November 16, 2019
Victor Hugo said of the devastated Balkans in the 19th century: ‘The Turks have passed by here. All is in ruins or mourning.’
Welcome to modern Iraq.
The British were always masters of efficient imperialism. In the 19th century, they managed to rule a quarter of the Earth’s surface with only a relatively small army supported by a great fleet.
Many of their imperial subjects were so overawed by the pomp and circumstance of British rule that they often willingly cooperated, or at least bent the knee.
Call it colonialism 101. Ardent students of Roman history, the British early on adopted the Roman strategy of ‘divide et impera’, divide and conquer. The application of this strategy allowed the British Empire to rule over vast numbers of people with minimal force.
In my last book, `American Raj,’ I sought to show how the American Empire was using techniques of the British Imperial Raj (raj = rule in Hindi) employed in India to control the Mideast. Now, we are seeing the same strategy in forgotten Iraq.
Few talk or think about Iraq these days; the media ignores this important but demolished nation. Iraq, let’s recall, was the target of a major western aggression concocted by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Britain’s Tony Blair, financed and encouraged by the Gulf oil sheikdoms and Saudi Arabia.
Most people don’t understand that Iraq remains a US-occupied nation. We hear nothing about the billions of dollars of Iraqi oil extracted by big US oil firms since 2003. For the US, Iraq was a treasure house of oil with 12% of world reserves. It was OPEC’s 2nd largest producer.
Recall one of the leading neocons who engineered the invasion of Iraq, Paul Wolfowitz, claimed the US could finance its entire invasion of Iraq (he estimated the cost at about $70 billion) by plundering Iraq’s oil. Today, the cost of the occupation has reached over $1 trillion. Wolfie is nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, President Trump says the US will grab Syria’s oil fields. Wherever it may be, oil is as American as apple pie.
So where did all the money go? A large amount for corrupt Iraqi politicians and more for the ten plus US bases in Iraq. Perhaps a modest payoff for neighboring Iran, and Iraq’s Shia clergy, or helping finance Iraq and Syria’s ISIS. But that still leaves a huge amount of unaccounted cash from oil plundered by the US. One day we may find out.
In recent weeks, Shia and Sunni Iraqis have been rioting to protest continuing US proxy rule via a Washington-installed puppet regime in Baghdad that, curiously, also has some Iranian support. As of this writing, 120 Iraqis have been shot dead and some 6,000 wounded. This while scores of Palestinians are being killed by Israel in Gaza.
In the Cheney-Wolfowitz’s plan, Iraq was to serve as the principal US military base to control the entire Mideast, Iran and Afghanistan. This didn’t happen because of fierce Iraqi resistance to US-British rule. But the US has still kept some army, marine and, most important, air bases in Iraq. Supposedly ‘independent’ Iraq is not allowed modern air or armored forces and its air space remains under US control. The US troops that were recently sent to Syria came from the Iraq garrison – a small version of Dick Cheney’s imperial dream.
Ever since the 2003 invasion, Iraq has been ruled by a succession of US-appointed figureheads who have proven as corrupt as they are inept. During the war, the US destroyed most of Iraq’s water and sewage systems, causing some 500,000 children to die from water-borne diseases, wrecking much of its industry and commerce, leaving millions of men unemployed. Public services have broken down.
Before the US invasion, Iraq led the Arab world in industry, farming, medicine, education and women’s rights. All that was destroyed by the ‘liberation.’
I was in Iraq in 2001 and 2003 and saw how much it had developed in spite of the draconian rule of Saddam Hussein. I was one of only a few journalists trying to dispute the western lies about Iraq. The dim-witted Iraqi secret police threatened to hang me as a spy – after I revealed their germ warfare plant at Salman Pak had been set up and was secretly run by British technicians.
Today, Iraq is far worse off than during the days of Saddam Hussein. It is being plundered and exploited while its people suffer. So much for ‘liberation.’
Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2019
This post is in: Iraq
The Americans did destroy Iraq, but in the process, they shot themselves in the foot. What was supposed to have cost 70 billion dollars has cost several TRILLION dollars. Sure, some of the oil money is going to Western companies, but let me frank: the payoff is nowhere to be found.
The US had expectations that the Iraqis would simply accept US troops to walk into their country, secure their oil fields, and be perfectly fine with a puppet government set up that would dictate their lives. Much of the US public was under the impression that Iraq was responsible for 9/11, and that the Iraqi military wouldn’t bother fighting and collapse.
Little did many in the US realize was that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and Iraq also happened to be the fourth most heavily armed country in the world in regards to weapon tonnage. The Iraqi military, although outclassed by the US in almost every manner, still had been battle hardened during the Iran-Iraq war. Combine this with a number of former Iraqi military personnel who were angered by a US occupation, an extremely bloody insurgency took place against the US coalition, which then morphed into a civil war. What was supposed to be an easy victory became a massive financial drain on the US, along with the nearly 4,400 US soldiers who were killed and over 30,000 wounded.
The biggest winner in this war wasn’t the US, nor was it Iraq. It was Iran, and the consequences of such are being felt region wide. Meanwhile, in the US, there is very little talk of how the Iraq war actually ended, and almost no celebration of it.
OFFTOPIC AND FOR ERIC:
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You might look into the Intercept’s recent work; this is from a recent news article:
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“Translating and analyzing hundreds of pages of Persian-language documents — as well as traveling the world to confirm their contents and flesh out details — was a laborious task that required a huge team.
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This week, I was proud to see The Intercept and the New York Times publish a story on the cables that was accompanied by Intercept stories about the secret history of Iran’s war against ISIS, a previously unreported summit between members of Iran’s Quds Force and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the benefits Iran reaped from the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Our coverage was a historic achievement that changes the way we understand Iran, as well as the long-term consequences of the U.S. war in Iraq. As Iraqis continue to protest in the streets against the corruption of their leaders, many of whom are closely tied to Iran, I was gratified to hear that our articles were being translated into Arabic and read at protest rallies in Baghdad.”
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Dik
It is indeed tragic what has happened to Iraq from the time of the US-led invasion. In spite of all the deaths caused by the US, Britain, and their allies as a result of that invasion, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Tony Blair et al apparently feel no sense of guilt for what happened and probably sleep just fine at night. I thought that only psychopaths could do that. Under Saddam Hussein’s rule, it was apparently safe to walk the streets of Baghdad – but not so now.
The Roman Empire divided and conquered: in time it divided into two empires – both eventually died. The British Empire followed the same strategy: it lost all its conquests and is now divided itself by Brexit. The US supplanted Great Britain after the Second World War: there is now dark talk of another civil war in America. Empires rise, gain power; once gained power has to be retained; when it is gone an empire struggles to regain it. But no aspiring empire has learned the lesson of history – every empire eventually gets the war it seeks to avoid: utter destruction.
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