Gradual mass murder of Iraqi intellectuals

I had a heartbeat when I subscribed to An Arab Woman Blues and in the long run and it seems it's right in the end. After all she seems to be a bright Iraqi woman with a lot of desire to denounce the atrocities of these two decades of war against her people.

In her last post Layla Anwar leaves aside the, understandable but rather unproductive, "I hate you all" that used to plague her blog and tells us a really atrocious story: the systematic assassination of Iraqi scientists and intellectuals since the US-UK-plus invasion of 2003.

Prior to 2003, there were 45'000 scientists in Iraq. Today there are virtually none left, they were either killed or are in exile or have been recuperated by the americans.

A partial source can be found at Uruknet but it only lists academics, not scientists working in the industry nor the army for instance. She claims that more than 3000 have been probably assassinated.

She denounces that in 2002 an implicit ultimatum was given to Iraqi scientists by the USA: join us or die. She argues that Israel and the CIA had as goal to eliminate all Iraqi scientists and that the farce of the search for the non-existent WMD in Iraq prior to the anyhow pre-determined invasion served the purpose of gathering detailed information on the scientific class in Iraq.

The worst wave of murders seems to have happened in 2005 under the Al-Jaafari government, whose secret services stormed the scientists' homes, kidnapped, tortured and killed them. The chief of these operations was Solagh Jaber, now known as Al Zubaidi, whom, along with all the other Shia rulers she accuses of working for Iran.

She also denounces what was obvious for a few like me: that Al Qaeda in Iraq (and elsewhere, I'd add) is funded, trained and armed by the USA and Iran (I'm not so sure about Iran but I'm certainly pretty sure about the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia).

One can wonder about the reality and complexity of the US-Israel-Iran ties but we cannot forget the Iran-Contra affair, already in the 1980s and the very fact that the US invasion has left Iraq totally in the hands of Iran.

But even more intriguing is why this declared obsession to destroy Iraq totally. After all it is just a middle sized country that had played as ally of the US-Israel-Saudia-NATO bloc for decades.

J. Baker did warn Tariq Aziz that Iraq will be taken to a pre-industrial age. Bremmer did say that bringing the population of Iraq to 5 to 6 millions was more than sufficient and IT IS HAPPENING. Madeleine Albright did say that killing 1Million Iraqi children was well worth it...but still, that question gnaws at me day and night...WHY ?

(...)

But still, why would anyone want to ERASE Iraq -- even after regime change and even after securing its riches. What is so special about Iraq ?

This is an obstinate question that refuses to leave me...I believe Saddam Hussein knew the answer and that is why he was murdered as well...

I'd say that there are three reasons:

One is obviously control of oil resources, which is a key piece in any imperial policy of the industrial era. Iraq not only controls a good deal of global oil resources but also the two wars against this country provided pretexts for the establishment of a chain of military basis and the de facto annexation of most of Arabia to the American Empire.

Another is destroying secularism and illustrated progress in the Arab World. This is a goal that can perfectly unite such fanatic countries as the USA, Israel, Saudia and Iran.

And finally, and tightly related to the previous one, it is the goal of destroying pan-Arabism, which was and probably still is the only and main adversary of Israel, as well as of Iran, Turkey, US neocolonial hegemony and even most Arab regimes, very specially Saudi Arabia, which are not interested in such kind of nationalism. Of course all or most Islamists are against Arab nationalism and Islamism has been used as spearhead to divide and destroy it.

Iraq was once believed to be the "Prussia of Arabia". Maybe it was just the "Savoy" but in any case it was a state that could potentially agglutinate the Arabs in a national project that would have challenged the imperial status quo. In fact the trap created by the USA by subtly offering territorial gains in Kuwait to Iraq in 1990, in apparent payment for their services in punishing Iran, actually evidenced that Iraq could agglutinate the Arab people and potentially go on a spree of blitzkriegs and alliances with support of most of the population to the very shores of the Jordan river in propitious conditions.

But Washington and the Zionists obviously outsmarted them and eventually got set to totally destroy this potential threat. Their goal is clear: they do not want anything that could threaten with the unification of Arab lands again, potentially destroying the US most beloved allies in the region: the racist neocrusader state of Israel and the fascist theocracy of Saudia.

In the end it's nothing but a continuation of the British imperial policy in the region and also of the old Roman adage "divide et vince": a pan-Arab state must be avoided at all costs.

Why? Because it would destroy Israel and Saudia, because it would control huge geostrategical resources, not just oil but also strategic routes like the Suez Canal-Red Sea gateway, and also because it might be a potential threat all through the Mediterranean Sea. So keeping the Arab World divided, weak, ignorant and fanatic is a key part of the Imperial plan designed by the Anglo-Saxon and Zionist entente, with the agreement of essentially all European powers, nowadays mere vassals of Washington, and of course nearly all Arab dictatorships, from Saudia to Morocco passing by Egypt and Algeria, even more submissive if that's possible.

That's the why.