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What this timeline shows is that the people of Iraq have endured
thirty five years of repression, three major conflicts, ethnic
cleansing, 12 years of sanctions, economic stagnation, followed
by the past three years of occupation, lawlessness, increasing
sectarian violence and a country on the verge of civil war. Let
us for a second concentrate on the 12 years of sanctions since
they preceded this war and resulted in the Iraq that the US
invaded in 2003. Those economic sanctions, imposed on a people
already oppressed by a dictator, made a significant dent to
Iraq’s economy, education, health care system and infrastructure
(which had significantly been destroyed during the 1st Gulf
War). These sanctions created high inflation that shut down the
country’s economy, brought on massive unemployment and cut off
revenue to the public sector. Salaries of school teachers,
doctors, engineers, technicians became almost worthless … so
much so that people who had earned a salary of $400 per month
were now earning less than $2 per month (the price of 2 pounds
of beef). In fact, when my mother visited Iraq in the late 90s
(for the first time in a decade) she was horrified to find
people on the street selling all their belongings, children out
of school begging, most middle class families reduced to poverty
… sights she had never witnessed in the Iraq of her days. Just
to put this in context, Iraq’s GDP per capita in the 80s was
greater than that of Spain, whilst in 2003 it was less than that
of Mozambique.
The education program was severely affected as well, so much so
that the regime’s efforts to eradicate illiteracy in the 70s and
80s were replaced in the 90s by poverty and the inability to
send children to school. This resulted in a massive rise in
female illiteracy nationwide, to an astounding figure of 43%. In
fact, Iraq is one of the few countries in the world where
mothers are generally better educated than their daughters, and
it is believed that Iraq now has one of the worst gender
literacy gaps in the world. This is not to mention the health
crisis that faced Iraq during those sanction years, where it is
reported that approximately 500,000 Iraqi children under the age
of 5 died as a direct result of the sanctions (mostly due to
malnutrition and the unavailability of basic medicines).
I mention all this because it is part of Iraq’s very recent
history which people seem to have forgotten, and yet it is vital
to understanding the Iraqi psyche and the lack of trust Iraqis
have in foreign powers, and of each other. Let us also look at
the regional powers and the role they have played in shaping
Iraq’s recent history. The people of Iraq are of diverse
ethnicities, religious beliefs, sects and origins. We have the
Kurds on the one hand who are of a different ethnic background
to the Arabs and have never had a country of their own, they are
instead minority groups in Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. We have
the Arabs who form the majority of Iraqis (approximately 80%),
and both these groups are divided into Shi’ites and Sunnis,
which are Islamic sects akin to Catholics and Protestants.
Assyrians, Turkmen, Christians and Jews complete the Iraqi
tapestry. Saddam’s policy played on this diverse nature of
Iraqis, whilst his actions were determined by ethnicities and
political affiliations. His basic survival was dependant on
creating mistrust between his people, disloyalty and division.
A much discussed, yet misunderstood, nature of today’s Iraq is
the Sunni/Shi’ite divide. Not only does it impact the outcome of
the war in Iraq, it has also played a significant role in
regional politics for decades. In fact, the competition for
power between Shi’ites and Sunnis is not a new development, nor
is it limited to Iraq’s borders … it has shaped alliances and
determined US and regional action for the past three decades.
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