Brief History of Troubled Iraq
The history of Iraq over the past century has been violent and troubling. Its colonial legacy set it on a course that led to the rise of the Arab Baath Socialist Party and the rule of Saddam Hussein. In its short existence Iraq has been a nation irreconcilable to itself. The history of Iraq, Kuwait, Britain, and the United States reveals that the reasons for the Iraqi invasions of Kuwait and Iran are far more complex and interesting than the standard answer allows.
Over a period of decades, and especially in recent years, Britain and the U.S. have maintained an interest in Iraq and its neighbors for one over riding reason. Iraq sits squarely in the middle of the greatest oil producing region in the world.
Kuwait was created in 1899, not in the wake of World War I. The Iranian-Ottoman border was the product of a sixteenth century cease-fire between the two gunpowder empires. Kuwait is another major oil producer, and if chaos consumed Iraq and Saudi Arabia, it would be hard for tiny Kuwait to remain inviolate. The loss of oil production as a result of chaos or revolution in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait would cripple the international oil market with unimaginable consequences for the global economy. Kuwait saw the British withdraw in 1961, but Iraq claimed the country, and it was deterred only by British and later by Arab armed forces. In 1970–71 Bahrain and Qatar became independent and subsequently acquired control of Western oil concerns operating in their territories.
Britain’s control was overthrown in 1958 and the Ba’athist party gained control of Iraq in 1968 after ten years of grappling with the Communist party for power. In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq and a series of wars broke out, first with the Iran-Iraq War followed by the two Gulf Wars. Britain and the US were so committed to supporting any regime that fought Khomeini’s Islamic fundamentalism and ardent anti-Western sentiments, that they even turned a blind eye to Hussein’s gassing of 5000 Iraqi Kurds at Halabja in 1988. The Kurds had been a thorn in the side of Iraqi leadership since they were denied a separate state by Winston Churchill back in the 1920s.
The history of Iraq’s oil is similar. Like Iran, it once fell within Britain’s sphere of influence; in fact, Britain was responsible for carving Iraq out of the Ottoman empire at the end of the first world war. The history of Iraq goes back thousands of years. Some scholars even believe it was the cradle of agriculture and that the people had the knowledge of writing before the ancient Egyptians.
When you trace Iraq’s political history from its nineteenth-century roots in the Ottoman empire, to the development of the state, its transformation from monarchy to republic and the rise of the Ba’th party and the ascendancy of Saddam Hussain you get a good idea as to how complicated the country is and why the US occupation has gone so badly.
This is a story of social conflict, of power struggles between rival clans, of hostility and wars with neighboring states, as well as of their aftermath, and Iraq’s deteriorating relations with the West. One thesis is that the history of Iraq throughout the twentieth-century has made it what it is today, but also provides alternative futures. Unless this is properly understood, many of the themes underway today - patron client relations, organized violence, sectarian, ethnic and tribal differences - will continue to exert a hold over the future of Iraq as they did over its past.
Iraq was not a poor country until the US and the British imposed sanctions. In 1979 oil revenues were $21 billion and $27 billion in 1980. Oil production had reached a level of 3.5 million barrels per day in 1980. At the outbreak of the war, Iraq had amassed an estimated $35 billion in foreign exchange reserves. Oil exports are now around levels seen before Operation Iraqi Freedom, and total government revenues have benefited from high oil prices. Despite political uncertainty, Iraq is making some progress in building the institutions needed to implement economic policy and has negotiated a debt reduction agreement with the Paris Club and a new Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF.
The Iraqi’s politician’s great fear is the the US will find a way to force them to give up the majority of the rights to their nation’s own oil. This is one reason that the US keeps pushing hard for a “standard” military cooperation agreement. Iraq has a long history as being a battleground as foreign nations seek to control its oil.
Britain and France clashed over Iraq’s oil during the Versailles Conference and after, but Britain eventually took the lion’s share by turning its military victories into colonial rule. The powerful Iraq Petroleum Company, in which US and French firms held minority positions, acted always in the cartel interests of the Anglo-American companies. Britain has spawned a generation of Chamberlain’s children. Britain’s control was overthrown in 1958 and the Ba’athist party gained control of Iraq in 1968 after ten years of grappling with the Communist party for power. In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq and a series of wars broke out, first with the Iran-Iraq War followed by the two Gulf Wars.
The history of Iraq is actually tragic. A nation blessed with great riches has been torn apart again and again by foreign nations attempting to control its oil. In what is now an age of peak oil and the beginning of oil scarcity the future of Iraq as a functioning independent nation does not look good.
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