IS THE IRAQI WAR A DANGER FOR US DEMOCRACY
L A May 8th, 2007 by Eric Lafayette
President Bush and Vice President Cheney deliberately lied to the American People about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and Saddam Hussein's support of Al Quaida in Iraq. Unfortunately IRAQ is now crucial to the USA. As of today May 1, 2007 67% of Americans disapprove of the way the President is conducting the war in Iraq.
IRAQ is now an important country for the American people, and studying its history is crucial to understanding the predicament George Bush the young has imposed on the American people.
However an analytical study of Iraq encompassing the period before the advent of the Muslim religion on to the present shows that in fact it is a complex problem.
The dictatorial powers asked by Bush- Cheney and given to them through the vastly illegal patriot act by the American people have greatly curtailed Democracy in America. There are restriction on a right to a fair and speedy trial as well as keeping telephone calls and Emails private.
However a study of the actual war in Iaq shows constant interventions of Iran in Iraq. Iran provides Arms and traioning to kill Americans meant to attack and kill American or American allies.
The study of the History of these two countries that share a long border today but in the past were one country will help understand the difficult situation the United States is in.
Because the USA is in Iraq we will study the interactions between IRAN and IRAQ as well as their religion from the point of view of IRAQ. For ease of understanding we will use the term IRAQ to describe the territory that is roughly modern IRAQ even though it had different names in ancient times
The goal of this analytical history of Iraq is to offer information to the American People that can help them understand the war in Iraq. We will develop in more detail the historical facts that are even today influencing the situation in Iraq.
BEFORE WE ENTER THE REALM OF HISTORY EVENTS IN IRAQ HAVE MADE US AWARE THAT:
FUNDAMENTALIST BELIEVERS IN THE MUSLIM RELIGION DO NOT WANT ANY AMERICANS OR NON MUSLIMS IN THEIR REGION.
AND THAT IRAN IS BENT ON CONQUERING PART OF IRAQ OR THE WHOLE IRAQ.
We are going to add Historical facts to the two elements that have defined Iraq for numerous centuries and are a very important influence today.
PERSIANS AGAINST ARABS
SHIAS AGAINST SUNNIS
History of Iraq after 622 the date of the rise of the Muslim faith
It is difficult to forget that Iraq called "the cradle of civilization" was known as Mesopotamia or: " the land between the two rivers" which are the Tigris and the Euphrates. Iraq or Mesopotamia was one of the rare lands in the region with plenty of water and rich soil and could have been described as blessed by the Gods for its riches and cursed by the Gods for the envy it has always triggered from its neighbors. In addition modern Iraq has enormous wealth because it has lot of oil.
One of the most significant elements that underline the war in Iraq today is the Muslim Religion.
The Muslim faith was born and established by the Prophet Mohammad in 622 AD. The Muslim Calendar begins in 622 AD which marks the emigration of Mohammad from Mecca to Medina known as the Hijira. Of course the birth of one of the most important religions in the world is significant, but even more significant to the USA which is enmeshed in at war that involves the two main components of Islam that are the most extreme: The Fundamentalist SHIAS and the Fundamentalist SUNNIS.
The fact that the Muslim Religion fractured into two different factions shortly after the death of the Prophet Mohammad is important because when these fundamentalist Muslims do not kill Americans they kill each other by the hundreds each and every month in Iraq.
At the time of his death the Prophet Muhammad had conquered the Arabian Peninsula and converted the inhabitants of the Arabian to Islam. He was an Arab and almost all of his original followers were Arabs.
His first successor was Abu Bakr his father in law who was named a Caliph which is the equivalent of a governor or king who has absolute power. It was mostly a secular title that also included religious duties. The Caliph was the ruler of all the lands they conquered and controlled. The second Caliph was Umar who succeeded Abu Bakr and achieved the conquest of Iraq which was at that time part of Iran. Iraq was inhabited by Iranians composed of Christians and Jews. Christians were left alone if they agreed to pay a special tax for non-believers.
In the Muslim world but for very rare exceptions one will never know where secular power begins and where religious power begins and which one will dominate the other.
Believing that there was or is some sort of separation of religion and state is one of the main mistakes Americans and Europeans have made in attempting to understand and negotiate with Muslim Arab States.
We enter now a second phase of the Islamic evolution that reverberates today in the massacres that are happening in Iraq between Shias and Sunnis. The origin of the schism is purely and simply a family feud between factions related to Mohammad vying for the power of the Caliphate which controlled the riches and land they controlled. This feud has been painted later with religious connotations but it was a feudal power struggle of similar to the ones that happened in the courts of many European kings.
When the third Caliph Uthman was elected he was opposed by Ali the son of the Prophet Mohammad's daughter. Poorly paid malcontents Bedouin soldiers found a spokesman in the person of Ali. The Caliph Uthman made promises to them that were not kept. Under Ali's guidance they besieged Medina and killed Uthman. Ali then became Caliph.
