Thursday - July 01, 2004

Between Iraq And A Hard Place

Do you think Iraqis are a peaceful people who have been driven to brutal killings by American treatment of prisoners or occupation of their country? Do you think Republicans are to blame for the mess we find ourselves in today in Iraq? Do you really believe that dismembering and publicly displaying corpses is out of character for the Iraqi people?

If you answered "Yes" to any of the three questions above then I highly recommend you go visit your public library and read up on Middle Eastern history because your government-sponsored schools didn't teach you a damn thing about modern history.

I made mention of a date in a recent post here and several alert readers inquired about that date and what happened. Here's the scoop, kids. Try not to be too shocked at what you may learn. Our story begins almost 46 years ago in a little country called Iraq ....

On July 14, 1958, a single division of the Iraqi Army led by General Abdul Qarim Qasim (picture below), ostensibly moving through Baghdad to a new location, suddenly attacked the palace and overthrew the government. Armed mobs financed by Egyptian sources emerged, and excited the crowds and instigated bloody vengeance on anyone connected with the Royal Family or government. Before any loyal elements of the army, the British or the Jordanians could intervene, everything was over.

18-year-old King Faisal II of Iraq (picture below) had angered President Nasser of Egypt by refusing to join the Pan-Arab league so the Egyptians set about to remove Faisal, assisting General Qasim in the bloody coup. The young King, the Crown Prince and their female relatives and aides were gunned down in cold blood outside the palace, under the pretence of a truce. The bodies of several prominent figures were dragged through the streets and mutilated in a fashion so barbaric that Iraqis to this day remember with shame the atrocities committed. With a beginning as inauspicious as this, the military regime that replaced the monarchy did not survive better. On October 7, 1959 Saddam Hussein took part in an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Qasim and was shot in the leg and exiled to Egypt.

The 1958 revolution, which toppled the British-installed monarchy, was gruesome and bloody. The regent Abdullah and several members of his family were gunned down in cold blood. The body of his uncle, Abdul Illah (picture below), was dragged through the streets of Baghdad and later dismembered. Prime Minister Nuri es-Said (picture below), long despised as the “puppet” of the British occupiers, tried to escape dressed as a woman but was found two days later and killed. His body was dismembered by the mob, the parts left in the street and motorists drove over his body.

General Qasim was an anti-Westerner, who would later seal his own fate by helping to create OPEC. He also made the mistake of relying on the local Communist Party for support, leaning, politically, towards Russia, and (surprise!) threatening to annex Kuwait. All of these, naturally, caused concern for President Kennedy (a Democrat), and the CIA assisted in the brutal assassination of Qasim on February 8, 1963, and helped bring the oil-company-friendly Ba'ath Party (to which Saddam Hussein belonged) to power.

For you conspiracy theorists out there, later in that same year President Kennedy was assassinated (November 22, 1963) and succeeded by Lyndon Johnson, a Texas oil man (also a Democrat). President Johnson was later driven out of office in 1968 after making a total mess of the quagmire in Vietnam .... where John Kerry served .... in Vietnam .... did I mention that John Kerry served in Vietnam? Did you know that John Kerry is also a Democrat, just like Kennedy and Johnson? John Kerry really has a lot to live down to, doesn't he?

So you see, (1) the war in Iraq started before many of you were born, (2) it was started by Egypt and an American Democratic President, and (3) the butal methods of the Iraqi mobs haven't changed one bit.

Any questions?

King Faisal II	Abdul Ilah (with son)	General Abdul Qarim Qasim

Here is your History Picture Of The Day

Pictured below at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1918 at the end of World War I are:
Prince Faisal I (front), Nuri es-Said (left) and "Lawrence Of Arabia" (right)
(yes, that is the "real" Colonel T.E. Lawrence)



Further Reading On The Web:

1. "The Truly Fucked Up History Of Iraq".
2. "Iraq: The Hashemite Dynasty".
3. "Jordan: Crisis and Realignment".
4. "Timeline: Iraq".
5. "The Arab-Israeli Wars, 1948-1973".
6. "Modern Iraq".
7. "Leaders Of Iraq".
8. "The Devil in the Details: The CIA and Saddam Hussein"

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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