I enjoy your reports on Iraq, but your colleague’s report on lessons learned from Gertrude Bell and her 1920 letters from Iraq is the kind of thing that really drives me crazy.

There is absolutely no comparison between Iraq in 1920 and Iraq today. In 1920, Iraq was in a generational Crisis era, fighting the Great Iraqi Revolution of 1920. It was a major crisis war, where hundreds of thousands of Sunni and Shia united to fight the British forces to the death, with many casualties. It was a major turning point in Iraq’s history.

Iraq’s next crisis war was the Iran/Iraq war of the 1980s. At that time, once again, and for the first time since 1920, Sunni and Shia were united, fighting against the Iranians in a massively genocidal war. The 1980s period is the appropriate historical comparison to the 1920 war.

So, what period in Iraq’s history would be an appropriate time of comparison to Iraq today?

Well, today we’re one generation past the Iran/Iraq war, so go one generation past the Great Iraqi Revolution.

If you do that, they you find an amazing historical parallel that nobody ever seems to want to acknowledge.

After WW II, there were popular demonstrations protesting the presence of British troops in Iraq. Finally, by 1948, the protests had gotten so bad that the British were forced to remove their troops from Iraq and give up sovereignty over the two air bases in Iraq. That’s exactly what’s going on today.

And note this: In 1920 and the 1980s there were actual genocidal wars. In 1948 and today, there are uprisings, much like the uprisings in America and Europe in the 1960s, but NO WAR. They’re POLITICAL uprisings. (In generational theory, political uprisings are characteristic of generational Awakening eras, starting one generation after the end of the preceding crisis war.)

Now here’s another important point: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was born in 1930, and was part of the Iraq scene in 1948. I’ve done a little research and haven’t been able to determine what part he took in the anti-British uprisings, but at the very least he must have been aware of them and sympathized with them.

If you want a REAL story, with REAL historical significance, and REAL lessons for today, then try to arrange an interview with al-Sistani for the purpose of asking him about the 1948 anti-British uprising. I can guarantee with almost absolutely certainty that you will get some fascinating and valuable information that no one else in the west is even thinking about.

Sincerely,

John

John J. Xenakis
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/forum