There was a shortcut for Britain and the United
States to demonstrate their care for the well-being
of the Arab people. They could have forced Israel to
implement long outstanding UN Security Council
resolutions calling for its withdrawal from the West
Bank and Gaza, and helped the Palestinians build a
modern democratic state, and then people all over the
Arab world, and beyond, would by now have been
bestowing their benediction on President George W.
Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.
Instead, the American and British leaders are
persistently saying that it is their war on Iraq that
will herald the arrival of freedom and democracy in
the Middle East. One of these countries, Britain, has
experience of trying to bring democracy to Iraq. But
its record is hardly encouraging.
For centuries Iraq was divided into competing tribes,
clans, cities and religious sects. With the rising
tide of Arab nationalism and the final collapse of
Ottoman rule in 1918, the idea of the nation-state
appealed to educated Iraqis, who joined in the
popular 1920 uprising against Britain. After crushing
the revolt, Britain proceeded to create an Iraqi
state, partly in response to the demands of these
nationalists, mainly to cement its own interests in
the region.
The paper model of the new Iraqi state strongly
resembled any Western democratic state of that time:
It had a constitution, a cabinet, a Parliament,
political parties, free elections and an impressive
number of newspapers and periodicals. However, the
model bore little resemblance to reality and little
resemblance to a viable democratic state.
Ma'ruf Rasafi, an Iraqi poet of that period, wrote about the incongruity:
A flag, a constitution, and a national assembly -
each one a distortion of the true meaning ...
He who reads the constitution will learn that it is
composed according to the mandate.
He who looks at the flapping banner will find that it
is billowing in the glory of aliens.
He who sees our national assembly will know that it
is constituted by and for any but the electors.
He who enters the ministries will find that they are
shackled with the chains of foreign advisers.
I wonder what kind of poetry the postwar Iraqi government and the ruins of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities will inspire. The writer is author of "The Role of the Military in Politics," a case study of Iraq to 1941.
Källa: Mohammad Tarbush www.iht.com/articles/92562.html
