This review article appeared in the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies 6/3 (2012), pp. 243-248.
The Iraqi Revolution of 1958: A Revolutionary Quest for Unity and Security, Juan Romero (2011), Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 241 pp., ISBN-10: 0761852581, ISBN-13: 978-0761852582, £41.95 (hbk).
The Iraqi Revolution of 1958: A Revolutionary Quest for Unity and Security, Juan Romero (2011), Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 241 pp., ISBN-10: 0761852581, ISBN-13: 978-0761852582, £41.95 (hbk).
From Dictatorship to Democracy: An Insider’s Account of the Iraqi
Opposition to Saddam, Hamid al-Bayati
(2011), Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 347 pp., ISBN-10:
0812242882, ISBN-13: 978-0812242881, £20.70 (pbk).
Iraq, Democracy and the Future of the Arab World, Ali Paya and John Esposito, eds. (2011), New York:
Routledge, 220 pp., ISBN-10: 0415697905, ISBN-13: 978-0415697903, £23.70 (pbk).
While preparing for my first research visit to Iraq in
May and June 1980, I was taken aback by the few studies of Iraqi politics and
society that could guide my work. Hanna Batatu’s massive study The Old Social Classes and Revolutionary
Movements of Iraq had been published recently by Princeton University Press
in 1978, and there were the three volumes by Iraqi expatriate scholar Majid
Khadduri, Independent Iraq, Republican Iraq and Socialist Iraq. Beyond a few essays by Elie Kedourie, likewise an
Iraq expatriate, and works by former British colonial officials, such as
Gertrude Bell and Philip Ireland, there was little to help the non-Iraqi
researcher unlock the complexities of Iraqi politics.
Iraq’s 1980 invasion of
Iran, the seizure of Kuwait in 1990, two wars that resulted from these attacks,
the massive uprising (Intifada) that followed the Gulf War of January
1991, the severe UN sanctions regime imposed on Iraq between 1991 and 2003 and
the US toppling of Saddam Husayn’s Ba’thist regime in 2003 have produced a deluge of writings on
Iraq. The key question is, what have we learned from this outpouring of
studies?
Three recently published
studies offer insights into our understanding of Iraq. Treating them
chronologically, Juan Romero’s study The
Iraqi Revolution of 1958: A Revolutionary Quest for Unity and Security is
one of the first works to focus specifically on the Revolution, especially the
causal factors leading up to it. Hamid al-Bayati’s From Dictatorship to Democracy: An Insider’s Account of the Iraqi
Opposition to Saddam is exactly what the title implies, a detailed account
by an important political actor who exercised significant influence on Iraqi
politics both before and after the overthrow of Saddam Husayn’s regime.
Finally, we have Ali Paya and John Esposito’s edited volume Iraq, Democracy and the Future of the Muslim
World, which includes a number of important essays on the democratization
process in Iraq after 2003.
Professor Romero’s study,
which is based on a rich database of Arabic and archival resources, begins with
an excellent theoretical discussion that poses the following question: Did the
overthrow of the Hashimite monarchy in July 1958 constitute a true revolution?
The author’s answer is an emphatic ‘yes’. He uses six criteria to make his
argument, namely, popular participation in the Revolution, its extensive impact
on Iraqi society, the subsequent expanded role of the state in the economy, a
dramatic transformation of Iraq’s foreign policy, important changes in the form
of government and, finally, a fundamental shift in the social psychology of
Iraqi society.
Despite the conceptual and
theoretical sophistication of the author’s introduction, the study fails to
consider a number of counter-arguments which belie his position. Unlike the
Bolshevik or Chinese revolutions, for example, the large landowning class and
its political influence were not affected in any significant fashion by the
Qasim regime’s policies, as Professor Romero himself notes (p. 208). Further,
much of the Revolution’s accomplishments were undone by the brutal Ba’thist
regime, which overthrew ‘Abd al-Karim Qasim in February 1963, which the author
does not discuss.
