Iraqi men frisked by American soldiers in southern Iraq on 17/10/04. Picture by Chris Ison/PA Archive/PA Images. All rights reserved.The 2003 bombing of Iraq was supposed to replace the genocidal Baʿth state with democracy. It was supposed to show that humanity matters. Yet, this democratic principle rested on a strategy of warfare claiming that unless the Iraqi people are bombed by the United States and the United Kingdom, they will always be untrustworthy and remain a threat to democracy. It is in this instance – where the division between what is “democracy” contrary to a “dictatorship” –Iraq as a colony, condemned to endless wars, can be noticed.
The political and military invasion of Iraq was as much about “us” and “them,” as about the future control of lands, peoples, politics, and natural resources such as oil. It should be difficult to speak or write about Iraq without having a sense of its modern history. It is a history of colonization and violence. Instructions for American servicemen in Iraq during World War II was published in 1943. In a sense, it was a colonial writing of Iraq, intended to help the American soldiers stationed in Iraq to assist the British to win over “Nazi infiltration.” The American soldier is expected to read the Instructions in order to “understand” the Iraqi people and Iraq so that he does his “best and quickest job of sending Hitler back to where he came from.” Iraq was a British colony. Therefore, Hitler as a transformative political ideology and not as a mortal human body had no right to exist.
As a mode of control, the soldier’s duties involve knowing that “the native language of Iraq is Arabic. You will not need to know many words to get along … The Iraqis have some religious and tribal differences among themselves … The nomads are divided into tribes headed by sheikhs. These leaders are very powerful and should be shown great considerations.” The soldier must remember, “that tall man in the flowing robe you are going to see soon, with whiskers and the long hair, is a first-class fighting man, highly skilled in guerrilla warfare … if he is your friend, he can be a staunch and valuable ally. If he should happen to be your enemy – watch out!”
