Architects of Delusion: Europe, America, and the Iraq War

Francophobia

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Roundtable on Overreach: Delusions of Regime Change in Iraq | H-Diplo | ISSFH-Diplo | ISSF

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Architects of Delusion: Europe, America, and the Iraq War

See what's been added to the collection in the current 1 2 3 4 5 6 weeks months years. Cite this Email this Add to favourites Print this page. Catalogue Persistent Identifier https: You must be logged in to Tag Records. In the Library Request this item to view in the Library's reading rooms using your library card. Judge Wael Abdul Latif stands up and shuffles across his shabby office towards a cluttered cabinet. After rummaging for a bit, he returns carrying a pink Manila folder.

With pride, he lays out its contents — a series of wrinkled, faded A4 coloured printouts — straightening and smoothing their frayed edges.

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The judge shows me another image of his meetings with British and Iraqi officers. The British worked well, they met with local sheikhs and attended their tribal councils. When I asked their military for a bridge, they built it in one month. A printout of an official portrait of the Queen has faded into pinkish hues: He walks away from the pictures, and slumps back in his chair.

Every time I wanted to start a major project or bring investment to the city, the council members would hamper all my efforts and block any new project. Days after the fall of the city to British troops, a column of military jeeps carrying a small group of seasoned Shia fighters and intelligence officers who had been based in Iran for the past two decades crossed the Iranian border and headed for Basra.

Ostensibly, their job was to prepare the ground for the main exiled Shia opposition forces to resettle in Iraq. In fact, their principal objective was to test the British response to their presence. Will they open fire on us? Back in Iran, there was similar confusion among intelligence, military and religious leaders.

In fact, the column of jeeps drove all the way to Basra unopposed. Abu Hashem and his fellow exiled leaders realised not only that the British were not going to shoot at them, they were going to be their new allies — depending on the Shia Islamic parties to run the city, and give the impression that a sense of normality was returning. While the British in Basra — like the Americans in Baghdad — indulged in widespread acts of self-delusion about progress and democracy , the new Islamist arrivals dominated the new political scene here, and their military wings became the cornerstones of the newly established security forces.

The British forces were trying to establish relations with all these parties, and to avoid a clash at any cost. Meanwhile, a more radical impoverished youth, inspired and led by the Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr , discovered a niche for themselves by fighting the British.

Blair’s Basra

These militias, intertwined with tribes and smuggling cartels, dominated every aspect of commercial life in Basra. They ran 62 floating docks for smuggling oil.

The militias and the religious parties became dispensers of justice and patronage — the gateway through which any major transaction had to be completed. Abu Hashem, the Shia security official, explains this phenomena: If you worked hard by yourself, you could read books and teach yourself something — but in general we were left alone, without any chance to develop. But I was wrong.

I found out that even the humblest of exiles — those who had nothing to do in Iran but loiter — started getting positions for themselves. They saw a void, and they filled it.

About De Gruyter

In , just as British and American pronouncements about their successes — and the readiness of Iraqi security forces — were becoming more forceful , the British were in fact retreating into smaller and smaller bases. Muhssen is tall, built like a wrestler with small, sharp eyes. A plump teenager in a very short jeans skirt, tight blouse and high heels sways her way towards us, drops a menu on the table, then slumps back to the sofa to play with her phone. Another young woman in tight jeans brings us our coffees. Every month they give their protectors a gift. When we first came to Basra, we were full of zeal.

We thought we will crush the gangs and the militias. But then we realised they are the prevailing powers in this city, not the government, so we withdrew.

Even our bosses draw red lines that we should not cross; they know their own limitations. As in other corrupt, oil-rich countries, the wealth did not trickle down in Iraqi society, but rather created a new, kleptocratic class of militia commanders, party officials and clan leaders.

There are sharks that run the oil and electricity projects; if you stand against them, they will hit you.

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