Muawiya a kinsman of the slain caliph Uthman rebelled against Ali and they clashed in a large battle. On the verge of defeat Muawiya demanded arbitration and Ali accepted by. Part of Ali's own troops named the Kharajites rebelled against Ali because he had accepted arbitration instead of continuing the battle; then Ali asked them to reunite with him to fight. They refused and he massacred them. This massacre angered most of his troops who deserted him.
The Caliphate was divided with Muawiya Caliph in Egypt and Ali Caliph in Iraq.
Both tried to foment trouble for the other and Ali was assassinated by a Kharajites in 661, and his son died soon after him. It took only 30 years to tear apart the Muslim unity that Ali built.
Ali's death insured his status as a Martyr and Shias means follower of Ali. The Shia declaration of faith is: "There is no God but God; Muhammad is his Prophet and Ali is the Saint of God."
Once Ali was dead Muawiya was declared Caliph of all territories. Ali's second son Hussein rebelled against Muawiya's son Yazid. Karbala became sacred land for the Shias when Hussein and a small contingent were defeated and massacred. Hussein's head was brought to Yazid.
In 750 a new dynasty the Caliphate of the Abbasids founded Bagdad. The Caliphate was named after Abbas who came from the North and followed the Sunni religion but had ancestral ties with the Shia believers in Baghdad. Abbas' successor A Mansour made Bagdad the capital and under the rule of the six next Abbasid Caliphs the region was enormously prosperous. One of the Caliphs, Haroun al Rashid, was portrayed in the legend of the one thousand and one nights.
Culture and science were developed in important ways.
The Abbasid Dynasty continued under seven Caliphs until 1250. Starting with the death of Al Mamun in 833 the Caliphs began to lose power and territory. They ended up being figureheads placed for convenience by the Turks - Mameluks, then by Iranians Shias, then by Seljuk Turks.
In 1258 Hulagu Khan the grandson of Genghis Khan came to the Arab Peninsula with his Mongol Army leaving a path of massacres and destruction. Another Mongol Tamerlane continued to destroy and massacre finally devastating the center of advanced culture and the riches that were Baghdad. The prosperous country that was Iraq was transformed and was a collection of poor tribes until 1500
Between 1534 and 1916 Iraq became the battleground between the Turkish Empire and the Iranian Empire, many battles were fought in Iraq, and Iraq and its capital Baghdad were occupied alternatively by the Sunni Turks and by the Shias Iranians further exacerbating the rivalry between the two religious sects.
However the Turks prevailed in the end and established a bureaucracy whose example pervaded in ensuing years.
In 1917 the Turks who were allied with Nazi Germany were defeated by the English Army who conquered Baghdad. The English following a resolution of the League of Nations established a protectorate or a governorship of modern day Iraq.
There were many insurrections some of which were close to being successful but none succeeded, and were repressed by the English. Oil was discovered in Iraq.
Finally, in 1930 a treaty was signed that guaranteed independence in Iraq.
Iraq actually gained its independence in 1933 and was governed by King Faisal followed by King Ghazi. Then infant King Faisal II and his regents ruled a country very much divided by the differing goals of various sects, tribes and ethnicities.
However as has always happened Iraq found a new unity against an old invader.
In order to thwart Iraq's tendency to ally itself with German in 1941 England invaded Iraq again and set up a monarch who was only a figurehead.
Difficult years ensued but around 1950 oil revenues increased significantly. However the oil revenues were diverted by the extremely corrupt elite setting the stage for an uprising of the masses. Prime minister Nuri Al Said who ruled for a long time become more and more oppressive.
In 1958 a coup led by military commanders proclaimed a Republic. Brigadier Quasim became the leader of Iraq. He was a man of humble origins who increasingly turned to communism. He was killed in 1963, and a succession of military coups and military regimes kept Iraq in a situation of weakness and quasi anarchy.
From 1968 until 1979 we see a concurrent reinforcement of the Baath secular party and the emergence of Saddam Hussein along with the usual tensions in a Military Junta and a strong containment of the Kurds. However Saddam Hussein developed the economy and improved Iraq's regional stature as well as working on an Iraq - Iran rapprochement.
In 1980 the IRAQI Shias more and more followed the tendencies of the IRANIAN Shias government led by the Ayatollah Khomeini.
In 1980, afraid to lose his dominance over the Shias population who outnumbered his Sunni followers, Saddam declared war on IRAN. The war ended in 1987 in a stalemate after generating more than two million casualties and debilitating the economy.
It is interesting to note that the USSR was the main weapon provider to Iran, but all major European nations and the USA supported Saddam Hussein with money, trade and arms during this war. In the USA side, one of the highest ranking american who went to Bahgdad to shake hand with Saddam Hussein was Dick Cheney.
Not long after in 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and was soundly beaten by a real coalition of 28 allied nations led by the USA and fully backed by the UN using the doctrine of overwhelming force designed by Colin Powell. President Bush the elder wise man did not conquered Baghdad or Iraq in its entirety but established a successful policy of containment through the UN.
In 2003 without the backing of the UN President Bush Junior lied to the American People in order to lure them into supporting the invasion of Iraq under the false pretense of Iraq's possessing weapons of mass destruction which they did not have.
