US forces in Iraq: History’s Lessons

After World War II, the US took over the reins of the Middle East from Britain, but it couldn’t escape making a grave mistake similar to that committed by its predecessor during World War I. In a bid to carve the modern Middle East out of the Ottoman Empire, the British thought this would be a piece of cake, as they would easily buy a leading Muslim figure and name him as caliph. And all Muslims, the British believed, would rebel against the Ottomans under the leadership of this caliph, and then the rest would fall into line. But things didn’t go as planned, for Britain failed to recognize that Islam had no homogenous unity within itself, with its numerous tribes and sects – such as the Sunnis, Shiites and Assyrians – often clashing against one another. What’s more, these tribes were bargaining with the Ottoman Empire and Germany at the same time they were cooperating with Britain.

And 90 years later, the US is now bogged down in the same swamp. Bush’s war planners seem unable to foresee the consequences of stirring up a hornet’s nest. It has been over four months since Bush officially announced the end of the Iraq war on May 1, but the US has yet to establish order and security in the country. Quite the contrary, with each passing day the US forces are being dragged further into a trap in this ethnic, religious jungle. Even the Shiites, who stayed silent on the US invasion during the war, are now voicing their anger at the occupation forces.

Senior US officials such as Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Myers have one after another confessed either openly or tacitly that some key assumptions underlying the US occupation of Iraq were wrong, and that their prewar occupation plans have turned out to underestimate the problems they would face.

The US is failing in Iraq. And I wonder when the Bush administration will come to realize that pursuing misguided policies, just like Britain once did, will lead to nowhere, and so end this nonsense.”