One of the volume’s most
serious shortcomings is the author’s failure to address the argument that the
Revolution actually paved the way for dictatorship as seen in the Ba’thist
regime, which came to power in 1968. The 1958 Revolution is part of a political
struggle which extends back to the early years of the twentieth century and
which continues until today, namely the ideological struggle over Iraqi
identity. This struggle pitted al-wataniya
al-mahaliya or "local nationalism" (or what I have referred to elsewhere as
Iraqist nationalism), which viewed Iraq as a multi-ethnic and confessional
society, against a much smaller group of Pan-Arabists who wanted to make Iraq
part of a larger Pan-Arab nation-state. This tension, I would argue, was the
main driver of the political and social cleavages which developed after the
Revolution. These cleavages pitted Qasim and his allies in the powerful Iraqi
Communist Party (ICP) against Colonel ‘Abd al-Salam ‘Arif and the Pan-Arabists
in the officer corps, namely those who supported either the Ba’th Party or
Egypt’s Jamal ‘Abd al-Nasir.
Qasim was never, as the
author asserts, a Pan-Arabist. While it is true that he was chosen to lead the
Revolution due to his outstanding military performance in Palestine during the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, he was of the opinion that Iraq faced too many domestic
problems to
add to complicate
them further by becoming involved in Pan-Arab
politics. Qasim also feared that Iraq would become subordinated to ‘Abd al-Nasir if it chose to join the
United Arab Republic.
Instead, Qasim promoted a
new, inclusive political identity linked to ancient Mesopotamia, the Kurds and Pan-Arabism. These themes can be
seen in his creation of a new national flag centered on the star of Ishtar,
which referenced the Kurds through its yellow sun, and included the black,
white, green and red colors of Pan-Arabism. The many parades in Baghdad during
Qasim’s rule, which included floats portraying themes from ancient Iraq, as well
as his emphasis on the shared folklore of all Iraq’s ethno-confessional groups
which he saw as a means of overcoming Iraq’s political and social cleavages,
demonstrated a new and sophisticated way of addressing Iraq’s complex identity
politics.
Professor Romero fails to
address in a meaningful way the negative side of the Revolution. Despite his
commitment to the interests of the Iraqi people, especially the less fortunate
members of society by whom he was much beloved, Qasim was a dictator. He
systematically dismantled civil society, including Iraq’s powerful labor
movement, banned political parties and largely muzzled the press. These actions
facilitated the rise of the Ba’thist dictatorship and one-party rule a decade
after Qasim and the Free Officers seized power. In this sense, the Revolution
left a very negative legacy, one which the author fails to recognize.
Despite some of these
shortcomings, Professor Romero’s study provides a detailed analysis of the
politics that led up to the Revolution. One of the most important themes is the
extensive discussion of the impact of international politics on the Hashimite
monarchy and on the mobilization of the Iraqi populace against the Iraqi
strongman of the period, Nuri al-Sa’id.
Dr Hamid al-Bayati, currently
Iraq’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has written an important
memoir about his experiences while in opposition to Saddam Husayn’s regime. Dr
al-Bayati, who has already published a number of important studies in Arabic on
modern Iraq, was closely associated with the Supreme Council for the Islamic
Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which later changed its name to the Supreme Iraqi
Islamic Council (SIIC). This factor influenced opposition politics as the US
felt uncomfortable with SCIRI, which had been formed in Iran in 1982 and led by
Iranian Revolutionary Guards for the first two years of its existence.
This is a study very
different from much of what has been published on Iraq since 2003. Rather than
dwell on the negative aspects, the author emphasizes the strides which the Iraqi
people have made since the Ba’thist regime’s downfall. Rightfully, he cites the
positive outcomes of the elections in 2005, 2009 and 2010 and the enthusiasm
with which Iraqis have generally embraced democratic politics.
