DAMASCUS - When a US marine was killed on
Sunday, the death toll for Americans in Iraq for
October was raised to 100. This makes it the
third-deadliest month since the US invasion in
March 2003, matched only by January 2005, when 107
Americans were killed, and November 2004, when 137
died in combat.
Adding to the bad news was
a US announcement that 300 Iraqi policemen had
been killed during the month of Ramadan - a month
supposedly dedicated to piety, love and compassion
among Muslims, celebrated in
the Arab world in September-October.
Men
of religion teach that during Ramadan, God ties
the hands of little devils to prevent them from
obstructing the mood of piety and prayer in the
Muslim world. Obviously, little devils did not
have their hands tied this month in Iraq. One day
after the death toll for Americans hit 100, a car
bomb went off in Sadr City, the ghetto of Baghdad
that is occupied by 2.5 million poor Shi'ites,
killing 31 people and injuring over 50. The ghetto
is ruled by popular anti-American cleric Muqtada
al-Sadr.
Another 23 beheaded Iraqis were
discovered throughout Iraq. Beheading has become
common since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki came to
power in May. Meanwhile, suspected Sunni militias
slaughtered 23 policemen, showing that radicals in
the Sunni community are still bent on fighting
anyone who supports or works with the post-Saddam
Hussein regime.
Making life worse for the
premier, Sunni Vice President Tarek Hashemi, who
suffered the murder of his brother and his sister
in different attacks because of his support for
the post-Saddam order, threatened to resign. This
is because Maliki has failed to wipe out the two
Shi'ite militias believed to be responsible for
much of the violence in Iraq: the Mehdi Army of
Muqtada and the Badr Organization of Abdul-Aziz
al-Hakim. Although equally threatened by Sunni
militias for his collaboration with the new order,
Hashemi said nothing of them for fear of upsetting
voters and supporters in his Sunni constituency.
Many blame Maliki for the continued
violence by refusing - or being unable to - clamp
down on the Shi'ite militias that helped bring him
to power. The prime minister is an ally of
Muqtada, who commands dramatic support in the
Shi'ite community.
Accusations against
Maliki vary. Some charge him with being a stooge
for the Mehdi Army. Others say he is a stooge for
the Americans. Still others claim he is a puppet
of Iran. Reportedly, last week Maliki flew into a
fit of rage at accusations of being pro-American,
telling US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad: "I am a
friend of the United States, but I am not
America's man in Iraq." White House spokesman Tony
Snow rushed to save the premier, saying: "He's not
America's man in Iraq. The United States is there
in a role to assist him. He's the prime minister -
he's the leader of the Iraqi people."
Historical perspective The
reason Iraq is so bloody today is blamed on many
factors. It could be Maliki's weakness and
compliance with the militias. It could be because
the Americans disbanded the Iraqi Army when they
toppled Saddam, or because outside forces, like
Saudi Arabia and Iran, are pushing the Iraqis into
sectarian confrontation.
The reason might
simply be a result of resistance to the occupation
- something that would end the minute the
Americans left Iraq. Alternatively, although most
would refuse to admit it, it might be because the
Iraqis are a difficult people by nature who have
never had the chance to develop the notion of
nationhood and who have lived under strong
leadership since the days of the Hashemite
monarchy.
When post-Saddam options were
being considered in 2002, this correspondent
floated the idea that the restoration of the
monarchy (1932-1958) would be the best possible
option for Iraq. The monarchy was strong. It was
pro-Western, but placed Iraqi interests - not
those of Saudi Arabia, Iran or the US - first.
It was democratic - in comparison with
post-1958 Iraq - and it was just: it had a proper
legal system that ensured justice for all Iraqis.
Although the regime was ruled by Sunnis, all
Iraqis could boast a proper judiciary that ensured
equality and justice for Shi'ites, Sunnis and
Kurds.
Iraq under the monarchy had steady
oil revenues of US$220 million per year (in the
1950s), and had the "Free Officers" revolution not
broken out in 1958, it had a five-year plan that
would have increased revenue to $1.4 billion.
Had Iraq avoided inter-Arab entanglements,
it is possible that while concentrating on its
domestic affairs the country could have improved
the life of citizens, brought real economic
reforms to the street and reduced the social and
political tension that was accumulating in the
late 1950s.
But this did not happen as a
result of several dramatic events that took place
in the Arab world between the years of 1956 and
1958. Iraq was continuously exposed to agitation
from outside forces. The Suez Canal war of
October-November 1956 was the first major event in
the 1950s to have a tremendous effect on internal
peace in Iraq.
On November 9, 1956, the
Baghdad government unwillingly broke off all
diplomatic relations with France, to appease the
Arab nationalism of the Iraqi street. The leaders
of Iraq could not go against public opinion, even
though this jeopardized their relations with the
Great Powers. Iraq's ambassador to the United
Nations, Fadil al-Jamali, declared his country's
full support for Egypt in the face of the
aggression by the British, French and Israelis,
who resisted Egypt's attempts to nationalize the
canal.
Inside Iraq, the Suez crisis gave
rise to public discontent against Western
imperialism, which became an embarrassment to the
pro-West government of prime minister Nuri
al-Said. This was seized on by leaders of the
opposition, who presented a petition to King
Faisal in November 1956 demanding a radical change
in the country's foreign and internal affairs.
