Does History Repeat?

Does History Repeat?


Does history repeat itself?..............Does history..............?


Alrighty then--let us check into our way-back machine, set the dial for Iraq 1920. The San Remo conference has given us the Iraq Mandate. Which gave the UK control over the area. The area being some indiscrimate lines drawn in the desert sand and called the country of Iraq. Before the ink even dried on the paper the attacks on the British began. Why? Well the Brits in their wisdom, used foreigners to be the admin of the newly formed country. Needless to say the locals were not thrilled with this decision. And the resistance grew and grew with lots of local deaths to add to the chaos. You see the UK failes to include local elites in the decision making and the admin of the country. By any stretch of the imagination, would piss you off also.

Arab nationalists were a big problem for the Brits. In 1941, the nationalists were causing a prob in Basra; the Brits sent in foreign troops and the upraisning was quelled in a bout 4 weeks. That sounds familiar for siome reason (sarcasm intended). After this the Brits still used elites to rule, they still did not have the approval of the locals. The Brits continued to throw their weight behind those leaders who were never part of the average way of life. The Iraqi leadership, at the time, had a very weak grip on power. Another very familiar sounding occurrance.

Now grab your butt and set the machine dial to 2003--Now we see we are in Iraq, Saddam has been diposed and the US has set up an interim govt. We have an American in charge of the interim govt and the list of players in the govt are ex-patriates, all wealthy and all living outside of Iraq for years. These peopl were chosen for their pro-US position, just as the original admin were chosen for their pro-Brit position. If you look closely at Iraq, the people do not have too much confidence in these "foreigners" and their attempt to run the country. De Ja Vu All Over Again!

So you see that the same mistakes are being made yet again. Nothing was learned originally and nothing was learned on the second trip to the table. Unfortunately, the second trip is costing Iraqi lives by the hundreds. There are forces at work within Iraq that give the "average" Iraqi more power in the decisions of their country. However, they are very unpopular with the US and its guys in Iraq. As you see the Brits did not ask for the Iraqis input into their government and neither did the US.

Each time, the interests of the occupying country were the main concern not that of the average Iraqi citizen. THe democracy thing was intersting, it was more a government that would have the interests of the occupyiers not the Iraqis.

I say let the Iraqis, the ones that stayed and faced Saddam, run their country they know exactly what is needed to bring themselves security.

I believe it was Einstein who said, Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Maybe someone should read a little more and the same occurrances would not be happening.

Does history repeat itself? You bet your butt, it does.


CHUQ
12/02/07