As a central figure in the
Iraqi opposition movement that developed during the 1990s, the author had
meetings with many important American officials and other Iraqi opposition
figures. We learn about the inner dynamics of the Clinton administration’s
policies towards Iraq. For example, unlike the Bush administration, it was
loath to support Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Conference (INC) over other
opposition groups, preferring to engage the opposition movement as a whole (p.
90). Although he does not go into detail, it is also clear that Iraq’s neighbours,
especially Saudi Arabia, played a critical role in fashioning US policy towards
Iraq during the 1990s (p. 93).
While the Iraqi opposition
could do little to influence Saddam’s regime militarily, it did influence
international public opinion, often making it difficult for regime officials to
travel outside the country. ‘Izzat al-Duri, Barzan al-Tikriti and Tariq ‘Aziz
all found their ability to travel hampered by the effective INDICT Internet
campaign, which highlighted the regime’s human rights abuses and filed charges
against Ba’thist officials once they travelled abroad (p. 110).
The Clinton administration’s
cautious approach to toppling Saddam – too timid in the view of many –
contrasts sharply with that of the Bush administration. Here the author pulls
no punches in criticizing the Bush administration for ineffective planning and
not taking advantage of assistance by the Iraqis who would have helped the United
States after Saddam was toppled. Dr al-Bayati asked why the US forces only
secured the Ministry of Oil and the Ministry of Defense in Saddam’s Republican
Palace once they arrived in Baghdad. He never found an answer (p. 189).
It is odd that Dr al-Bayati
fails to analyze the sectarian dimensions of Iraqi
politics in any comprehensive manner both prior to and following the overthrow
of Saddam’s regime. He discusses the anger of the Shi’a towards the Kurdish
Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani, for accepting military assistance
from Saddam’s army in 1996, when his forces were about to be defeated by those
of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Because they defended the KDP,
Barzani allowed Saddam’s forces to seize Shi’a opposition figures in Arbil.
While the author remarks
that the Kurds and Shi’a have historically shared good relations, despite the
anger that the killings caused, he fails to note that the KDP and Saddam
cooperated extensively to smuggle oil out of Iraq under the UN sanctions regime
(p. 137). This cooperation is all the more remarkable given the notorious Anfal
Campaign, which Saddam directed against the Kurds during the late 1980s,
including the bombing with chemical weapons of the Kurdish city of Halabja in
1988 with massive deaths and injuries to the populace.
These shortcomings
notwithstanding, From Dictatorship to
Democracy is required reading for anyone interested in the inner workings
of the Iraqi opposition prior to the US invasion of Iraq. How that opposition interacted with the
American occupation, especially during the period between 2003 and 2004, and
the highly flawed US policy towards Iraq tell us much about why Iraq developed
such political and social instability following the American invasion.
Ali Paya and John Esposito’s
Iraq, Democracy and the Future of the
Muslim World suffers from the problem of many edited volumes, namely
limited thematic coherence. The chapters in the volume do not fit entirely
comfortably under the three rubrics that divide the book: "Iraq," "Democracy"
and "the Muslim World." Nor do the three rubrics themselves provide a coherent
structure to the volume.
Nevertheless, the volume contains
a number of excellent essays. In reviewing them, I will focus on those which
deal explicitly with Iraq. Abbas Kadhim’s elegantly titled essay ‘Forging a
Third Way: Sistani’s marja’iyya between
Quietism and wilayat al-faqih’ draws
attention to one of the greatest ongoing threats to the development of Iraqi
democracy. If the Iranian regime, which recently appointed Iraqi-born Ayatollah
Mahmud Hashimi al-Shahroudi ostensibly to oversee the interests of Iranian
pilgrims, is able to influence the successor to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,
then the efforts of the Iraqi marja’iyya to prevent the politicization of
Shiism – a process that is already evident among the so-called Sadrist Trend –
could introduce a serious ‘fifth column’ into Iraqi politics.
