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Article Excerpt
Iraq is a country in which ethnicity plays a crucial role in politics. The two predominant sects of Islam, the Shiite and the Sunni, and the two major ethnic groups, the Arabs and the Kurds, have always been part of Iraq's national composition. Iraqi Sunnis dominated the politics of Iraq from the 1920s to the American invasion in 2003. Kurds, who are also found in Turkey, Iran and Syria, have succeeded for the first time in the modern history of the Middle East in playing a decisive role in the politics of Iraq and in their own self-rule.
The current geographic territory of Iraq is relatively consistent with the ancient terrain of Mesopotamia. The vast majority of the Iraqi population still lives in the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Ancient Mesopotamia not only offered to the world the prophet Abraham, the founder of the three monotheistic religions; it also became the birthplace of emerging civilizations under Judaism, Christianity and Islam. This cradle of civilization introduced the world to the first letter, the first written recorded law, the first epic poem, the first university, the first money and the first stringed musical instrument.
Iraq played a significant role in the rise of Islamic civilization and the golden age of Islam under Abbasid rule from A.D. 750. Baghdad became the center of a civilization that developed a new tradition in scientific and philosophical scholarship and became a bridge between ancient and modern worlds. Baghdad generated the golden age of Islamic civilization, which reached its apex between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries. "In 1184 there were 30 independent schools in Baghdad, in addition to an engineering school and three medical schools. Private and public libraries were established and contained tens of thousands of books and manuscripts. From this wellspring bloomed the multicultural, multiethnic mosaic of Islamic civilization fostered from intellectual diversity and cross-cultural synergy." (1) Muslims in Mesopotamia created not only a civilization but a harmonious society with functioning institutions and a civil infrastructure. Baghdad was destroyed by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, putting an end to the monumental achievements of the Abbasid period. The sense of permanence and continuity was not regained when it became part of the Ottoman Empire.
With the empire's collapse following World War I, Mesopotamia was occupied by the British. On the eve of this occupation, Iraq consisted of three territories--Mosul, Baghdad and Basra--each administered and controlled independently. Although these territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, their politics and economy were localized, and various tribes and ethnic groups had built distinctive social structures. Ottoman control was very weak, leading to a loose confederation of tribes, each acting as a small state. In the absence of a central authority, the tribes had established a framework for conflict resolution and resource management. A hierarchical structure based on a mode of subsistence economy had developed, putting camel-breeding tribes at the top of this hierarchy. The sheep-breeders, peasants and Arab marsh dwellers followed this social structure. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Ottomans tightened their loose control over the tribes in this region by imposing settlement policies and land-reform measures. These policies led naturally to a weakening of the tribes as a traditional source of power. Yet the tribes still played a crucial role in the sociopolitical and economic structures of these societies.
British colonial occupation of Mesopotamia after World War I led to the merging of these three territories under the unified nation of Iraq for the purpose of a common administration. The British restored most of the power of the tribal sheikhs and immediately revived the tribal structure, needing these leaders for local governance and tax collection. The sheikhs were given the power to control land, water distribution and law enforcement.
The oppressive nature of colonial occupation in addition to increased taxes --and the British reluctance to honor their commitment to end occupation--soon led to the revolt of 1920. The revolt brought together various tribes who valued the freedom that their lifestyle had offered them in these territories. The Shiite and Sunni tribesmen participated together in the war of liberation against the British occupation. The latter's tactic of blanket bombing of villages did not diminish the tenacity of resistance against the occupation. The British did not have any choice but to bring to power Faisal Ibn Hussein in 1921 in order to maintain control and influence. Iraq was ruled by a series of monarchs: Faisal I (1921-33), King Ghazi (1933-39), and Regent Abdullah bin Ali in the 1940s and early 1950s while King Faisal II (1939-58) was an infant. In 1936 and 1941, two military coups in Iraq heralded the first of such coups in Arab politics. Finally, in 1958, Abd at-Karim Qasim carried out a successful coup and ruled the country until 1963, when another military coup, led by Abd al-Salam Arif, toppled his regime. Arif was killed in a helicopter accident in 1966, and his brother succeeded him until 1968, when the Baath party took over the government in a military coup. This coup was supported by the United States because the Baathists were notorious for their brutality against communists in Iraq. The Baath and its government were under the control of Ahmad Hassan al-Baker and Saddam Hussein until 1979, when Saddam took over the government and the party through a bloodless coup. During all these years, the Shiites and the Kurds were excluded from government and occasionally were victims of the governments' brutal oppression. The Shiites paid a more severe price when, after the second Gulf War, the United States promised and then failed to support their uprising. While the Kurds benefited from the no-fly zone policy, the Shiites were exposed to Saddam's policy of suppression and elimination. Thousands of Iraqis fled to Iran, where many of them utilized the resources that the Iranian government provided them and organized opposition groups with the goal of toppling Saddam's government. The Dawa party of Nuri al-Maliki and Ibrahim Jafari...
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