Nojin Numan

Mr. Stankewicz

Duall Enrollment Ancient History

8 December 2016

Iraq

Iraq is an Arab nation that is located in the Southwestern region of Asia. Iraq is

surrounded by Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Palestine. These are just a few of their neighboring

countries. The President of Iraq is Fouad Massoum from July 2014-present. The Prime minister

is Haider al-Abadi this has also been from July 2014- present. Iraq is 167,556 square miles and

has a population of 32 million and the growth rate is expanding every day. Baghdad is the capital

of Iraq with a population of about 6 million people. Today the two languages that are officially

spoken in Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish; About 99 percent of these individuals follow the religion

of Islam.

Iraq was colonized by Great Britain in 1920 after the division of the Ottoman Empire.

The country was colonized when it was admitted into the league of Nations, making Britain

terminate its mandate over the Arab nation. Under the mandate of Great Britain, Iraq was known

as State of Iraq. When colonizing they first began under the control of Great Britain, Great

Britain started to put down borders wherever they wanted. This was not a good idea because it

made the people of Iraq angry. The colonized efforts were that Britain set up a colonial regime in

Iraq after a long military campaign during the World War I. In response Iraqi resistance,

including country wide uprising in 1920. British forces battled for over a decade to pacify the

country using armored cars, firebombs, and mustard gas. The British saw Iraq as an experiment

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to see how they would be able to help them succeed and enhance their country to become a better

nation. The British made Iraq a strong country but Iraq decided that they wanted to be a

decolonized country. The nationalist and independence movements of the native people was to

become a decolonized country and be independent. Iraq became a decolonized country on

October 3, 1932.

The resources and trade items that were of interest to the colonizers was mainly oil. Iraq

has and still is one of the main and largest oil producing and exporting countries in the world.

Another huge reason for choosing Iraq was because the oil resources were not yet tapped into.

Which gave Britain an advantage in choosing Iraq over the other Countries in the Middle East.

In 1921, Faisal I was the king of Iraq, he was born on May 20, 1885 in Saudi Arabia. He

came from a middle class family. In 1915, he traveled to Damascus to get an understanding with

the Arab nationalist societies there. The following year after he went to Damascus, the Arab

revolt was declared and he became the leader of Syria. On March of 1921, the the British

decided to agree to Faisal I to ease resistance to British rule. In 1975, The Kurds start fighting for

their independence and the president Al- Bakr resigns and Saddam Hussein (his father was a

shepherd) becomes the president. Saddam Hussein was president of Iraq for 24 years beginning

in 1979. He was a secularist who rose through Baath political party to assume a dictatorial

presidency. While he was in office, he enjoyed the wealth of oil. By early August 1979, he

tortured and executed the foes against him. Saddam saw anyone who did not do as he said as an

enemy. In 1990, Saddam launched an attack on Kuwait largely in one order to acquire that small

countrys oil reserves, which led to the Gulf war in 1992.

The reforms and demands that these leaders called for were that they wanted Iraq to build

a stronger military so they could be able to fight their own wars. They did not want to start a war

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with Great Britain so Iraq wanted to decolonize as peacefully as possible. The colonizers reacted

to these reforms and demands by allowing Iraq to become a decolonized country but just wanted

to make sure that they were allies. Britain wanted to make sure of this because of the oil

resources that Iraq could provide to them in the future. Britain and Iraq are on good terms and

are allies right now and want to keep it that way because of the resources they provide to one

another.

Iraq citizens were angry that Britain wanted the Muslims living in the country to vote for

a non-Muslim ruler. Sunnis and Shias did everything in their power to stop the British Laws.

The citizens of Iraq worked together to up rise against Great Britain peacefully. In July of 1927,

Great Britain informed the Iraq King, King Faisal, that Iraq would be a member of the League of

Nations in 1932. Britain decided that Iraq was now stabilized to become an independent country.

Iraq became an independent country after 12 years under the British rule.

Socially today, Iraq is somewhat in a good state because of the oil resource they have,

many countries try to be allies with Iraq because of the oil, but the Kurds continually battle with

the majority Arabs, and the sparring between these two cultural groups has contributed to a

survivalist mentality for the Kurds. The Kurds have been battling with the Arabs for many years

and have continuously failed against the Arabs but have shown that they will not give up until

they have received their independence from Iraq. Politically, the Iraqis still depend on the British

for support. The federal government is defined under the current Constitution as an Islamic,

Democratic, federal parliamentary republic as said by the Iraq government. Iraq is still an

independent and Islamic country.