Dr Kadhim’s essay offers
many insights into Ayatollah Sistani’s socialization. More importantly, it
examines the origins of the so-called ‘quietism’ of the marja’iyya, a process
which began when the British arrested and deported Shi’i clerics who
participated in the 1920 Revolution. However, it was the brutality of Saddam’s
dictatorship that cemented the ‘extreme measures of self-restraint’ followed by
the Shi’i clergy between 1974 and 2003 (p. 68).
The chapter ends with a
discussion of Ali al-Sistani’s role in promoting tolerance, non-violence and
democracy in Iraq, a topic which has still not been adequately analyzed. Lower
case al-Sistani] l-Sistani has been instrumental in expanding suffrage for
women, reducing violence and forcing the Iraqi government to follow the
Constitution, as he did in cooperation with Grand Mufti Ahmad ‘Abd al-Ghaffur
al-Samara’i, the head of Iraq’s Sunni
Arab Muslims, during the March 2010 elections.
The role of the Kurds in
democratization has likewise not been given enough attention, particularly the
positive impact of the Gorran (Change) Movement, which made its appearance on
the political stage in the 2009 Kurdish Regional Parliament elections. Salah
Aziz’s essay ‘Kurdistan: Democracy and the Future’ covers a broad range of
issues relating to the Kurds’ response to the development of democracy in the
Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), both before and after 2003. Human rights
issues, violence against women, civil society organizations, federalism, the
conflict over oil, and accountability and transparency in governance are
covered to provide a comprehensive overview of Kurdish politics in the first
decade of this century. It is also helpful to have voting data for the Kurdish
region drawn from the 2005 parliamentary elections.
Laith Kubba’s chapter
‘Lessons from Iraq’ offers an excellent thumbnail sketch of the problems that
plagued the American occupation of Iraq after 2003. He details the lack of
knowledge possessed by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator
L. Paul Bremer and makes clear that a more planned and hence more effective US
occupation policy could have prevented many of the problems Iraq subsequently
experienced. The marginalization of the Sunni community and reliance on ‘carpetbaggers’
(to use a phrase of Tariq and Jacqueline Ismael) meant that many of the key
players in the post-Saddam period were expatriates who used their ties to the United
States to promote selfish and narrowly construed agendas, rather than help
rebuild Iraqi society.
The author spares no
criticism of the so-called Islamist movements which sprang up with the
insurgency that developed in late 2003 and 2004. al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI) and
Ba’thist-supported militias which adopted Islamic names made little headway
among the largely pragmatic Iraqi people. Indeed, they eventually provoked
tribesmen in al-Anbar to develop the "Awakening Movement" (al-Sahwa),
which quickly marginalized these insurgent groups.
Faleh A. Jabar’s excellent
chapter ‘Religion, Sect, Ethnicity and Tribe: The Uncertainties of Identity
Politics in the New Society’ presents a nuanced and analytically sophisticated
overview of the dynamics of change in Iraqi communal identity politics,
especially after 2003. Dr Jabar sums up the dynamics succinctly when he states,
‘The Kurdish catchword was "federalism," that of the Shi’a was "demography was
democracy" (the Shi’a being a majority of the nation), and that of the Sunnis
was "restoration" (p. 21). The author’s analysis is crisp and to the point. His
commentary on the impact on the middle classes of the post-Saddam era is one
missing from most discussions of post-Ba’thist politics. The general tenor of
Dr. Jabar is that efforts to subsume Iraqis politics under rigid social and
political categories grounded in religion, sect, ethnicity and tribe –
especially after the damage wrought on Iraqi society by the 1990s sanctions
regime which upended much of the social order – are doomed to analytic failure.
As such, the author calls for a new conceptual framework for Iraqi politics
based in political sociology. In this sense, this chapter is analytically very
provocative.
All three of these studies teach us much about
the dynamics of pre- and post-Ba’thist Iraq. They point to the failure and the
potential of Iraqi politics since 1958. If nothing else, they offer a
cautionary tale. Politically, Iraq is still very unsettled, and claims about
the nature of its political life should be tempered with an appreciation of the
dynamics of change and avoidance of a static focus on sectarianism and communal identities
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