Reply #5: I know [View All]

[liberalpragmatist]

I'm not doubting that the British drew the boundaries of Iraq in line with their own interest. The province and city of Mosul were historically tied to Syria, not "Iraq," but was included by the British in Iraq because of its oil.

And the creation of Kuwait had much to do with denying the Germans and the Ottomans an outlet at the sea in an attempt to stall their "Berlin-to-Baghdad" Railway from becoming "Berlin-to-Basra."

But as MANY historians and Iraqis themselves have pointed out, it's simply not true that Iraqis - Arab Iraqis at least - have no common identity. Mixed marriages are EXTREMELY common, there have never been violent communal tensions between Sunni and Shia and most Iraqi Arabs were very patriotic about being Iraqi.

That may be coming apart now, but it's difficult to tell whether this is what most Iraqis actually want. There is a climate of fear and violence and it's forcing the country in a direction that Iraqis would quite possibly not endorse were things more peaceful. Civil wars do divide society but they don't always reflect sentiments that always existed.