Tacitus spoke of Roman power. "They have made a desert and called it peace." In Iraq, we Americans created an abomination where before us there was merely a desert ruled by a commonplace tyrant.
As I have written before, Iraq as it was created by the British from some of the ruins of the Ottoman Word, is no more. There is a rump state, recognized internationally, possessing a seat in the UN, perhaps able to defend with foreign help a rump territory south of Baghdad but not able to do much else.
The "Kingdom of Iraq" was called that in 1921 because the new country was conceived as being not Arab, not Sunni Muslim, not Shia Muslim, not Kurdish, not Jewish, not Turkoman, not Yazidi, not Christian, but rather a homeland for all those and more. IMO it was one of the noblest of British colonial aspirations. Yes, I know about the oil and the air route to India. Those who wish to believe that all government is selfishness will believe that to be the true British motives no matter what I say and so I will not bother to argue with them.
Iraq was created as an experiment in multi-cultural governance in the ME. As decades passed, the country became more and more Arab, more and more Islamic and less and less rationally governed. Nevertheless, it remained a grand experiment a process of becoming something new rather than a finished product to be listed in someone's encyclopedia of "nations."
And then came the neocon domination of George W. Bush and the "Mission Accomplished" moment. The carefully worked out neocon/Zionist plot to trigger an anti-Sunni revolution across the ME, revolution designed to replace "difficult" Sunni governments with malleable minorities. This revolution was intended to bring on an imagined earthly paradise for Israel. This dream of utopia destroyed the social order in the the Iraqi experiment and made space for the jihadis, space that had not been allowed them by the dictator. How do I know that this was intention of the plot? The plotters boasted of their goal to anyone who would listen.
"They have no culture worth saving" was so typical a statement made just after the dissolution pf the Iraqi government.
What can be done about the jihadi menace?
- The US can abandon its foolish policies in the Islamic World and accept the imperfectability of man and man's institutions in places over which we have no control and little influence.
- The US can make common cause with those who wish to fight the jihadis.
- The US can encourage the election of a Kemalist government in Turkey. Let us not be hypocritical. If the Saudis can fund their proxies, We can fund ours sub rosa. Surely the CIA can manage that.
- The US can back away from the non-alliance with the Wahhabi sponsors of jihadism in Riyadh.
- The US can accept the fact that the Kurds need access to the sea somewhere if their protean state is to survive and mature. The Turks will never help them with that. Shia run Iraq will not help them with that. Russia has no common border with them. 10% of Kurds are Shia. there are ports for Kurdistan. They are in the Gulf and the roads to them run through Iran.
- The US should adopt a policy of containment in re ALL the jihadis (including the al- Saud) and then wait for the fire to burn low. pl
Babak, I circled in on this passage:
"In my responses to you ... Westerners entered a world of fantasy."
and the challenge in the end, since I agree concerning the rest. ;)
Hopefully, I didn't overlook anything. Well expressed by the way. Except maybe the passage cited above, I am not sure about.
Posted by: LeaNder | 28 September 2015 at 01:55 PM
DH,
I wonder if anyone will ask Jeb about being a member until I remember that nobody takes him seriously
Posted by: Cee | 01 October 2015 at 05:03 AM