Throughout the 1990s, most of Iraq’s oil was transported in relatively small tanker trucks—to Jordan and Turkey with dispensation from Washington and undercover to Syria and the Gulf. As the pipelines to Turkey and the Gulf were turned back on in 2003, most of these truckers—many of whom had close ties with, and indeed colleagues in, neighboring countries—were out of a job. Hence, it is not surprising to learn that pipeline attacks “are now orchestrated by [insurgents and criminal gangs] to force the government to import and distribute as much fuel as possible using thousands of tanker trucks.
The authors challenge the mainstream view (and thereby also the whole reconstruction ideology) that in pre-invasion Iraq the state still functioned as a regulatory agent and controlled much of the Iraqi economy.
Washing their hands of any responsibility for the violence that plagues Iraq, they present the insurgency as springing from a yearning for lost domination on the part of groups linked to the Saddam-era state. This is the statist narrative—the idea that Saddam’s regime controlled everything worth controlling before it was overthrown.
Highly interesting are the remarks on the links to Iraq’s neighbors, most notably Jordan:
The political and social histories of modern Iraq and Jordan are bound tightly together. The deep ties between families, tribes, political movements and economic actors across the borders of these two countries have a history that, by and large, has yet to be written.
From the article it also becomes clear that the 2003 invasion merely finished off what was left of the prosperous nation that Iraq was in 1980. The US got most of the job done by sponsoring Saddam in the 80s and engineering UN sanctions in the 90s.
I think that, at the present, all Arabs have a duty to focus on the iranian role in Iraq. For, it clear that the return of persianised Iraquis to Iraq and the inflitration of Iranian intellgince and pro-Iran groups into the new power structures is the most important facor behind the insurgency. Hadn’t been for Iran, U.S would have found it almost impossible to stay in Iraq for 4 years.
Iran is the an imminent threat to all Arabs. And i wouldnt be exaggeraing to say it is more dangerous than ISRAEL. Iran is doing its best to de-arabise Iraq and convert into a pro-iran client, in order to extend its influence all over the region. The gulf lost the Iraqi protector. And Iran has set strong foot hold in Lebanon through its agents “hesbollah”. The only Arab power at the present that is capable of stopping the iranis is Egypt. For the Irani snake is stretching itself on what is supposed to be ergions of Egyptian influence.
Ironically, Iran is advocating a pan islamic discourse to cover up for its malignant goals- while Iran’s version of shiisim is, more or less, some sort of a fanatic persian nationalism that is centered around grudge for Arab heritage, It considers Arab nationalism and culture to be it number 1 enemy not Israel like some naive Arabs like to believe.,
What is worse, many leftists like Noam chomosky and other orientalist troubadors advocate lies about the perscution of shiites, for they view marxist elemnts embeded into the islamic revolution discourse.
Arabism is the only guarntee of prosperous free , independnt Arab world. That is why it is fought by Israelians Amricans and Iranis.
Just lok at the whole picture:
U.s and Iran agree on a broad policy regarding Iraq(de- Arabisation) .
An El-Queda style sunni exteremist group that is allegdly linked to Syria is destabilising Lebanon.
Hasan Narallah declares that Lebanese army is red line( Oh boy). He also staed once that occupation of IRAQ RID THE IRAUIS OF EVIL.
Sunni groups in Iraq are engaged with El-queda.
Iran’s client El-Sadr and the leader of the hesbollah twin in Iraq offers his protection to Sunis in Iraq from El-Queda. In the mean time, his irani miltants conjtinue their systematic ethnic cleansing of arabs in Iraq( including shiite Arab clans)
do all those events ring a bell in your mind?
welcome to the new non Arab middle east dominated by Iran’s clients and Israel.
[…] exerted on the Iraqi economy by Spring 2003, and how that relates to support for the insurgency. (Via The Arabist.) Posted by Jim Henley @ 7:17 am, Filed under: Main « « “What Are These Drug […]