As I write this US forces are in the outskirts of Baghdad and the British "Desert Rats" are inching their way in to Basra. It looks as though, some two weeks after it started, the Second Gulf War is in its end-game.
This has not been a popular war and there are many who say that even though its inevitable outcome will the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the cost in human life has been too great for this to be a justification. There is also a suspicion, at least on the "Arab Street" that America's motives are not altogether pure: that George Bush jnr. is an oil-man at heart and coverts Iraq's oil-wealth. I personally do not subscribe to this idea and believe that when the full story comes out concerning the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein, we will discover that the majority of Iraqis will be overjoyed at his deposition. Some, particularly those who have been injured by the bombing or lost loved-ones, may remain hostile towards their liberators. All, however, will have to come to terms with the fact that Iraq is going to be a changed country.
In the end how deep and how lasting these changes will be will be down to the Iraqi people themselves. What can be said for certain is that aided and supported by the international community, they now have their best chance in centuries to build a better country for themselves and their children. I therefore feel it is appropriate that we should look beyond the present, with its ghastly pictures of burning buildings and wounded civilians. Nor should we be thinking about the immediate future: one of UNICEF, Oxfam and charity workers. Yes, these organizations will be needed in the short term to ameliorate the present suffering. However Iraq is not a hopeless cause. It is not a barren country of permanent food-shortages and the people don't need to be poor. In fact it is potentially the richest of all the Arab nations and, given the right infrastructure, could become a paradise on Earth.
To understand this, perhaps a little history lesson is in order. We know from our history books and also from archaeological excavations that the land of Mesopotamia was one of (if not the) cradle of civilization. The southern alluvial plain of Sumer and the more northerly Akkad were once densely populated city-states. Lacking stone, the people built houses, temples and ziggurats out of mud-bricks. One of the largest of these was at Bab-el, a name meaning "gateway of God" and around it grew the great city of Babylon. This was the world's first "mega-polis", having over a million inhabitants. Under its greatest king, Nebuchadnezzar, it ruled over a vast empire that encompassed not just present day Iraq but also parts of what are now South-east Turkey, the whole of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and even Egypt. This empire, however, was short-lived in its flowering. In 539 BC Babylon fell to a coalition of Medes and Persians, its territories being incorporated into a nascent Persian Empire.
This empire was very much larger than the Babylonian which preceded it. At its greatest extent it stretched all the way from the borders of India, embracing the old Babylonian Empire, Afghanistan, parts of what are now the independent republics of Central Asia, the whole of Iran, Turkey and even part of Greece. But empires come and empires go and though it lasted much longer than the Babylonian, the fall of the Persian or "Achaemenid" Empire was just as quick. In 332 BC Asia Minor (what is now Turkey) was invaded by an army led by the young king of an upstart, Greek state called Macedonia. His name was Alexander and he was soon to be given the sobriquet of "the Great".
In an unprecedented campaign that lasted less than ten years, Alexander conquered the entire Persian empire and even added to it some territories in India that now comprise Pakistan. The jewel at its centre, however, was still Babylon and it was to this city that he returned in 323 AD. To the Greeks soldiers, who were battle-hardened veterans of many campaigns, the Babylonians seemed effete and decadent. Nevertheless this immensely rich city had many attractions, not least its "Hanging Gardens". These had so impressed Herodotus that he had included them, alongside the pyramids of Egypt, in his seven wonders of the world. Also present in Babylon were schools of mathematics, astronomy and medicine whose foundations were rumoured to go back to the very dawn of civilization. However, the availability of some of the best doctors in the world did not help Alexander. He died either from poisoning or from infection shortly after his return.
The death of Alexander brought his fledgling empire to an abrupt end. Though it was initially carved up into four by his generals, they were soon at each other's throats. Mesopotamia, Persia and points east were allotted to Seleucus but he and his successors proved unable to hold onto these territories. The Punjab region of India reverted to local rule, a new Bactrian dynasty took over Afghanistan and Iran gave birth to a re-born Persian state called Parthia. It was not long before this state seized back Mesopotamia from the Greeks, the Seleucids being left with little more than Syria, whose capital was the new city of Antioch.
A new force, however, was already being felt in the west of what had been Alexander's sprawling empire: Rome. At first fitfully through "client" kings the Romans gradually conquered Egypt, Asia Minor, Palestine and Syria. They met their match, however, when they came up against the Parthians. In 55 BC a vast Roman army of some 40,000 men was routed outside the gates of Harran (Carrhae) by horse-mounted, Parthian archers. Though the Romans made later attempts at subduing the Parthians, they only very briefly (during the time of Trajan) held on to Mesopotamia. Trajan's successor, Hadrian, made the wise decision that a Roman presence that far east was not tenable in the long-term. He withdrew Roman forces from most of Mesopotamia, retreating to the west side of the River Euphrates.
In the east, the Parthian empire was succeeded by the neo-Persian or Sassanian. By this time Babylon had been superseded and the capital of Mesopotamia was the city of Ctesiphon, near to modern-day Baghdad. Conflict between the Romans and the Persians continued, with few periods of peace, for centuries and long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the barbarians. This conflict came to a head in 611 AD when a Persian army swept across the Euphrates and seized Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. Jerusalem was taken and nearly all the churches were plundered and destroyed. The Byzantines of the Eastern Roman empire launched a counter attack and after long years of fighting, in 628 eventually drove the Persians out of the Holy Land.
