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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 05:57 am: | 
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A little something from the archives:
Our last occupation
Gas, chemicals, bombs: Britain has used them all before in Iraq
Jonathan Glancey
Saturday April 19, 2003
The Guardian
No one, least of all the British, should be surprised at the state of anarchy in Iraq. We have been here before. We know the territory, its long and miasmic history, the all-but-impossible diplomatic balance to be struck between the cultures and ambitions of Arabs, Kurds, Shia and Sunni, of Assyrians, Turks, Americans, French, Russians and of our own desire to keep an economic and strategic presence there.
Laid waste, a chaotic post-invasion Iraq may now well be policed by old and new imperial masters promising liberty, democracy and unwanted exiled leaders, in return for oil, trade and submission. Only the last of these promises is certain. The peoples of Iraq, even those who have cheered passing troops, have every reason to mistrust foreign invaders. They have been lied to far too often, bombed and slaughtered promiscuously.
Iraq is the product of a lying empire. The British carved it duplicitously from ancient history, thwarted Arab hopes, Ottoman loss, the dunes of Mesopotamia and the mountains of Kurdistan at the end of the first world war. Unsurprisingly, anarchy and insurrection were there from the start.
The British responded with gas attacks by the army in the south, bombing by the fledgling RAF in both north and south. When Iraqi tribes stood up for themselves, we unleashed the flying dogs of war to "police" them. Terror bombing, night bombing, heavy bombers, delayed action bombs (particularly lethal against children) were all developed during raids on mud, stone and reed villages during Britain's League of Nations' mandate. The mandate ended in 1932; the semi-colonial monarchy in 1958. But during the period of direct British rule, Iraq proved a useful testing ground for newly forged weapons of both limited and mass destruction, as well as new techniques for controlling imperial outposts and vassal states.
The RAF was first ordered to Iraq to quell Arab and Kurdish and Arab uprisings, to protect recently discovered oil reserves, to guard Jewish settlers in Palestine and to keep Turkey at bay. Some mission, yet it had already proved itself an effective imperial police force in both Afghanistan and Somaliland (today's Somalia) in 1919-20. British and US forces have been back regularly to bomb these hubs of recalcitrance ever since.
Winston Churchill, secretary of state for war and air, estimated that without the RAF, somewhere between 25,000 British and 80,000 Indian troops would be needed to control Iraq. Reliance on the airforce promised to cut these numbers to just 4,000 and 10,000. Churchill's confidence was soon repaid.
An uprising of more than 100,000 armed tribesmen against the British occupation swept through Iraq in the summer of 1920. In went the RAF. It flew missions totalling 4,008 hours, dropped 97 tons of bombs and fired 183,861 rounds for the loss of nine men killed, seven wounded and 11 aircraft destroyed behind rebel lines. The rebellion was thwarted, with nearly 9,000 Iraqis killed. Even so, concern was expressed in Westminster: the operation had cost more than the entire British-funded Arab rising against the Ottoman Empire in 1917-18.
The RAF was vindicated as British military expenditure in Iraq fell from £23m in 1921 to less than £4m five years later. This was despite the fact that the number of bombing raids increased after 1923 when Squadron Leader Arthur Harris - the future hammer of Hamburg and Dresden, whose statue stands in Fleet Street in London today - took command of 45 Squadron. Adding bomb-racks to Vickers Vernon troop car riers, Harris more or less invented the heavy bomber as well as night "terror" raids. Harris did not use gas himself - though the RAF had employed mustard gas against Bolshevik troops in 1919, while the army had gassed Iraqi rebels in 1920 "with excellent moral effect".
Churchill was particularly keen on chemical weapons, suggesting they be used "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment". He dismissed objections as "unreasonable". "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes _ [to] spread a lively terror _" In today's terms, "the Arab" needed to be shocked and awed. A good gassing might well do the job.
Conventional raids, however, proved to be an effective deterrent. They brought Sheikh Mahmoud, the most persistent of Kurdish rebels, to heel, at little cost. Writing in 1921, Wing Commander J A Chamier suggested that the best way to demoralise local people was to concentrate bombing on the "most inaccessible village of the most prominent tribe which it is desired to punish. All available aircraft must be collected the attack with bombs and machine guns must be relentless and unremitting and carried on continuously by day and night, on houses, inhabitants, crops and cattle."
