...Let’s start with a nice, easy, uncontroversial topic. After all, I wish to ease myself, and indeed you the reader, into this soon to become regular feature on my blog. So, nothing too taxing to begin with. Let’s start with the war in Iraq. Not the current war in Iraq. Not even the one in the early 1990s. I mean the 100 year old war in Iraq.
“WHAT?!” I hear you cry, “The war in Iraq has not been going on for 100 years, that’s a preposterous exaggeration! No doubt intended to spark debate and controversy and all kinds of Dan Brown like conspiracy theories and spin off movies with a decidedly dodgy looking long haired Tom Hanks in the leading role. I must close this page immediately and no longer subject to myself to such ridiculous propaganda, mud slinging and misrepresentation of the facts.”
Well, ok I admit it, you got me there. But, before you do close this blog, allow me to explain myself. I was just doing a bit of reading about the Middle East, the Gulf region and the area which used to be known as Mesopotamia. In fact, if truth be known I once read an Agatha Christie book called, rather grandly I thought, ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’, and ever since I wondered if this was indeed a place or merely a made up and rather exotic sounding holiday destination for Hercule Poirot. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that according to Wikipedia “Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran.”
That got me thinking about how strange it is that come countries or regions change their names; Ceylon became Sri Lanka, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, Burma became Myanmar and Mesopotamia became, drum roll please….THE AXIS OF EVIL.
Well, more or less anyway.
So, back to the point. In the course of my afternoon research of Mesopotamia, and yes I have too much time on my hands, I read something that made me sit up and take notice. Namely, that in a remote part of the region, in a place called Masjed Soleiman, the first recorded oil well in the region was constructed in 1908. The city lies in what is now southern Iran. Shortly after this oil discovery, as I’m sure you know, World War I began. Now, I’m not going to go suggest that the War began as a result of this discovery, mere unhappy coincidence of course. However, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in WWI, the country we now know as Iraq was created and fell under British rule. Hopefully, you are beginning to see where I’m coming from. If not, keep reading.
In the 88 or so years since the end of WWI, the UK has been at war with, or occupying Iraq for almost 50 of them. So, yes I lied, the war on Iraq has not been going on for 100 years, but rather on and off for about 90.
Now, I don’t intend for this to become some kind of political blog, as I myself am slightly confused as to where my political allegiances lie, however, it does strike me as a little bit odd that for 90 years or so we have placed such importance on Iraq and Iraqi oil.
It’s almost as if this oil, and its ownership, has become a major part of Western foreign policy or something, surely not? Now obviously the Americans have told us that this is not the case, and they invaded Iraq, twice remember, for reasons other than oil. Disposing of Saddam, protecting Kuwait, Finding invisible weapons etc etc.
Now, I’m no apologist for Saddam Hussain or any other tyrant for that matter, I think Iraq will be better off without him, but that is neither here nor there. When the Americans invaded in 2003 guess what the first thing they did was? Bomb Saddam’s palaces? Bomb all possible locations for the infamous WMD? Send in the weapons inspectors? Seek UN approval, or no they should have done that before, oops! No, that’s right; they went in and secured the oil fields. Hmmmmm interesting. Add to this the following fact, in a state department document released recently; Iraq is described as “A stupendous source or strategic power and the greatest material prize in world history”.
Like I said, I don’t want to preach politics, but wouldn’t it be nice if Messers Bush and Blair came out and said, quite openly, that one of the main reasons for invading Iraq was to gain control of the oil fields, thus guaranteeing supply to the west for the foreseeable future. Nice, but unlikely.
If you want a bit more information about this, type the following into google: west seeks glittering prize in Iraqi oil fields, and see what The Times had to say on the matter!
Next time it won’t be as heavy I promise, I’ll give my thoughts on something more trivial!
“WHAT?!” I hear you cry, “The war in Iraq has not been going on for 100 years, that’s a preposterous exaggeration! No doubt intended to spark debate and controversy and all kinds of Dan Brown like conspiracy theories and spin off movies with a decidedly dodgy looking long haired Tom Hanks in the leading role. I must close this page immediately and no longer subject to myself to such ridiculous propaganda, mud slinging and misrepresentation of the facts.”
Well, ok I admit it, you got me there. But, before you do close this blog, allow me to explain myself. I was just doing a bit of reading about the Middle East, the Gulf region and the area which used to be known as Mesopotamia. In fact, if truth be known I once read an Agatha Christie book called, rather grandly I thought, ‘Murder in Mesopotamia’, and ever since I wondered if this was indeed a place or merely a made up and rather exotic sounding holiday destination for Hercule Poirot. So, imagine my surprise when I discovered that according to Wikipedia “Mesopotamia refers to the region now occupied by modern Iraq, eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and Southwest Iran.”
That got me thinking about how strange it is that come countries or regions change their names; Ceylon became Sri Lanka, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe, Burma became Myanmar and Mesopotamia became, drum roll please….THE AXIS OF EVIL.
Well, more or less anyway.
So, back to the point. In the course of my afternoon research of Mesopotamia, and yes I have too much time on my hands, I read something that made me sit up and take notice. Namely, that in a remote part of the region, in a place called Masjed Soleiman, the first recorded oil well in the region was constructed in 1908. The city lies in what is now southern Iran. Shortly after this oil discovery, as I’m sure you know, World War I began. Now, I’m not going to go suggest that the War began as a result of this discovery, mere unhappy coincidence of course. However, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in WWI, the country we now know as Iraq was created and fell under British rule. Hopefully, you are beginning to see where I’m coming from. If not, keep reading.
In the 88 or so years since the end of WWI, the UK has been at war with, or occupying Iraq for almost 50 of them. So, yes I lied, the war on Iraq has not been going on for 100 years, but rather on and off for about 90.
Now, I don’t intend for this to become some kind of political blog, as I myself am slightly confused as to where my political allegiances lie, however, it does strike me as a little bit odd that for 90 years or so we have placed such importance on Iraq and Iraqi oil.
It’s almost as if this oil, and its ownership, has become a major part of Western foreign policy or something, surely not? Now obviously the Americans have told us that this is not the case, and they invaded Iraq, twice remember, for reasons other than oil. Disposing of Saddam, protecting Kuwait, Finding invisible weapons etc etc.
Now, I’m no apologist for Saddam Hussain or any other tyrant for that matter, I think Iraq will be better off without him, but that is neither here nor there. When the Americans invaded in 2003 guess what the first thing they did was? Bomb Saddam’s palaces? Bomb all possible locations for the infamous WMD? Send in the weapons inspectors? Seek UN approval, or no they should have done that before, oops! No, that’s right; they went in and secured the oil fields. Hmmmmm interesting. Add to this the following fact, in a state department document released recently; Iraq is described as “A stupendous source or strategic power and the greatest material prize in world history”.
Like I said, I don’t want to preach politics, but wouldn’t it be nice if Messers Bush and Blair came out and said, quite openly, that one of the main reasons for invading Iraq was to gain control of the oil fields, thus guaranteeing supply to the west for the foreseeable future. Nice, but unlikely.
If you want a bit more information about this, type the following into google: west seeks glittering prize in Iraqi oil fields, and see what The Times had to say on the matter!
Next time it won’t be as heavy I promise, I’ll give my thoughts on something more trivial!
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