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war in iraq

iraq - ethnic tensions

iraq - ethnic tensions -
Iraq was drawn up after World War 1 without much thought to ethnic groupings. The country has been volatile ever since. The minority Sunnis rule of of Baghdad, the majority Shiites live in the South, the Kurds live in a U.N. protectorate in the North, and the marsh arabs have gone to Iran as Hussein drained their marshes.

War as a humanitarian response

" US and British decisionmakers have exploited popular humanitarian sentiment for the most cynical of realpolitik reasons. They have no desire for the Shiite majority to take control or for the Kurds to achieve independence. Their policy is to keep them strong enough to cause trouble for Saddam Hussein while ensuring that Saddam Hussein is strong enough to keep repressing them. This is not a new policy. It is a direct descendant of British imperial policy from World War One onwards. Britain controlled Iraqi oil wealth through Sunni minority monarchs who put down rebellions by the Kurdish minority and the Shiite majority. When those Sunni minority monarchs became too nationalist and too powerful, Britain fuelled Kurdish and Shiite opposition just far enough to rein in the monarch but not far enough for the opposition to actually win." Dr Eric Herring March 2001 (academic advisor to John Pilger)

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