Another Bad Deal for Baghdad

Karl E. Meyer, editor of World Policy Journal | June 18, 2008

The parallels between the arrangement sought by Bush with the Iraq/US deal, and the defective British Iraq settlement in the 1930s, are striking. ++ The July 31st accord would free Iraq of UN sanctions and provide it with American economic and military aid. ++ 80 years ago, after Britain granted Iraq's independence, it failed to maintain order and a wave of radical nationalist uprisings - "a score of coups, countercoups, massacres and rebellions," ensued. ++ History suggests Washington's deal could have disastrous consequences.