"The Arab and Kurd now know", reported Squadron Leader Harris after several such raids, "what real bombing means within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out, and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured, by four or five machines which offer them no real target, no opportunity for glory as warriors, no effective means of escape."
In his memoir of the crushing of the 1920 Iraqi uprising, Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer L Haldane, quotes his own orders for the punishment of any Iraqi found in possession of weapons "with the utmost severity": "The village where he resides will be destroyed _ pressure will be brought on the inhabitants by cutting off water power the area being cleared of the necessaries of life". He added the warning: "Burning a village properly takes a long time, an hour or more according to size".
Punitive British bombing continued throughout the 1920s. An eyewitness account by Saleh 'Umar al Jabrim describes a raid in February 1923 on a village in southern Iraq, where bedouin were celebrating 12 weddings. After a visit from the RAF, a woman, two boys, a girl and four camels were left dead. There were many wounded. Perhaps to please his British interrogators, Saleh declared: "These casualties are from God and no one is to be blamed."
One RAF officer, Air Commodore Lionel Charlton, resigned in 1924 when he visited a hospital after such a raid and faced armless and legless civilian victims. Others held less generous views of those under their control. "Woe betide any native [working for the RAF] who was caught in the act of thieving any article of clothing that may be hanging out to dry", wrote Aircraftsman 2nd class, H Howe, based at RAF Hunaidi, Baghdad. "It was the practice to take the offending native into the squadron gymnasium. Here he would be placed in the boxing ring, used as a punch bag by members of the boxing team, and after he had received severe punishment, and was in a very sorry condition, he would be expelled for good, minus his job."
At the time of the Arab revolt in Palestine in the late 1930s, Air Commodore Harris, as he then was, declared that "the only thing the Arab understands is the heavy hand, and sooner or later it will have to be applied". As in 1921, so in 2003.
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 07:53 am: |
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One must admire on some level Mr Glancey's ability to pick and choose bits of history here and there and use those bits to further an agenda. It certainly requires a keen eye to pick just the right bits so as not to lead the naieve reader to read the facts in their historical context.
Mr Glancey is very careful to avoid mentioning the Islamic slave trade which grew as Islam conqured the far east and attempted to expand into Europe. More then a century of coastal raids by Islamic slavers forced Europe into an uneasy union for self defense and brought on the Crusades in an attempt to stop the raids at their source.
No honest historian doubts the historical reasons for Europe's colonization of the Arabic lands or why they were so anxious to get out and hopefully leave a peaceful and prosperous situation behind.
Born with the gift of laughter and aware that the world is mad. -- Jimbo
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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 09:05 am: |
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Which looms larger in memory and weighs on us more, the sins we commit or those committed against us?
Good morning, Jim. Making a note to read up on the Islamic slave trade. Thanks for the heads up.
"If we don't learn to get along with one another, cast off our social and religious dogma and deal with reality as it is, we will not survive this social cycle and have to start all over again." - Jim Armstrong
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 02:10 pm: |
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"Which looms larger in memory and weighs on us more, the sins we commit or those committed against us?"
I love that question. The honest answer is so revealing of human egocentricity.
Good morning Egantry. Don't miss the Panamanian solution. It will shock and amaze you.
Born with the gift of laughter and aware that the world is mad. -- Jimbo
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 04:48 pm: |
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A few facts and another point of view that Mr Glancey chose to ignore.
http://www.worldthreats.com/middle_east/realiraq.html
Born with the gift of laughter and aware that the world is mad. -- Jimbo
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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 06:41 pm: |
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So things are going swimmingly in Iraq, too?
"If we don't learn to get along with one another, cast off our social and religious dogma and deal with reality as it is, we will not survive this social cycle and have to start all over again." - Jim Armstrong
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 07:53 pm: |
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No my friend things never go swimmingly in war.
War is a nasty business; its kill or be killed. If you snooze you die and noncombatents often get caught in the cross fire. The really unforgiveable act in war is to hide amongst the noncombatents using them as shields while trying to kill your opponets. International law allows such persons to be shot on sight and gives them no rights at all under any humanitarian rules.
Born with the gift of laughter and aware that the world is mad. -- Jimbo
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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 08:59 pm: |
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You mean Coulter was wrong, things aren't going swimmingly in Afghanistan?
