Iraq: a tale of beasts and whirlwinds
- By Heiko Khoo
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 19, 2014
"For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads; it shall yield no flour; if it were to yield, strangers would devour it." Hosea 8:7, The Bible
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With the rapid advance of the insurgent army of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) -- a Sunni fundamentalist movement in Iraq, formerly linked to Al Qaeda -- the strategies and plans of Western leaders lie in tatters.
In 2003, to justify war, U.S. and British "intelligence agencies" offered the United Nations "irrefutable" evidence that the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed chemical weapons. The U.S.-led invasion conquered the country in six weeks. The crushing technical superiority of the U.S. military generated an immense disparity between U.S. and Iraqi deaths. Since 2003, the U.S. forces lost 4489 lives but over 1.4 million extra Iraqi deaths are attributable to the war and its consequences. Inflicting military defeat on Iraq was relatively easy but anchoring and sustaining support for a new elite and establishing a durable system of governance, requires popular support and the acquiescence of minorities -- particularly the Sunnis and the Kurds. This objective proved elusive.
The CIA identified Nuri al-Maliki as the best candidate for the job of Iraqi Prime Minister but national unity collapsed under his Shia dominated regime. Maliki's government exacerbated sectarian tension, plundered state assets, left the health and education system to rot, and drew Iraq ever closer to its neighbour, the Shia led Islamic Republic of Iran. For 11 years the Iraqi army was financed; equipped and trained by the United States and Britain to fight insurgency. However, Maliki's regime proved so incompetent and unpopular that its 800,000 strong army disintegrated in the face of only 6,000 ISIS insurgents!
The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently published an essay defending the Iraq war. He claims that the present crisis is due to Western inaction in Syria, as the forces of ISIS were steeled in the civil war against Bashar al-Assad's government there. Blair concocted the following argument: Although Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, if threatened by mass opposition, he would have made them; if "we" had not invaded there would have been an Iraqi revolution, so the country would be unstable anyway; and then a war would have broken out between Iraq and Syria. He goes on to argue that the crisis in the region is local and historical in origin: at root, he blames bad religion and bad politics. In this way, Blair whitewashes the history of British and U.S. imperialism.
In the 1980s, the war against Soviet forces in Afghanistan produced an unholy alliance between the U.S. and jihadist fanatics backed by Saudi Arabia to fight the Communist "infidels." This was where Osama Bin Laden earned his spurs. Arab jihadists who fought alongside U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan formed Al Qaeda.
The rulers of Saudi Arabia dedicated tens of billions of dollars to promote their Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam. This fundamentalist interpretation defines the actions and behaviour of its followers and imposes its strictures by indoctrination and force. For devout Wahhabis only the eyes and hands of women can be exposed in public. Precise prayer rituals must be followed, all stimulants are banned and most forms of entertainment are prohibited. For the supporters of ISIS, all those who do not follow their interpretation of Islam can justifiably be killed.
The barbarism of its religious-judicial methods is similar to that used by the Catholic Church in Medieval Europe, with its despotic rule by landowners, priests and feudal lords. Wahhabism reaches deep into the personal domain of its followers and this helps to produce a fertile state of mind for those who view Islamic jihad as a global armed struggle. The psychology of Wahhabi jihadists recruited to Al Qaeda and ISIS thrives on popular disgust at U.S. imperialism's military adventures in the region. These jihadists also engage in armed struggle against those local leaders whom they deem to be infidels: the allies of U.S. Imperialism, Zionists or communists.
In truth, Tony Blair's lies about weapons of mass destruction, used to justify the war in Iraq, reinforced a belief that western infidels were at war with all Muslims. This fostered support for Islamic terrorism worldwide. When the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt sparked the Arab Spring, the United States and Britain directly supported the old regimes. The West used the Arab Spring as an excuse to drop bombs on Libya and promote the civil war in Syria.
The jihadist "freedom fighters" that Britain and the United States were eager to support only a year ago are conquering Iraqi towns and cities. The imperialist war on Iraq has unleashed beasts it cannot control -- now they battle over the carrion.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://china.org.cn/opinion/heikokhoo.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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