THE WILDMEN OF BAGHDAD
By Eric Margolis
11/23/1998
The United States has just embarked on the ninth attempt to
overthrow - and likely assassinate - Iraq's much unloved
ruler, and former American ally, Saddam Hussein. CIA - a
government agency that has operated in recent years with
about the same level of efficiency as the Post Office - is
tasked with mounting a complex coup against one of the
world's most ruthless police states.
Naifs who believe `taking out' wicked Saddam will restore
Pax Americana to the always troubled Mideast should study
the long, blood-washed history of Iraq.
`The wildman of Baghdad!' That's what Egyptian leader
Gammal Abdel Nasser used to call Iraq's regime - 40 years
ago. Nasser was not speaking of Saddam, but his predecessor,
the bloodthirsty Col. Abdel Karim el-Kassem, who pioneered
the art of executing political opponents on Iraqi TV.
Running Iraq, a nation that may well be a political
impossibility, is not for gentle parliamentarians.
At the end of World War I, Britain and France carved up the
defeated Ottoman Empire. France was supposed to get
Mesopotamia, plus Syria and Lebanon. But when British agents
learned oil had been found in Mesopotamia, Britain's
imperialists quickly elbowed aside the French, grabbing the
region from the steamy Gulf up to the snow-capped mountains
of Kurdistan. France has never forgiven this British
perfidy, believing to this day that Iraq is part of its
legitimate sphere of influence.
To protect their new-found oil, Britain stitched together
three separate, dissimilar Ottoman regions: Baghdad, Basra,
and Mosul, calling their hybrid creation, Iraq. The new
kingdom, ruled by a British puppet, Faisal I, forced
together antipathetic Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, and
Kurds, with important Jewish and Christian minorities. This
was like sticking highland Scots, Spaniards and Greeks into
one small country.
Today, southern Iraq is 50% Shia. Shias look towards
neighboring Iran for political and spiritual guidance. Sunni
Muslims, located in central Iraq, comprise 27%. Ever-rebellious
Kurds up north, the remaining 23%. Shias and
Kurds sit atop vast seas of oil. Iraq has the Mideast's
second largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia. Sunnis
control the army, consequently the government.
Rebellions and uprisings were a constant feature of Iraqi
life. Before WWII, Britain's RAF used to regularly bomb and
strafe Kurdish tribesmen, even using poison gas against
Kurds in the 1930's. After the war, Britain's loyal Iraqi
strongman, Gen. Nuri as-Said, ruled the fractious nation
with an iron fist.
Nuri and his nominal master, King Faisal II, were overthrown
in 1958 by a military coup led by Col. Kassem. Faisal was
shot. Nuri, disguised as a woman, tried to flee Baghdad, but
was caught and hanged from a lamppost, a punishment much
favored in Iraq.
Kassem, an enrag', staged a bloodbath in Baghdad, and
massacred Kurds. In 1963, Kassem was finally machine-gunned
during a coup led by Col. Abdel-Salim Aref, a Nasserite. A
young Baath Party organizer, Saddam Hussein, took part in
the coup. But in 1966, Col. Aref's helicopter was destroyed
in midair by a bomb. Aref's brother,a major general, became
president.
Two years later, anti-Nasserite Baath Party officers,
secretly aided by the US, overthrew Aref. Maj. Gen. Hassan
al-Bakr became the new, figurehead leader. His right-hand
man was Saddam Hussein. In 1979, Saddam pushed aside al-Bakr,
who became the first Iraqi leader in memory to leave
office alive. Saddam has ruled Iraq ever since.
Meanwhile, Iran, Israel and the US were busy stirring up and
arming the Kurds in order to destabilize and weaken Iraq.
Iran threatened to annex southern Iraq's oilfields. Turkey
kept a hungry eye upon the northern oilfields around Kirkuk
and Mosul. Baghdad swirled with plots of every sort,
hatched by the US, Britain, Israel, the Saudis, Syria, and
Iran. Iraq's oil riches were as much a curse as a blessing.
Saddam ruthlessly crushed all attempts to overthrow his
regime and fought Iran to a draw. However, the 1991 Gulf War
left Iraq gravely destabilized. The US created an
independent Kurdish mini-state in the north into which
Turkish troops regularly penetrated. The Shia south was only
kept in Iraq at gunpoint. President George Bush decided not
to overthrow Saddam for fear this strategically important,
oil-rich nation would disintegrate, creating Yugoslav-style
chaos and uncontrollable tribal and ethnic warfare in the
heart of the Mideast.
The threat remains today. Iraq is the second most important
Arab state after Egypt. Baghdad has always be the political
and cultural rival of Cairo. Before the Gulf War, Iraq was
also the most modern and technologically advanced Arab
nation. Iraqis are heirs to 5,000 years of civilization and
culture.
Tragically, Iraq, the mutant stepchild of British
imperialism, has proven inherently unstable. Keeping it
together requires constant brute force. Perhaps Washington
will succeed in eliminating Saddam and installing a new
general who is more compliant with American policy. But
don't count on it.
For the past 50 years, the US has overthrown regimes, tried
to assassinate leaders, and intrigued throughout the
Mideast. The result has been a gigantic, bloody mess.
As Americans demand Saddam's head, it's worth remembering
CIA helped put him - and Libya's irritating Col.
Khadaffi - into power. CIA used to call them, `our boys.'
Copyright: Eric Margolis, 1998