I totally agree, Jim, hiding among noncombatants is a despicable act. As despicable as dropping cluster bombs on residential neighborhoods, blowing up hospitals, Red Cross ambulances, and caravans of innocent civilians fleeing a war zone.
"If we don't learn to get along with one another, cast off our social and religious dogma and deal with reality as it is, we will not survive this social cycle and have to start all over again." - Jim Armstrong
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 10:01 pm: |
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Reality is what it is. It seldom conforms to our notions of fair and honorable. It really sucks sometimes.
If I have a disagreement with someone and they decide to kick my butt to teach me a lesson or just to impose their point of view. The conundrum is, do I fight fair or do I find the quickest most efficient way to get the stupid unpleasantness over with and use it?
Simple logic tells me that "fair" is a non functional concept in this situation. If I could depend on them to be fair there would be no need to fight. We could just agree to disagree and go on with our own affairs. That same principle applys to war.
If the enemy uses ambulances to transport ammunition, troops and other war materials it would be a stupid commander that orderd his troops to give ambulances a free passage.
If the enemy dresses and pretends to be noncombatents until they have the tactical advantage. It would be a stupid commander that orders his troops to avoid shooting at or attacking caravans of appearent noncombaqtents.
If the enemy hides in and fires their artillery from residential neighborhoods. It would be a stupid commander that orders his troops to avoid damage to residential neighborhoods.
There is no honor in war. If the warring parties could depend on one another to behave honorably then there would be no war.
If we don't wake up and deal with reality as it is then this experiment in freedom will soon perish and some other society will have to start all over again.
Born with the gift of laughter and aware that the world is mad. -- Jimbo
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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 10:53 pm: |
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The reality was there were only wounded in those two ambulances, and the innocent civilians in the caravan had been told to leave the area by IDF forces who bombed them when they tried to comply. And the reality at the UN outpost that was bombed by Israel was that Isreal killed the UN observers they had been advised were there. You're quite right, Jim, there was no honor and no fairness.
Not sure if you read much fiction but I was wondering if you've read any of the novels by Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz who died today? If you have, what's your opinion? Worth the time?
Off for the night, hope you've had a wonderful day. I picture you living somewhere in the hills with a breathtaking view of nature's constant but everchanging beauty. If so, I envy you the coming autumn.
"If we don't learn to get along with one another, cast off our social and religious dogma and deal with reality as it is, we will not survive this social cycle and have to start all over again." - Jim Armstrong
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Njaeok
Starlite Member
Username: Njaeok
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 08:48 am: |
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Good morning everyone---
My morning is free for a change. I had to cancel everything in order to fit in a dental appointment at noon. I have a miserable tooth ache and am not fit company for man nor beast.
Egantry-- My appreciation for natural beauty is somewhat dimmed by pain this morning but you are right. I do live fairly deep in the wilderness and the surrounds are always a delight.
I accept your description of reality concerning the ambulances and the caravan of fleeing civilians. That is reality but only the outer layer of reality served up for media consumption.
I have not read any of Naguib Mahfouz's writings. I was unaware that he had been translated into english until you mentioned him and I done a google search. I am not qualified to proffer or with hold reccommendation of his work. I just don't know.
Need to go find my half breed cat. He is part house can and part Bob Cat. Momma cat is an adventurous witch.
Bad Boy, the were cat jumped up on my bed in the wee hours of the morning and in his usual manner patted me on the face with his paw in an attempth to inform me that he needed to go out. I had just managed to subdue my pain enough to drift into sommulance and I exploded awake. My explosive reaction must have really scared Bad Boy because he hid and wouldn't come out. I had to open the door and go across the room before he would streak outside like a bat out of hell. I hope I can find him and manage an apology.
Born with the gift of laughter and aware that the world is mad. -- Jimbo
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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 08:57 am: |
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Ouch! So sorry to hear about the toothache, Jim. And I'm sure the cat will understand and forgive you, eventually. Not that they hold a grudge or anything, they just maximize any opportunity to work a situation to their advantage.
"If we don't learn to get along with one another, cast off our social and religious dogma and deal with reality as it is, we will not survive this social cycle and have to start all over again." - Jim Armstrong
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