Iraq
was made from the joining of 3 separate former Ottoman vilayets (provinces). Mosul,
with ties to Syria and Turkey and a history with the Kurds. Baghdad and the adjacent
Shi'ite centres of An-Najaf and Kabala in the middle with ties to Persia. And
Basra in the south, also largely Shi'ite but with commercial links to the Persian
Gulf states and to India. This unnatural union would prove difficult to hold together. In
the postwar carve-up of the Middle East, Britain is 'awarded' by the League of
Nations a Class A mandate over Iraq -colonialism with a different name. All the
British and French promises to the Arabs for independance are lies. The Iraqis
are furious. Throughout
1919 and 1920 there are constant uprisings in the north, spreading to the south
especially in the Shi'ite cities of An-Najaf and Kabala. The British use warplanes
to bomb and gas civilians. The British impose tight controls, operate forced labour
schemes and collect taxes with more enthusiasim than their Ottoman predecessors.
During
the 1920 uprising in Kirkuk, Winston Churchill (then British Secretary of State)
said he didn't understand the 'squeamishness about the use of gas' and 'I am strongly
in favor of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes'. The rebellion lasted
for over a year, at an enormous cost of lives and money -10,000 Iraqi and 450
British dead, and 40 million pounds. In
an effort to disguise their land grab, in 1921 the British name one of Sharif
Husayn's (from Mecca) sons Faysal to be king of Iraq, and another son, Abdullah,
amir of Transjordan. Faysal had never before set foot in Iraq, but as he was Arab
and sufficiently pliant to British requests. His coronation was a strictly British
affair, and is a British puppet.
Faysal had been King of Syria the previous
year, but was dropped like a hot potato by the French once they had control of
Syria. In
1927, the British controlled Iraq Petroleum Co opens its first substantial oil
well north of Kirkuk. Tonnes of oil spill over the countryside before it can be
capped. | 
