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During the Cold War, the USand the Soviet Unioncompeted for areas of influence in the Middle East. The super power’s competition was particularly vigorous because of the area’s strategic importance and its vast reserves of oil and gas. Effectively, the fate of individual countries was at the mercy of the balance of power between these Super Powers. Through armed local communist party branches, the Soviet Union tried to impose its will on people regardless of the social and religious sensitivities of the country being targeted. In Iraq, there was no working class being exploited in the production of Iraq’s natural resources. Also, patriotism is at the heart of the cultural fabric of the Iraqi society. These facts sit at odds with the principles of communism, of working class exploitation and the demand for absolute loyalty to the partyonly. Yet Iraq was successfully targeted by the Soviet Union during the military regime of Colonel Abdul Karim Kassem after independence from the British in 1958. The political upheaval of communism in the years to follow caused considerable division and hostilities among the Iraqi people. Thousands of people were killed or disappeared in the most horrific violations of human rights. Iraqis ended up killing each other in the name of communism, with Iraqi natural resources were blatantly drained out, not to the benefit of Iraqis, but the Soviet Union. This practice was repeated in other countries in the Middle East up to the early seventies, however, by the late eighties, the Soviets were mostly driven out of the region. The economic collapse of the Soviet Union in the late eighties and early nineties provided the US the opportunity to practise, unopposed its own brand of foreign policy in the Middle East region; the spread of democracy. The US pursuit of the spread of democracywas not dissimilar to the pursuit of communism by the Soviet Union. Each ideology aimed to serve the interest of the Super Power and not the people concerned. Both ideologies were alien to the culture of the region. And were imposed against the will of the people. Also, shared remarkable ignorance or indifference of the people’s social way of life in the region. The Soviet Union tried to change people’s real way of life to suit the ideals of the communist ideology. This practice proved to be a fundamental error of political judgmentthat eventually denied the Soviet areas of influence in the region. A policy of direct military intervention or arming and financing a so called opposition group is adopted by the US to spread democracy. The war on terror is used as a political platform to destabilise or get rid of any regime that fell out of favour with the US or posed a threat to Israel’s regional ambition. In Iraq, this policy was devastatingly practiced by the US. The regime of President Saddam Hussein had fallen out of favour with the US. To get rid of one man, Iraq was occupied, destroyed, and the Iraqi State set up by the British in 1914, was dismantled. A sectarian constitution was imposed to replace Iraq’s historic secular constitution, in order to divide and rule the people through fear. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed by the shock and awe savage indiscriminate bombings. Millions simply fled to safety. The well-respected national Iraqi army was replaced in today’s Iraq by armies of widows, orphans and newly born with genetic disorders caused by depleted Uranium contamination. Those who carried guns are militias loyal to Tehran. Once again, Iraqis ended up killing each other, this time, in the name of democracy. Iraq’s vast natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate. Not to serve the interest of Iraqis but to the benefit of the US and corrupt individuals of a regime imposed on Iraq by the US Sectarian Constitution. To date, the US policy of spreading democracy through the barrel of the gun has left a legacy of death, destruction, potential dangers and human tragedies. The refugee problem currently facing Europe, people leaving Iraq, Syria, Libya and Afghanistan, not because they wanted to live in Europe, but because their homes are destroyed and are seeking shelter and protection. The radicalisation of young people who are seeking to readdress a perceived injustice. Al-Qaeda and ISIS are extremist religious groups who have outlived their usefulness to the US plans are abandoned and left to cause havoc. Whether in Iraq or Afghanistan, the regimes installed and supported by the US through the spread of democracy have remarkable similarities. Sectarian divisions, corruption, failed states, human rights violation and the absence of law and order or the rule of law. The recent Russian military intervention in Syria should be seen as a wakeup call for the US to change its foreign policy in the region. In the absence of communism, the Russians may soon find permanent political foothold in the region. That is because Russia is now perceived as a saviour of the Arab people from the tyranny of US destructive foreign policy of intervention. It is evident that US foreign policy has failed. In Iraq, the current regime is not tenable. Iraq is a failed state. Therefore the US needs to choose between maintaining the status quo of occupation by supporting a Da’wa Party popped up by Iran but without Iraq OR an independent sovereign secular Iraq without the Da’wa Party. An economic force to do business with. Able to maintain regional stability in the face of a revived Iranian regional ambition. Iraq is broken and needs fixing. The US policy of sectarian divide has proved counter-productive. Bombing and killing more Iraqis is not the answer. The US needs to persuade Iran to take its hands off Iraq. And to work with national political groups to setup a government of national unity to serve and protect the interest of all Iraqis, and not only a sectarian minority. Unless and until the US embark on a genuine change in their foreign policy, the outcome will no doubt be the same as that which faced the Soviet Union. The US will be driven out and denied influence or presence in the region. Dr Burhan M. Al-Chalabi - FRSA Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts |