Viewpoint: Conservatives advocate big government solution to Iraq

[The Straight Story]

Viewpoint: Conservatives advocate big government solution to Iraq
Ivan Eland

March 23, 2006

-- As the Iraq War enters its fourth year and the media reads the tea leaves to see if a "civil war" has officially begun, top officials of the Bush administration continue to try to spin their way to victory by using "happy talk".

Although public relations offensives are the way that wars are fought inside the capital beltway, the sectarian groups in Iraq aren't playing by the rules of Washington movers and shakers. The worsening civil war - in Bush administration euphemism, "sectarian violence" - is now more worrisome to the president's battlefield commanders than the Sunni insurgency.

While liberals insist that Iraq has plunged into civil war and conservatives continue to believe that the violence can only be quelled by a stronger Iraqi government, no one is looking at the important question of what direction future US policy should take.

A quick look at Iraq's history reveals that government intervention, beginning with the British government's meddling after World War I, is primarily responsible for the country's current problems.

.... snip ...
Yet the administration and many other conservatives, who would never embrace big government solutions at home, are proponents of strengthening the Iraq government. But to really be effective in holding the fractious Iraqi society together, the central government would probably have to resume Saddam-like dictatorial powers - something that no one wants.

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060323-085535-4930r

An interesting article. I think perhaps I will be doing some more research into the history of the area this week. Anyone have some good history books to recommend on it?

[Devlzown]

1. Let them split up.

It will happen anyway, unless another dictator comes along. We could help them agree on borders, carve the country up, and get the hell out and let the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis govern themselves.

[magellan]

2. No history books to recommend

...but here's a quick history from Wikipedia:

At the end of World War I, the League of Nations granted the area to the United Kingdom as a mandate. It was formed out of three former Ottoman vilayets (regions): Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, under the control of King Faisal. However, for three out of four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule, the vilayets of Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra were administered from Baghdad.

Iraq was granted independence in 1932, though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces in the country. Iraq was invaded by the United Kingdom in 1941, for fears that the government of Rashid Ali might cut oil supplies to Western nations and because of his strong leanings towards Nazi Germany. A military occupation followed, ending on October 26, 1947.

The reinstalled Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown through a coup d'etat by the Iraqi army, known as the 14 July Revolution. The coup brought Brigadier General Abdul Karim Qassim's government to power (which withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established friendly relations with the Soviet Union) from 1958 till 1963, when he was overthrown by Colonel Abdul Salam Arif. Salam Arif died in 1966 and his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, assumed the presidency. In 1968, Rahman Arif was overthrown by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. The Ba'ath's key figure became Saddam Hussein, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), Iraq's supreme executive decision making body, in July 1979, killing off many of his opponents in the process.

Basically the British tried to "control" Iraq until they were finally forced out in defeat. The internal conflicts are a legacy of how it was cobbled together after WWI, with no regard for the people who lived there and what they wanted or envisioned.

And then, of course, the US ushered Saddam into power.

Bush** would have done well to study British history in the area...or to listen to us liberals when we were shouting that invading Iraq would only open the door to foreign terrorists and civil war.

[saigon68]

3. we were shouting that invading Iraq would only open the door

Yes Folks ----right here in Feb 2003 sadly those posts are gone.

I joined then

A few of us called DINOs like Limpmann and Biden losers.

Now look at the MESS

THEY VOTED FOR.