A depressing look at the state of Iraq (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A depressing look at the state of Iraq

1:44pm Monday 14th August 2006 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

NOBODY TOLD US WE ARE DEFEATED - STORIES FROM THE NEW IRAQ. Publisher: Chatto and Windus; Author: Rory McCarthy; Price: £11.99.

After George Bush and Tony Blair have gone, the issue of Iraq will remain etched on their record for a very long time - perhaps forever - upstaging all else they did in office.

Whatever their good intentions, or misapprehensions, the invasion will continue to be questioned, in the light of the bloody chaos and destabilisation of the Middle East that followed and which shows no sign of ending.

This informative book by a British journalist takes a detailed first-hand look at how Iraqis themselves view the invasion of their country.

It makes for depressing reading - all the more so as it shows that many were only too pleased to see the end of Saddam Hussein's regime, yet have no love for their liberators and want them out of Iraq.

McCarthy knows the country well. He travelled widely and went into the homes, work-places, council meetings and mosques of the citizens he in-terviewed.

What comes across vividly is how little America and Britain understand the workings of the Iraqi mind.

As one Iraqi says: "The mistake of the coalition is that they don't understand our culture. These are tribal areas and you cannot deal with them in the same way as you deal with peo-ple in Britain or the US."

Another explains chillingly: "It is in the nature of Iraqi society to take revenge."

In this terrible cauldron of conflicting religious and political views, everyone seems to be fighting someone else, or wanting to.

"Believers" are against "unbelievers," others are bent on avenging the loss of loved ones, and many regard as a stool-pigeon regime any Iraqi administration that has been voted in while the occupying powers are there.

There are few grounds for optimism in these pages but the future often turns up surprises. One can only hope that peace, and an end to the unending slaughter of human beings, will eventually descend on this tragic land.