Iraqi Whispers Mull Repeat of 1920s Revolt Over Western Occupation

[Aidoneus]

Iraqi Whispers Mull Repeat of 1920s Revolt Over Western Occupation
by Hannah Allam and Tom Lasseter

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Whispers of "revolution" are growing louder in Baghdad this month at teahouses, public protests and tribal meetings as Iraqis point to the past as an omen for the future.

Iraqis remember 1920 as one of the most glorious moments in modern history, one followed by nearly eight decades of tumult. The bloody rebellion against British rule that year is memorialized in schoolbooks, monuments and mass- produced tapestries that hang in living rooms.

Now, many say there's an uncanny similarity with today: unpopular foreign occupiers, unelected governing bodies and unhappy residents eager for self-determination. The result could be another bloody uprising.

"We are now under occupation, and the best treatment for a wound is sometimes fire," said Najah al Najafi, a Shiite cleric who joined thousands of marchers at a recent demonstration where construction workers, tribal leaders and religious scholars spoke of 1920.

--snip--

The historic rebellion has broad resonance. A band of anti-American insurgents has named itself the "1920 Revolution Brigades," and Sistani himself, in a newspaper advertisement this month, asked Iraq's influential tribes to remember that year.

"We want you to be revolutionaries ... you should have a big role today, as you had in the revolution in 1920," the ad said.

--snip--

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/7809559.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0127-08.htm

[Benhurst]

1. Thanks for an informative post. n/t

[Lithos]

2. This is a very real scenario

This was also the conflict which saw the British use airplanes to drop poison gas on villagers in a brutal attempt to stop the uprising.

[Aidoneus]

3. actually, if memory serves..

the RAF was not able to properly drop the poison gasses from their jets, they had to use artillery shells for it instead.

minor quibble..

The 1920 Revolution in the south (organized at first by Imam Shirazi) was not the only set of 'troublemakers' that the British occupation forces had to massacre, as there was also a Kurdish independence movement active. This was nominally led under a part-time British puppet governor and part-time King of (independent) Kurdistan. This resistance was sparked off by the British invasion and occupation of the vilayet of Mosul, breaking a previous agreement that such would not be done.

At any rate, there was very much "lively terror" to go around for everybody, unleashed by the invaders who had first proclaimed "we come not as conquerors, but as liberators.."--the more things change..

[Lithos]

4. No quibble

The RAF did do that, but you are right it wasn't effective because the technology was too new.

As for a quibble back, they were biplanes, not jets. This was 1920.

Here is a good background article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/03/18/widip218.xml

Which has this wonderful quote and followup at the top.

'I hate Iraq. I wish we had never gone to the place," said Winston Churchill in 1926 when, as Chancellor, he was asked to sink yet more millions into Britain's "Mesopotamian entanglement".

Churchill had always advocated withdrawing from Iraq, a country that he, more than anyone else, created. He lamented that its "ferocious" people had a habit of rising against British rule and rendering the country an "ungrateful volcano".