Iraq was under the Ba'ath Party from 1968 until 2003 when the Iraqi state and the regime were toppled and the invasion took place.
Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq since 1979. He joined the Ba'ath Party and had a long history and life of being politically active. His coming to power and taking the presidency of Iraq changed not only the history of Iraq but, also even the ideas of the Ba’ath Party.
There was a time, for example in the ’70s and the ’80s, that the Ba’ath Party had very good connections and relations with Western Europe and the United States. So the Ba’ath Party itself was a secular party. It wanted people to be just loyal to that party, that was the main criterion But if you have any separatist anti-party activities then many people suffered.
Sanctions of the USA on Iraq
In the Iraq invasion of 1990, the Iraqi regime had decided to invade Kuwait to annex it to Iraq And then in 1991, the United States had the first Gulf War as a punishment for entering Kuwait. That was a shift also in Iraq's relationship with the West, including the United States.
So, Saddam Hussein became suddenly a villain, and then it was followed by 13 years of sanctions which most of the victims were the Iraqi people. Hundreds of thousands of people. who died because of a lack of medicine and food and basic human needs.
The U.N. sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council, U.N.S.C banned almost, you know, anything you could think of that is remotely close in quotation mark.
Weapon of Mass Destruction and Iraq
To manufacture weapons of mass destruction from entering Iraq. Iraqi people, especially thinkers and academics, saw those sanctions as a way that the West used to sort of, attain the consent of Iraqi people paving the way for the 2003 occupation.
Because only when you have disempowered, tired, hungry people who are dying and suffering only then will you be able to sort of guarantee their acceptance or welcoming of occupation.
The official reason that was given during the build-up to the Iraq War is that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and it was causing a threat to the world. And so that was the script that was in the media and the newspapers that people kept reading about And that Saddam is very dangerous. He was supporting, directly, and or indirectly all kinds of militant and terrorist groups Again, the region is politically important.
Iraq was becoming more and more sort of not suitable partner in the Western plan in the region There are the economic reasons- that the oil, the need to have dominance over resources in places like Iraq is very important And the Ba'ath Party nationalized all its oil and resources from the 1970s. It kicked out all the foreign companies.
Effect of Iraq war
The histories were already becoming intertwined between the United States and Iraq. 2003- The Iraqi government was toppled and Saddam's rule was over. The occupation of Iraq took place and between 2003-2004. there was a lot of hope in the Iraqi public. They were hoping that now that the single-party rule, the Saddam Hussein rule is over and it's time for another kind of start where there are more freedoms and better democracies and people will practice a lot of rights that they couldn't practice during that political system From 2003-2004.
we have the Coalition Provisional Authority, the C.P.A. that was ruling Iraq until the interim Iraqi government was formed A lot of problems started during that time, during this rule from April 2004 to June 2005 in Iraq And one of the biggest things they did was the so-called "de-ba'athification" which is all the higher up officials of the Ba'ath Party from all Iraqi institutions, public services, public servants.
It's a very complex thing because a lot of Iraqis had to sort of symbolically be in the Ba'ath Party in order just to live in the society because it was the party ruling and so the "de-ba'athification" affected huge sections of the Iraqi society. It removed a lot of people. And so what that did, it did leave not just simply vacuum of power.
It sort of dismantled the society Now, when you disband the entire Iraqi army in this blanket collective punishment Where will they go?
Well, some of them left the country. Some of them just find a way to live. But, some of them became very angry, and they had to find other ways including finding insurgency. And then the successive Iraqi governments sort of operated on of the things that were prepared or done, drafted by the C.P.A. but also adding their own touch to it.
The effects of the Iraq invasion of 2003 are huge on the average Iraqi people. Most everyone in Iraq suffered, so since Iraqi people have been sort of leaving the country from the '90s During the '90s.
The first Gulf War led to a lot of Iraqi people leaving the country to refugee camps and different places. Then the sanctions, many people for economic reasons, some for political reason, they were leaving. So the country has been bleeding its own people for a very long time. But the peak, the most difficult point that affected a lot of people and forced them to leave was after 2003.
Iraq is a divided zone. You have one place under ISIS. You have the Kurdish region. You have the government in Baghdad. And all of these zones are friendly to some people and not friendly to others. You have the internal displacement. Not just they are leaving out - leaving within.
The effects of this war on the American public have been huge. People either didn't understand how big this was going to be or they were simply misinformed. The question is that what were people told about this war? What kind of information did they have before they even decided that they were pro or against the war? Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. And so what we know today is that was a false claim. that the war took place because of weapons of mass destruction What we are not sure about is whether that was known to those in power or not.
In terms of how the Iraq War affected the region, Iraq has been seen as a strong country as a very important country in the region. at many levels. Before the war, it was seen as a military power, and intellectual power.
Many people came to Iraq to study to learn. It was a very important place for a lot of Arab people. As soon as Iraq collapsed and was dismantled as we knew it before The affected how the people in the street of many Arab countries, Middle Eastern countries felt It was a very demoralizing kind of effect. So, when Iraq is totally sort of disempowered and turned into a malleable dismantled state that of course affects the whole region.
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