The consequences of this war were profound, for the two exhausted empires were now unable to stop an invasion from an unexpected quarter: Arabia. In 634 an Arab, Moslem army entered Damascus for the first time. In 636 Heraclius, the Byzantine Emperor sent an army fight back. It was utterly defeated and with it fell the provinces of Syria and Palestine which now became integral parts of the Moslem world. Meanwhile other Moslem armies entered Mesopotamia and Persia. Again they met with victory and this vast empire, containing in Mesopotamia some of the richest agricultural land in the world, was seized by the Arabs. In the 7th century they founded a new capital, on the left bank of the Tigris, which they called Baghdad. This city, where lived the khalif and his entourage, very quickly became a major centre of world culture. Standing on important trade-routes and drawing on the natural resources of Mesopotamia, it was immensely wealthy. Here, while Europe experienced its Dark Ages, there flourished schools of philosophy, medicine and alchemy. Though Muslims themselves, the Arabs of Iraq were for most of the time tolerant of other religions. Mesopotamia therefore had significant minority populations of Christians, Zoroastrians and Sabians many of whose books were translated into Arabic. In this way some of the literature of the Classical age, which would otherwise have been lost, was preserved.
Throughout this period, from before the rise of Babylon to the rise of Islam, Mesopotamia was still a rich and fertile province. Yet today when we see pictures of Iraq on our televisions it appears to be for the most part desert. What went wrong and who is to blame?
The answer to this is actually very simple. Though there are two great rivers running though it, there is very little rainfall in Iraq. Thus, as in Egypt, agriculture is dependent on irrigation systems. In ancient times these were clearly of great efficiency and complexity so that much or even most of the area between the Tigris and Euphrates was under cultivation. However, in 1258 Mesopotamia was invaded by a huge Mongol army under the captaincy of a general called Hulugu. The Caliph of Baghdad, who refused to surrender but eventually had no choice but to do so, was hanged along with most of his family. The city was looted and in the way of the Mongols, many of its people were put to the sword. As elsewhere in the Middle East the Mongols, who cared little for either cities or agriculture, destroyed the irrigation systems. This caused a massive famine and irrevocable damage, which has never been repaired, was caused to the entire ecosystem of the area. Overnight, large regions which had been fertile turned into desert. As a result, the population of Mesopotamia fell drastically and Baghdad declined in importance as compared with other Moslem cities such as Damascus and Cairo.
This is a situation that still persists to this day. Under the Turks, who ruled over Mesopotamia until they were displaced by British forces in the First World War, it continued to be a sleepy back-water. Since then with the development of the oil fields in the north and south of the country, a new source of revenue has been apparent. By 1970 Iraq was once again one of the richest of all the Arab countries. However, 30 years of Baathist rule, most of it under Saddam Hussein, has succeeded in taking the country back into poverty. Now, at last, there is the opportunity for rebuilding.
Now obviously, immediate attention is going to be given to development of the oil industry. This will produce quick money and provide the finance for much of the rebuilding. However, I believe that much more can be done for Iraq and that it too can help resolve one of the world's greatest political problems: the Arab-Israeli crisis over Palestine. One industry that should be developed in Iraq is tourism. Given the extraordinary number of important sites, including Ur and Babylon, there should be no difficulty in persuading attracting tourists. To make the best of this industry an entirely new infrastructure of hotels, swimming pools, roads, airports and coach services needs to be built up. This will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and provide employment for the many currently destitute Iraqis. However, this should be looked upon as only the beginning.
What I think is even more exciting is the potential existent for turning Iraq into the paradise it once was. At a time when almost every other Arab country is short of water, it has not just one but two mighty rivers running through it. With new technology the irrigation systems that were destroyed by the Mongols could be replaced. The entire area between the two rivers as well as large parts of the desert on either side could be brought into cultivation. Not just dates but important field crops such as wheat, maize, beans and cotton could be grown.
Unlike virtually every other Arab country, Iraq has the potential to carry a much larger population than at present. Given water and jobs, entire new communities could be developed in what is now desert. This is where I believe Iraq could make a positive contribution to the Israel-Palestine problem. For at present there are in Gaza and elsewhere millions of young people with no jobs and seemingly no future. Could not Iraq invite at least some of these young Arabs to come and help them to transform their desert areas into productive regions? If the Israelis can do this in Israel which has much less potential than Iraq, could they not do the same in Mesopotamia? This would take some of the demographic pressure out of the equation and in my opinion make it much more likely that the Israelis and Palestinians could come to some sort of accommodation over the creation of a Palestinian state on the West Bank of the Jordan.
There could in all of this be a further pay-off. With Mesopotamia turned into a productive paradise, there would be a change in the microclimate of the entire region. Vegetation puts water-vapour into the air and this in turn creates rain-clouds. This could have profound effects on the climate of not just Iraq but also of Persia to the East and Jordan to the west. With Mesopotamia turned back into the verdant country it once was, all could enjoy greater rainfall and become more productive as a consequence.
All this might sound like pie-in-the-sky and it is clearly not going to happen overnight. However, it is worth considering. As things stand we have in Iraq an opportunity for mankind for once to do some good for the planet. Let's hope this opportunity won't be wasted.
Copyright Adrian Gilbert. 4/4/03.