Reply #2: History Lesson

[Stalwart]

http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=8382


January 13, 2006
History's Burden in Iraq
A review of William Polk's Understanding Iraq
by Alan Bock

History Lesson:

"Polk's discussion of British rule, directly from 1918 to 1933 and indirectly until 1958, is most relevant to the current situation. The British invasion in 1914 was based on bad intelligence and little knowledge of the region. Sound familiar?

The British expected the Iraqis to be grateful for their good administration, but "he Iraqis did not want Britain to run their country," and a vast insurrection emerged against the 133,000 British troops (number sound familiar?). The anti-guerrilla campaign eventually cost six times as much as the entire World War I campaign in the Middle East. When the ground war became a stalemate, the British used air power, as the United States is doing now. Its effectiveness was limited."

Snip........

"Interestingly, T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), who had actually spent time in the Middle East, understood the problems better than most of those deputed to solve them. In August 1920, he wrote a letter to the London Sunday Times:

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honor. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. … We are, today, not far from a disaster."