fought to become one, at least in
operation. They formed a provisional government
and took control of their natural resources, much of which was/is still “officially”
controlled by Baghdad. It’s important to remember that the Kurds are the most
motivated, stable and western friendly nation in the region. The Kurds have faced numerous attempts at genocide
at the hands of the Sunni’s, including the use of WMD’s on Kurds in Halabja
back in 1988.
Google images Halabja
The Image above, which was taken after Saddam’s dirty bomb killed thousands of
Kurdish men, women and children, has become an icon for Kurdish resistance and
independence. The Kurd Army is making great progress, something they could not have done without U.S. involvement. Those quick to jump on the anti-Iraq war
bandwagon, are quick to forget the international threat that was destroyed during
Operation Iraqi Freedom, and slow to realize the importance that
invasion played in the lives of those that suffered so terribly. Though we cannot commit American lives to die
fighting all evil in the world, our operations in Iraq though not without flaw,
were justified.
I know what you’re thinking… “But now look at
it, it’s a mess!” I say yes it is, for the moment it is a tragic, terrible, but
necessary and temporary mess. The
atrocities being committed in this new war in Iraq may have been averted if we
had chosen “Plan B”, and pushed for international support in
implementing that plan, but hind sight is 20-20 and blood would have been shed on all sides regardless. We are late in
the game, in supporting the Kurdish state but I hope we continue to do so and don't simply attack and abandon them again.
If we recognize the Kurds as an independent state, and give them the support that they need, the entire region will stabilize itself and be much better off than it has ever been or ever would have been under foreign occupation. So take heart America, the war is not lost, Evil will not triumph, the cause for freedom and independence continues, we just aren't leading the charge anymore. The fate of the those people may or may not be in the strongest hands but they are certainly in the right hands and its a dark soul indeed, that can look at these final images and disagree.
If we recognize the Kurds as an independent state, and give them the support that they need, the entire region will stabilize itself and be much better off than it has ever been or ever would have been under foreign occupation. So take heart America, the war is not lost, Evil will not triumph, the cause for freedom and independence continues, we just aren't leading the charge anymore. The fate of the those people may or may not be in the strongest hands but they are certainly in the right hands and its a dark soul indeed, that can look at these final images and disagree.
Google Images: Peshmurga
