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| Iraq
History |
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Mesopotamia,
the core of modern Iraq, was at the heart of the Sumerian, Babylonian
and Assyrian empires between the 7 th century BC and AD 100. After
short spells under the rule of the Romans and the Sassanids (a minor
regional power at the time), the Arabs conquered Iraq in AD 633.
The Arab Caliphate had control of the territory during the late
12 th and early 13 th centuries before being displaced by the Mongols.
At the end of the 14 th century Iraq, Azerbaijan to the north, Persia
and parts of Syria , Turkey and Transcaucasia were conquered and
subsumed into the empire ruled by Timur (also known as Tamerlane).
The Turks were the next imposing invaders, ruling from the early
1500's until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World
War I.
In 1920, Iraq was placed under a League of Nations
mandate administered by the United Kingdom, whose forces had occupied
most of the country. The Hashemite Amir Faisal ibn Hussain, brother
of the new ruler of neighbouring Jordan, Abdallah, was announced
King in 1921. Iraq achieved independence in 1932, but British forces
intervened once again in 1941 to prevent a pro-Nazi coup. British
troops were ultimately withdrawn in 1947.
In 1958, the Hashemite Dynasty was conquered by a group of radical
army officers inspired by the example of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt,
and led by Brigadier Abdul al-Karim Kassem. The new regime failed
to consolidate its position, however, and relied on a precarious
coalition of forces, which quickly disintegrated.
After Kassem was killed in 1963 during a further
rebellion, Colonel Abdul Salem Muhammed Aref set up a new government.
Iraq declared war on Israel at the outbreak of the 6 Day War in
June 1967, although Iraqi forces were not engaged. In 1968, Iraq’s
final coup in recent history brought the Ba’ath Party to party.
Ba’ath ideology supports pan Arabism, socialism and resistance
to foreign interference, although many political scientists have
noted its similarity to European fascism. Ba’athism was initially
brought into Iraq from Syria during the 1950's and grew quickly.
As it did so, however, the Syrian and Iraqi strains grew apart from
1 another and by the end of the 1960's were mutually hostile.
Since then, relations between Syria and Iraq
have deteriorated still further, a decade later, Syria was a willing
participant in the United States of America led coalition which
expelled Iraqi occupation forces from Kuwait. In July 1979, after
a power struggle within the Ba’ath Party, Vice President Saddam
Hussein took over as the President and party leader. Saddam’s
chief objectives were to establish his country as the undisputed
leader of the Arab world and to overcome the Arabs’ 2 principal
enemies in the Middle East, Iran and Israel.
Saddam
reached the top at a time of escalating tension between Iraq and
Iran. Iran appeared to be in disorder following the Islamic revolution
which overthrew the Shah. The Iraqis perceived a good opportunity
to resolve a long running territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab
waterway which feeds the Gulf and divides the 2 countries.
The Iraqis revoked a settlement of the dispute reached in 1975 and
launched a full scale invasion of Iran in September 1980. In the
face of surprisingly stiff Iranian resistance, the Iraqis failed
to win the decisive military victory they had hoped for and the
war degenerated into 1 of attrition, employing tactics similar to
those of World War I.
As in Europe 70 years earlier, use was made of poison
gas, originally against massed ranks of Iranian
troops and then later against the civilian population. This was
the 1st confirmation of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass
destruction as well as a huge arsenal of conventional weaponry.
The fighting lasted until August 1988 when the
2 exhausted nations sued for peace with Iraq having made some minor
territorial gains. The Iraqi economy was crippled and had acquired
an enormous foreign debt, much of which was owed to neighbouring
Kuwait, this became a serious source of friction between the 2 governments
over the next 2 years.
Insistent demands by the Kuwaitis for repayment, Iraq’s historical
claim over Kuwaiti territory (dating back to the 1920's), and a
disagreement over oil reserves provided the main pretext for the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. The American led response
to the invasion, which received firm backing from the United Nations
in the form of mandatory sanctions and an authorisation to use military
force, stunned the Iraqis.
By the beginning of March 1991, the Iraqi armed
forces had suffered a huge defeat and the Iraqi
regime itself was under serious threat from armed opposition elements
among the predominantly Shia population of southern Iraq and the
Kurds in the north. However, the superior firepower of Iraqi troops,
some held in reserve, some reorganised from units fleeing the United
Nations coalition, was sufficient to defeat the rebels. The Western
refusal to provide effective backing for the rebels was based on
the lack of a United Nations mandate (which had only endorsed the
expulsion of Iraqi forces from Kuwait) as well as the practical
fear of a ‘Balkanised’ post Saddam Iraq whereby the
country splits into 3 mutually antagonistic entities (Shia, Sunni
and Kurdish, respectively).
Thereafter, the United States of America, supported
by Britain and others, used numerous means to constrain Iraq. ‘No-fly’
zones were established, covering the north and south of the country,
in which all Iraqi air movement was forbidden (this allowed the
Kurds to create an effectively autonomous region within the country).
A United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) was formed to try to
locate and destroy the remaining stocks and production facilities
of Iraq’s nuclear, chemical and biological warfare programmes.
Iraq was also subject to a complete trade embargo excepting a sternly
controlled regimen of oil sales, the proceeds of which the Iraqi
government could use to buy food and medicines.
By 1998, Iraq had developed adequate means of circumventing sanctions
and political confidence to throw out the UNSCOM inspectors. International
support for the sanctions regime had waned to the point where only
the United States and Britain still backed its continued use. The
2 countries policed the ‘no fly’ zones and launched
occasional bomb attacks (about 1 a month) on Iraqi military and
strategic installations.
In March 2003, the United States led coalition declared war on Iraq
and, in April, successfully ousted the regime of Saddam
Hussein. As a result, Iraq is undergoing a period
of evolution. Most of the country’s political, social, physical
and economic infrastructures have, by and large, been destroyed
and are in the lengthy process of being restored. The United States
of America formed the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian
Assistance (ORHA) to administer the country on an interim basis,
provide humanitarian aid, rebuild infrastructure and help establish
a representative government.
After much anticipation, the transferal of power
was eventually granted to a new Iraqi government in mid 2004. This
was supplemented by countrywide elections on January 30 2005 to
appoint a 275 member National Assembly, of which the majority of
seats have been democratically assigned to the Shia United Iraqi
Alliance (although, some people were unable to vote due to dangerous
conditions and many Sunni Muslims did not participate in the electoral
process for numerous reasons). This assembly must elect a President
and 2 deputies, who, in turn, must designate a Prime Minister responsible
for the day to day running of Iraq, and draft a constitution by
August 15 2005.
A waiting the approval of this constitution, elections
for a new government will commence shortly afterwards, possibly
in late 2005. For the moment, there have been no discovered weapons
of mass destruction which provided the pretext for invasion. Iraq’s
future, despite the hope that the elections in early 2005 have given
to some, remains largely uncertain. In November 2005, United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1637 (2005) extended backing for the
Multinational Force's role in Iraq for a further year. |
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