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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Feb. 13, 1963
Here We Go Again
It is revolution-time again in Iraq.
This time it is the nationalists and pro-Nasserites turn to murder communists. Four and one-half years ago it was the pro-Westerners who were being shot on sight.
At least a little more selection was used when the pro-Western government was overthrown in 1958. Only upper-echelon government officials, perhaps 20 or 30, were murdered that time—a rather inexpensive revolution, although this does not help those 20 or 30 persons very much.
THE MOST RECENT revolution is not nearly so discriminating in its choice of victims. Anyone who is a communist, and there are many, is a likely candidate for a one-sided conversation with a sten gun. Perhaps saying that there ARE many communists in Iraq is a bit dated. There WERE many Iraqi communists before the latest revolution.
It is not just the communists who are having trouble staying alive. Thanks to "undisciplined armed youths" roaming Baghdad looking for "communists," anyone who has chosen his enemies unwisely is a likely target. After all, such an opportunity to wipe out personal enemies does not come along every day.
Any communists who survive are not likely to agitate too vigorously against the new government until the new group gets as corrupt and unpopular as the one they threw out. When this happens it will be time to play the game all over again, and another military junta will take over.
WHAT DOES ALL this mean? Not much just new faces on the same government. The revolutionaries may well have wiped out the communists, but in essence nothing has changed.
This time the dictator is Abdul Salam Aref. He may last a week, a month or a decade, depending on his political agility and his ability to
give potential replacements a sufficiently large piece of the pie to convince them that another revolution would not be worth the trouble and risk.
On the surface he seems to be trying to rid Iraq of communists and bring the country into line with Nasser for some of that much-talked-about Arab unity. He may get rid of the communists for a while, but Russia's quick recognition of the new regime does not indicate much long-range concern on this point.
AREF MAY ALSO get something on paper between Iraq and Egypt. But divergent economies and national interests, lack of a contiguous border, anti-Nasser Arab states between Iraq and Egypt and nationalism probably would confine any such agreement to mere words on paper instead of extensive cooperation and true Arab unity.
One thing Aref has already gotten—power. Here is the ultimate goal. The communists happened to be standing in the way, so they were eliminated. Anyone else standing in the way would have been handled with equal severity.
Aref's future actions will have one fundamental thought behind them—keep Aref in power. If this means cooperation with the West, he will do so. If this means cooperation with Nasser, he will do so. If this means cooperation with Russia, he will do so.
SOMEDAY AREF will pick the wrong side to cooperate with, or some other army officer will become strong enough to put himself in power. Then the cycle will begin again, and Aref's pictures will be torn down and replaced, just as Kassem's pictures are being destroyed now.
Aref's new job is a great temptation for the power-hungry. Its only draw back is the retirement plan. —Dennis Branstiter
IRAQ—Located in the center of the oil-rich Middle East, this revolution-nation supplies vital fuel to Western Europe.
Oil-Rich Iraq Has Revolution-Racked Past
Iraq occupies a strategic position in the heart of the Middle East, but this is not its primary importance in the current East-West power struggle.
Iraq's importance lies in its oil; it is the third largest producer in the Middle East. It is because of this oil and because of Iraq's central position in the Middle East that the Western powers and the Communists have competed in an uneasy tug-of-war over the country. When an army coup overthrew the pro-Western government of
Iraq in 1958, alarm bells clanged from Moscow to Washington and from Amman to London. Within days, U.S. Marines were bolstering the shaky pro-Western government of nearby Lebanon. Tiny Iraq, after decades of dormancy, had once again thrust itself into the mainstream of history.
HISTORICALLY, IRAQ is one of the richest areas in the world. Archaeologists wonder if the lush delta between the Tigris and Euphrates was not the site
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
of the Garden of Eden. Empires have flourished — and died here. Ancient cities in the desert bear the marks of wave after wave of conquering armies which swept across the famed "Fertile Crescent": the Mongols, the fierce Assyrians, the Persians, Alexander the Great and the Greeks, the Arabs, and later the Turks.
"BUT I REALLY MUST GO IN, WORTHAL — I SEE OUR HOUSEMOTHER GOT BACK."
Recent history finds Iraq a British mandate following the end of World War I and the breakup of the old Ottoman Empire. The mandate began in 1920 and ended in 1932, when Iraq became an independent nation.
Iraq emerged from World War II with a strong financial base but a political system that remained anything but stable. By 1946 there had been 32 government cabinets in 25 years. In 1946, however, Nuri as-Said accepted his ninth term as premier, and in 1947 a 10-year-old ban on political parties was lifted with a resulting gain in political stability.
Under Nuri, Iraq assumed a pro-Western posture — not a surprising thing in view of the earlier British occupation and continued British interests in the area. In 1948, Iraq and Britain signed a 20-year agreement under which Britain could continue using air bases in Iraq until peace treaties with all former enemy countries had come into effect.
MEANWHILE, Iraq had joined the Arab League, not a particularly potent organization until 1948, when the League largely using Iraq muscle — invaded the new nation of Palestine. Iraqi troops were not to be withdrawn until a year later. Despite this intervention
into the affairs of Israel, relations between Iraq and the Western powers continued friendly. Whatever scruples the West had about befriending an enemy of the also-friendly nation of Israel, Iraq's oil and its strategic position as a buffer between the Soviet Union and the Suez Canal outweighed them. In 1955, Iraq and staunch Western ally, Turkey signed a mutual defense treaty, the nucleus of what was to become the Baghdad Pact, a NATO-type organization later joined by Britain, Pakistan and Iran.
So far, so good. The West had forged a defensive ring around the southern flank of the Soviet Union. But an acute observer of the Middle East might have noticed disturbing signs. Iraq's
pro-Western stand had brought it into direct opposition with the ambitions of Egypt's Nasser, already intent on carving out his own Middle East sphere of influence.
Although Iraq did side with Egypt during the 1956 Suez Canal crisis with Britain, mutual hostilities between Iraq and Egypt were dramatized two years later when, after Egypt and Syria proclaimed themselves the United Arab Republic, Iraq and neighboring Jordan announced the formation of their own Arab Federation.
ONLY A FEW months later, Iraq was torn from the Western camp with explosive, dizzying suddenness. On a warm July
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Daily Hansan
University of Kansas student newspaper
Founded 1889, became biweekly 1904, triweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
Extension 711, news room Extension 376, business office Telephone Vlking 3-2700
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NEWS DEPARTMENT
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Reg. Marshall, Bill Shadden, Mike Miller
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