Soon afterwards, protest demonstrations
took place in Mosul, Najaf, Karbala and other
cities of Iraq. The government met these
demonstrations with harsh measures, ordering the
arrest of five principal members of the
opposition. On December 1, 1956, the government
proclaimed martial law across Iraq. This did not
prevent a peasant revolt from erupting with
considerable violence in Qut on December 21.
The major problem from the Suez crisis was
that it increased the popularity of president
Gamal Nasser of Egypt in the eyes of the Iraqi
people. It established him as an all-Arab leader
and not only an Egyptian one, and the symbol of
the anti-imperialism struggle. Passive isolation,
as Iraq had practiced since 1955, was no longer
acceptable to the Iraqi street because Nasserism
and anti-Westernism had become popular everywhere
in the Arab world.
On July 14, 1958, a
revolution broke out in Iraq, headed by General
Abd al-Karim Qasim, an officer inspired by Nasser.
Early in the day, army units went into the capital
and attacked the palace. Every member of the royal
family was shot in a massacre considered one of
the ugliest and bloodiest in the modern Arab
world.
With an understanding of the
revolution of 1958, one should not be surprised at
the violence in Iraq today. Women, children and
even the royal pets were murdered. King Faisal was
killed, as was Said, the pro-Western, savvy
premier.
Iraq was a country in revolution
in every sense of the world. The police and armed
forces hunted the country for anybody associated
with the old regime and it became an easy
accusation to blame somebody of having been
supportive of the monarchy. A similar mood
prevailed in Iraq in 2003, when the jails quickly
filled in an atmosphere of terror.
Qasim
became the new leader of Iraq in 1958. He created
a Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) similar to
the one created by Nasser when he came to power in
1952 in Egypt. He also became prime minister,
chief-of-staff of the army, president of the RCC
and president of the republic.
His friend,
Colonel Abd al-Salam Aref, became deputy to Qasim
in all his posts. Leaders of the old opposition
against the monarchy were invited back to Iraq to
join the new government. Again, this is what
happened to opposition leaders like Maliki, Jalal
Talabani, Iyad Allawi and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who
returned in 2003 to become the new rulers of
Baghdad.
Among those to return in 1958 was
Masoud al-Barzani, the Kurdish leader who had
lived in the Soviet Union since leading a Kurdish
rebellion in 1946, and Rashid Ali Gailani, who had
led an anti-British revolt in 1941.
A
people's court was established to bring former
members of the Iraqi regime to justice - something
Iraqis are living through again today. Former
interior minister Said Qazzaz, for example, was
executed under orders from Qasim, and so were two
other politicians responsible for interior
security under the monarchy.
This is a
fate that former Iraqi officials such as Ali Hasan
al-Majid and Saddam will most likely meet. The
wounds of the trials of 1958 never healed. On
March 8, 1959, Colonel Abd al-Wahab al-Shawaf
seized power in Mosul, declaring a revolt against
Qasim. Unfortunately for the rebels, their revolt
was poorly planned and they had no air cover.
Qasim ordered his army in and Shawaf was killed.
By March 13 the revolution had been
completely crushed. From here, Iraq descended into
chaos. Self-appointed people's courts appeared all
over the country. They sat in public squares,
arrested anybody they didn't like on charges of
being "enemies of the people", and killed them.
The slightest suspicion of opposition was enough
to have a court hand out a death sentence. These
were carried out immediately, on the spot, in view
of the crowds.
Washington viewed the Iraqi
scene with considerable alarm. In a speech before
the Foreign Relations Committee at the US Senate,
Allen Dulles, the director of the Central
Intelligence Agency, declared on April 28, 1959
that "Iraq is the most dangerous country in the
world today".
To bridge the gap with
Western powers which had lost faith in Iraq, Qasim
began to walk a tightrope, projecting himself both
as an Iraqi and Arab nationalist as well as a
pro-Western leader. This is something Maliki is
trying to do.
Qasim's friendship with the
West angered many people in Iraq who had been
angry at the pro-British policies of King Faisal
and Said. In October 1959, an assassination
attempt was made against Qasim by a group of young
members of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party. Among them was
Saddam.
Qasim's political base, never too
great, began to rapidly erode - something
happening to Maliki too. Qasim, like Maliki,
became isolated and began to rely on the army, the
secret service and the police to protect himself
against his own people. In today's case, Maliki
relies on the militias.
Qasim became
paranoid, fearing that somebody was out to kill
him. He became haunted with insecurity and
distrusted even his closest friends. In fact, he
ate, met people and slept at his office at the
Ministry of Defense. All he spoke of was
conspiracies. The biggest mistake he made was to
issue an amnesty in November 1961, releasing his
former friend and now rival Aref from prison after
three years of jail.
On September 16,
1961, Kurdish leader Barzani rose up in rebellion
against Qasim. The paranoid president became
furious, accusing his friends, his enemies,
Nasser, the British, the Americans and the oil
companies of creating this rebellion.
In
once sense he was correct; almost every organized
political group in Iraq, whether on the left or
right, was hostile to him. The Kurds were in
rebellion and the Arab states considered him an
aggressor. He became increasingly erratic and
irrational.
On February 8, 1963, the
Ba'ath Party of Iraq, for long suppressed by
Qasim, executed a coup d'etat. Qasim was killed
and his body shown on television being brutalized.
All of his top aides and followers were executed.
Now there is talk of a coup brewing in
Iraq against Maliki ...
Sami
Moubayed is a Syrian political analyst.
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