University Daily Kansan
Page 3
Oil-Rich Iraq's Violent Past—
(Continued from page 2)
night in 1958, a pro-Nasser Army group surrounded the royal palace in Baghdad, wiped out the royal guard, shot the king and the crown prince, seized a radio station and proclaimed themselves in power. By dawn, it was all over but the violence.
With a savageness suggestive only of a long-suppressed hostility, the Iraqi people vented their hate upon the bodies of the former pro-Western leaders. The naked, mutilated body of the crown prince was hanged from a street light; the body of the prime minister — who was killed while attempting to escape dressed in a woman's clothing — was dragged by its heels through the streets of Baghdad. In all, about 30 persons died in the revolt, a small number as revolutions go, but significant in that almost all were associated with the West.
Emerging as leader of the new Irai republic was an enigma, Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem. Kassem was still a puzzle when he died before a rebel firing squad last week. To some he was a naive Communist sympathizer, to others an idealistic national leader determined to keep his country aloof from entangling alliances while he goes about the complicated business of internal reform.
KASSEM'S FIRST acts as prime minister were scarcely calculated to calm the jangled nerves of British and American leaders. Within a week, the new regime had signed a defense treaty with the UAR, making its alliance with Jordan a fiction and reducing the Baghdad Pact to little more than a paper tiger. Apparently to keep the support of the street mobs, Kassem sought — and got — the backing of the local Communists.
The West looked on uneasily while Soviet tanks, small arms and "technicians" poured into the country. Pro-Western government officials were ousted; the British rushed aid to Jordan; the United States hurriedly moved to stabilize pro-Western Lebanon, and Israel braced herself for a possible attack from Iraq, Egypt, or both. Things looked dark.
But at least two events appear to have served to keep Kassem and his country from entering the Soviet camp, as so many feared would happen in 1958. First, Kassem appeared hesitant to cut himself off from the prime customer for his oil, Britain. The
Letters
Capital Punishment Editor
I was not surprised to read the editorial in the Daily Kansan entitled "End Capital Punishment." It is what one might expect in a college newspaper — an article charged with the usual indignant idealism about the cruelty and stupidity of capital punishment. Who is surprised to know that capital punishment is useless, barbaric, and uncivilized? I'm sure the proponents of capital punishment would agree. However, when has man become civilized? It would seem man has become less civilized with each passing day. If the legislators were as idealistic as the author and the rest of the world was civilized, why not ban war, gambling, drinking, fighting, swearing, and the Twist? After all, a "civilized" man wouldn't do any of these things.
No one will dispute that there are many things that we so-called homo sapiens do that are barbaric. Capital punishment is in existence because the majority of man isn't yet above barbarianism, Idealist, cheer up, soon the time will come when a predominant life form will not understand returning evil for evil. Perhaps after men become extinct.
Terry Joslin Kansas City, Mo., freshman
Soviet Union, with an actual oil surplus on its hands, was unlikely to become an outlet for Iraq's oil.
SECOND, KASSEM had become disenchanted with his one-time allies, the Iraqi Communists. Two events helped bring about this reversal: 1958 rioting between Iraqi Kurds and Turks in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and a 1959 strike, apparently organized by the Communists, in Baghdad, the capital.
To Kassem, who came to power on the wave of an army uprising, the Kirkuk uprising must have been disturbing. Large numbers of the Communist-trained Iraqi army deserted to help the Kurds.
Following the uprising, Kassem hauled about 60 local Communists into the courts and had some sentenced, signaling a Communist retreat. Kassem broke the 1959 strike and later sentenced 28 local Communists to death for their parts in it. A 1959 assassination attempt, which left Kassem with several bullets in his body, also may have influenced his disenchantment with the Communists, although no Communist connection with the attempt has been established.
At any rate, Kassem's Iraq was far from a Soviet satellite—although it was also far from the pro-Western ally it once was.
Wednesday, Feb. 13, 1963
Short Ones
Absurdity: A statement or opinion manifestly inconsistent with your own—Ambrose Bierce
A filing cabinet is a device for losing things alphabetically.—Bill Vaughan
The worst cliques are those which consist of one man.—George B. Shaw
Optimism, said Candide, is a mania for maintaining that all is well when things are going badly. —Voltaire
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