Since Iraqs independency it will always be seen as an enemy not only to the United

states, but also to many parts of the world. It has been really hard to figure an agreement with

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them, because of their strive to be independent. The uncertainty that Iraq will attack the U.S. was

and still is something that we have to look over our shoulders for. The aftermath of 9/11 left that

in discussion. Removing him would mean war, but leaving him in power would mean accepting

the risk that he might place weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists out to kill

Americans. Removing Saddam is a biased decision, to some it easy right, yet to many others it

was wrong. Iraqis have not yet had a peace of mind, that they will be able to live in a country

that will be a war free zone.

Today, Iraq is a country with a growing refugee crisis and violent religious extremist that

go by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). The goal of the ISIS is to create a unified, Muslim

territory in order to enforce its extremist beliefs. The terrorist group says to be of the Islam faith

but is the reason for many deaths and destruction to many villages and cities throughout Iraq.

The leader of ISIS is Abu Bakr Al, he is also the new enemy throughout the world because of the

terrorism group he has started. Because of The ISIS, many people have had to flee their homes

and leave many of their belongings and families behind. The Kurdish troops known as the

Peshmerga, those who face death, are fighting for their home land known as Kurdistan. ISIS

have invaded many cities throughout Iraq. One of the largest cities that has been invaded is

Mosul.

The city of Mosul was supposed to be under the protection of the US-trained Iraqi

military force of about 30,000 stationed in the region. However, many of the Iraqi troops started

fleeing and leaving their uniforms behind once ISIS began to attack. The Iraqi soldiers felt like

they had no control of defeating ISIS so the best reaction was to get up and run, having no

conscious in what doing so would do to the whole country. ISIS has gained control of United

States. They made tanks and other weapons once invading Mosul and have gained even more

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power. With this city being so close to Kurdistan, the Kurdish troops have been fighting back

nonstop for about 3 years to keep ISIS out of their home land and to keep their families safe. Iraq

is only one of the factors that divides the country, encourages violence, has led to civil conflict,

and has helped empower ISIS.

Some of the books that I would recommend about Iraq and the experiences they went

through would be, The Forever War by Dexter Filkins, Rise of ISIS by Jay Sekulow, and Iraq: A

Ministers Memoir by Dr. Abdul Amir Al-Aboud. They are great books on Iraq if you will like to

learn about the wars in Iraq and the rise of the terrorist group ISIS. The books are very

interesting and they give a lot of information on the country and the people. They are great for

learners and people who know nothing about Iraq and the ISIS. The book Rise of ISIS has a very

good description of how and why the ISIS got started. The Forever War talks about how Iraq has

always been in wars and Iraq: A Ministers Memoir is a primary source talking about the

ministers and the presidency of Iraq throughout the years.

It is yet to be that Iraq is a country that has and will always be on the path to destruction

and war, since its colonization by Great Britain in 1920 to its decolonization on October 3, 1932.

Socially today, Iraq has a huge production of oil, which was one of the resources that Britain was

most interested in when colonizing it and trying to remain an ally. Iraq has always had an army

on standby to fight their own war, whether it being against America or the Kurds. From the

1980s to today, Iraq is the cause of many crises that result in hundreds of thousands of people

fleeing their homes for safety. Hopefully, with the help of America and the Peshmerga, Iraq will

once and for all be a country that lives in peace.

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 Works Cited

Aburish, Said K. Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Print.

Administrator. "Global Policy Forum." British Colonialism and Repression in Iraq. Global

Policy Forum, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Edgar, Robert R., Neil J. Hackett, George F. Jewsburgy, Barbara Molony, and Matthew S.

Gordon. Civilization past & Present. Twelfth ed. Vol. II. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

"Faisal I." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Gladu, Alex. "What Is ISIS' Goal? The Terrorist Group Poses An Extreme Threat To The World."

Bustle. Alex Gladu, 18 Nov. 2015. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

History.com Staff. "Aztecs." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2016.

"Home." Iraqi Research Foundation for Analysis and Development. Irfad, n.d. Web. 04 Dec.

2016.

"Iraq." Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Perle, Richard. "Removing Saddam was the right call." USA Today, 19 Mar. 2013, p.

06A. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, ezproxy.nscc.edu:3443/login?

url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A322935886/OVIC?

u=tel_a_nsti&xid=59dc8762. Accessed 4 Dec. 2016.

@RT_com. "All You Need to Know about ISIS and What Is Happening in Iraq." RT

International. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

"Saddam and the Gulf War." Saddam and the Gulf War. W.J. Rayment, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

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