How do you solve a problem like Iraq?
An article from last week's Sunday Times reports that 'an independent commission set up by Congress with the approval of President George W Bush may recommend carving up Iraq into three highly autonomous regions'. There's nothing new in this idea. Globaleyes reported this on January 8, 2004.
At that time my opinion was that this was an appaling idea: hacking a country into pieces to suit the needs of an imperial conquerer. However, recent exposure to two extraordinary books and, of course, the consideration of the growing sectarian hatred in Iraq, has altered my view on this matter.
Rise and Fall
The first of the two books is Howard Bloom's revolutionary 'The Lucifer Principle'. The second is Niall Ferguson's recent opus 'The War of the World'. Although the books come from different disciplines and have different agendas, they touch on remarkably similar themes: the causes of ethnic hatred, the factors that lead to genocide and how nation-states and empires rise and fall.
Bloom's 'Lucifer Principle' is, to borrow the book's strapline, 'A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History' where, through the story of the human brain itself, Bloom extrapolates that racism, the 'fucking devil itself', is hard-wired into the human existence. Superorganisms (nations, empires, religions) rise and fall, each one having it's time in the sun, only to be inevitably brought down to size by a younger, faster evolving and ultimately more aggresive superorganism. From sponges to Global hegemonies, all rise and all fall.
1937 and all that
Ferguson's 'War of the World', is a self-proclaimed 'New history of the 20th century'. It includes some eyebrow-raising declarations. For example, did you know that the Second World War actually began in 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China? Did you know that we are now living in the midst of the third great global conflict? The gee-whizz factoids aside, the book (and superb accompanying TV show) draws our attention to some of the defining and recurring characteristics of war, genocide and racial hatred throughout the 20th century.
Which rather inelegantly brings me to my central point: if we are to accept Ferguson's observation that much of the worst racial hatred and ethnic division takes place when a former empire is shoe-horned into a fledgling 'nation-state', then the situation in Iraq not only starts to make sense, but also develops a grim familarity. Couple this with Bloom's assertion that racism is simply unavoidable (but which must and can be reduced to the level of dialogue) we are left with the rather grim conclusion, that perhaps the best thing to do with the appaling quagmire that is Iraq, is to allow it to be divided along ethnic lines.
Collective muscles
In doing so, the theory goes, we could hope to avoid precisely the same racial conflicts which emerged with such horrid violence when the former 'empire' that was Yugoslavia finally slipped from the hands of a single dictator. As we've seen, time and time again, when such dictatorships fragment (as they all seem to eventually do) the disparate groups previously cowed into submission by the will of a violent thug and his elite brute-squad, very quickly flex their collective muscles. The super-organism splits into its original constituent parts, which then begin jockeying for supremacy. The result is usually disastrous.
The combination of economic instability, social exclusion, a trigger-happy military and good old-fashioned poverty provides a budding dictator with everything he needs to rise to the top of the dung-heap. The surest way to hang on to, or grasp power in such an arena, is to play the race card. As Herman Goering observed 'The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. Tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger'. This is how Slobodan Milosevic convinced his countrymen of the need for a 'Greater Serbia'. The same way almost every genocidal maniac has mobilised one section of a nation against another.
An unpalatable question
If Iraq is to be spared the much-feared 'civil war' which many now see the country sliding into, we may have to consider an unpalatable question. Does the only solution to the ceaseless slaughter lie in denying the Milosevices-in-waiting the ammunition with which they can further ignite such a conflict, by making sure that there are borders in their way?
Find out More:
+War of the World+
Intro to Dr. Niall Ferguson's 'The War of the World' Channel 4 (UK) T.V. series.
Buy the book (amazon.com)
Buy the book (amazon.co.uk)
Niallferguson.org
Channel 4 War of the World mini-site
+The Lucifer Principle+
Buy the book (amazon.com)
Buy the book (amazon.co.uk)
Disinformation DVD (inclduing a superb interview with Bloom)
Howardbloom.net
post<li> - Post to Social Networking Sites
