Cheese Guevara
28th June 2014, 12:36
From the book "Sorrows of the Empire" by Chalmers Johnson (page 223)::
"In July 1979, Iraq also acquired a new leader, Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti of the Ba'ath Party. Slightly more than 20 years earlier, in 1958, Iraqi military officers inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser's nationalist revolt in 1952 against the British backed monarchy in Egypt, had seized power and taken the country in a Soviet leaning direction. The leader of the coup, General Abdel-Karim Kassem, proclaimed a republic, withdrew from the anti Soviet Baghdad Pact, legalized the Communist Party, decreed wide ranging land reform, and even granted autonomy to the Kurds in the north. These shifts, coming at the height of the Cold War, were too much for the US. CIA director Allan Dulles publicly called Iraq "the most dangerous spot in the world"- and in 1963, the CIA supported the anti communist Ba'ath Party's efforts to bring Kassem's republic to an end. Ba'ath activists, including a youthful Saddam Hussein, gunned down Kassem and many others on a list the CIA supplied. The plotters were able, however, only to create a coalition government. In 1968, the CIA again fomented a palace revolt in which the Ba'athists eliminated their coalition partners and assumed direct control. According to Roger Morris, a staff member of the national Security Council during the Johnson and Nixon administrations, "It was a regime that was really primary". In July 1979, the same year as the anti American revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein replaced his mentor, Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, as president, a position he held until 2003. He was like many other famous beneficiaries of American political intrigue before and since, a CIA "asset"."
British Imperialist puppet rule of Iraq therefore gave way to the CIA instigated coups. Today, Iraq is hounded by ISIS, ISIS largely being a Sunni movement. US puppets and allies (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Al Queda etc) are all Sunni. Their enemies - Syria, Iran, the leadership of Iraq - are largely Shia. Currently, the US is using ISIS to put pressure on the Iraqi leadership and hopefully oust it. The goal is regime change or the Balkanization of Iraq. The problem is, the US also detests ISIS - it simultaneously sees it as as useful proxy army to target Syria and Iran, whilst also colluding with Iran and Iraq to counter ISIS.
"In July 1979, Iraq also acquired a new leader, Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti of the Ba'ath Party. Slightly more than 20 years earlier, in 1958, Iraqi military officers inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser's nationalist revolt in 1952 against the British backed monarchy in Egypt, had seized power and taken the country in a Soviet leaning direction. The leader of the coup, General Abdel-Karim Kassem, proclaimed a republic, withdrew from the anti Soviet Baghdad Pact, legalized the Communist Party, decreed wide ranging land reform, and even granted autonomy to the Kurds in the north. These shifts, coming at the height of the Cold War, were too much for the US. CIA director Allan Dulles publicly called Iraq "the most dangerous spot in the world"- and in 1963, the CIA supported the anti communist Ba'ath Party's efforts to bring Kassem's republic to an end. Ba'ath activists, including a youthful Saddam Hussein, gunned down Kassem and many others on a list the CIA supplied. The plotters were able, however, only to create a coalition government. In 1968, the CIA again fomented a palace revolt in which the Ba'athists eliminated their coalition partners and assumed direct control. According to Roger Morris, a staff member of the national Security Council during the Johnson and Nixon administrations, "It was a regime that was really primary". In July 1979, the same year as the anti American revolution in Iran, Saddam Hussein replaced his mentor, Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr, as president, a position he held until 2003. He was like many other famous beneficiaries of American political intrigue before and since, a CIA "asset"."
British Imperialist puppet rule of Iraq therefore gave way to the CIA instigated coups. Today, Iraq is hounded by ISIS, ISIS largely being a Sunni movement. US puppets and allies (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Al Queda etc) are all Sunni. Their enemies - Syria, Iran, the leadership of Iraq - are largely Shia. Currently, the US is using ISIS to put pressure on the Iraqi leadership and hopefully oust it. The goal is regime change or the Balkanization of Iraq. The problem is, the US also detests ISIS - it simultaneously sees it as as useful proxy army to target Syria and Iran, whilst also colluding with Iran and Iraq to counter ISIS.