President and Vice President Dick Cheney also made the case for the war saying that Saddam Hussein supported Al Quaida terrorists who destroyed New York's World Trade Center Towers on 9/11.
This assumption was also proven to be absolutely false. To make matters worse Bush invaded Iraq with 150,000 troops a force small enough to make sure that the war would not be won which is the case as of May 1, 2007. With more forces and a lot more diplomacy we saw some improvement (*added Jully 2008)
Ancient History of Iraq.
Below is a timeline for the History buff.
It outlines the Ancient History of Iraq or Mesopotamia as the cradle of civilization.
This History of the most ancient civilisation has a couple of jewels worth reading .
Mesopotamia, modern day Iran means the land between two rivers which are the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization where historians believed that human began to form what we call a civilization.
The origins of civilization are dated between 6000 BC and 5000 BC the Sumerians a non- Semitic people began a form of written communication that evolved into cuneiform texts around 2500 BC when the Epic of Gilgamesh was written, a long poem describing the exploits of a hero. The Sumerians also invented irrigation, the wheel, astronomy, arithmetic, and organized religion. They established the first city states and fought each other on a regular basis.
The AMORITES, a Semitic people, succeeded them from 2000 BC to 1600 BC but continued their culture.
One of their Kings Hammurabi established one of the most comprehensive legal codes of his time and established a strong administration that changed the prevailing organization of the city states.
The Hittites reigned in the region from 1600 to 1200 BC by military conquest but left no cultural or monumental imprint
From 1200 BC to 600 BC the Assyrians a people perceived as accomplished but cruel warriors conquered the region and founded Nineveh their capital city.
Their rule was perceived as so cruel that after their demise all their constructions were razed.
Around 539 BC Persians established their domination over ancient Iraq. It was the reign of Cyrus the Great, then Darius then Xerxes then Cyrus the young.
The Persian Empire was the greatest known until that time and Iraq was a province.
The first emperor Cyrus the Great was a follower and promoter of a religion called Zoroastrianism named after its founder Zarathustra.
It is an important religion because it is probably the foundation of Christianity and Islam. Zoroastrianism religion has the god of Evil opposing the god of good in an incessant fight and Cyrus the Great saw that it was his mission to fight against evil, and he was thus the first Crusader with a fierce will to disseminate his religion around the known world.
In 330 the Greek Alexander the Great defeated Darius III at Issus taking control of the Persian Empire including Iraq. Alexander the Great did not impose a harsh rule on his Iraqi subjects and let them follow their religions and customs.
Following Alexander one of his generals founded the Seleucid Dynasty a Persian Greek dynasty that ruled Iran and Iraq from approximatively 312 BC to 247 AD regions of the Empire which were mostly inhabited by Persians at this time.
After the Seleucides came the Parthians and as almost all their archives were destroyed little is know beside the fact that they were implacable warriors as well as feared rulers. They ruled from 247 BC until 228 AD
After the Parthians came the Saasanides an Iranian Dynasty claiming that they were the descendant od the great Persian Emperors such as Darius the Great.
Around these times in Iraq a prophet Mani created a religion which blended Zorostrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism. The religion was called Manichaeism and one of its fundamental principles is the constant fight between good and evil but evidently the tolerance of other religions, this new religion with a new concept became very popular and temporarily revolutionozed the society until Conservatism took over again..
200 years later during the same dynasty Another prophet Mazlak advocated the abolition of private property, the division of wealth and non violence.
Mazlak had invented socialism 1400 years before Karl Marx
One of their king King Anushiravan developed education, scientific and medical research, and philosophy and literature.
They had a dynasty of thirty kings and it was the longest period when almost all Iraq was ruled by Iranian.
The Sassanides conquered and ruled the region from 227 to 638 AD If we put together the periods in ancient History and History when Iraq was a province of the Iranian Empire or Iraq was dominated by rulers from Iran we have more than 1000 years of Iranian domination over Iraq.
THAT GIVES THE IRANIAN A STRONG CLAIM TO IRAQI TERRITORIES.
Then we have the advent of Islam.
Eric Lafayette
The SEVEN GREATEST MILITARY COMMANDERS IN HISTORY
2006 November 27th modified March 14th 2009, December 1st 2010
In the USA, among most people, but certainly among great businessmen in our era, it is common knowledge that success in business and in life is defined by the same set of rules that can be applied to almost any field. Hence it should be possible to apply the same rules again and again to any sort of business enterprises and achieve success.
The following summary studies the extraordinary achievements of five men who did not read road to success books, but who nonetheless conquered huge areas of the worlds they lived in or won impossible battles, against all odds even including supposedly superior enemies.
The fascinating element is that each of these commanders in chief achieved their victories by using completely different STRATEGIES. These military geniuses were without any argument the Greatest Commanders in Chief in the World and they are:
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
HANNIBAL
JULIUS CAESAR
GENGHIS KHAN
NAPOLEON
GENERAL PETREAUS
SUN TZU