Saddam courts Iraqi nationalism

Saddam courts Iraqi nationalism

By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst

Saddam Hussein presenting the conflict as a 'people's war'

Saddam Hussein presents himself as the champion of the Iraqi nation.

But can he harness Iraqi nationalism or will it prove his undoing?

And given the country's mosaic of different communities, does an Iraqi nation actually exist?

The question might seem academic to Iraqis struggling for daily survival, their country ravaged by two earlier wars and more than 12 years of United Nations sanctions.

And it might seem academic to George W Bush as he wages a war to topple Saddam Hussein and destroy his alleged weapons of mass destruction.

But if America ignores or misreads Iraqi nationalism, the war the US has code-named Operation Iraq Liberation could come to grief.

Early nation-building

Like many countries in the Middle East, Iraq is an artificial creation.

Britain carved it out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire, in the aftermath of the First World War, and put on the throne in Baghdad an Arabian prince called Faisal.

The first of the country's modern nation-builders, King Faisal found the task a frustrating one.

In the days before oil wealth, there was widespread poverty, disease and illiteracy.

The idea of an Iraqi nation was alien in a land divided along ethnic lines between Arab and Kurd, and on sectarian lines between Sunni and Shia.

Can the Iraqi leader harness Iraqi nationalism?

But as resentment of British rule grew, and the oil began to flow, bringing about the beginnings of modern development, nationalism took root - or rather two kinds of nationalism.

Iraqi nationalists wanted to see the emergence of an independent nation state free of foreign rule.

Arab nationalists wanted Iraq to play its part in a united Arab nation stretching from Morocco to the Gulf.

The military coup of 1958, which overthrew the British-backed monarchy and ushered in the birth of a republic, was a triumph for the Arab nationalists, inspired by the "hero of Arabism", Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Arabism and after

When Saddam Hussein became Iraqi president in 1979, he saw himself as an Arab nationalist in the Nasser mould.

Iraq was now a major oil producer which, under his leadership, was capable of playing a major role in the Middle East and the Third World.

Oil wealth and modernisation began to knit the country together.

The new Iraq was led by a Sunni elite, but the Kurds and the Shia could help build the nation, provided they made no trouble.

The idea of an Iraqi nation took root, especially in Baghdad, the country's political heart and a melting-pot of Sunni, Shia and Kurd.

Today the idea survives, but badly bruised.

Much will depend on how coalition troops conduct the war

Following his two big regional misadventures - invading Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990 - Saddam Hussein reversed some of his earlier modernising policies in the interests of his own survival.

Having originally discouraged tribalism, he revived it.

Having originally promoted secularism, he embarked on a policy of "Islamisation".

Modern-minded Iraqis were aghast.

The other big blow to nation-building has been the devastating impact of UN sanctions.

Since they were first imposed in 1990, sanctions have wiped away many of the gains of oil-fuelled modernisation. The economy, education, health have been hit hard.

Nationalist backlash

But national pride has not disappeared.

The Marsh Arabs have suffered under Saddam Hussein

Indeed, it is showing signs of revival under the impact of the new US-led war.

Saddam Hussein is trying to exploit this by calling on all sectors of society to rally behind him to fight what he is presenting as a "people's war".

Whether this succeeds will depend to a considerable extent on how the American and British forces conduct the war and its aftermath.

Many Iraqis have undoubtedly suffered under a brutal regime.

They would welcome "regime change" if it resulted from a short war with the minimum of civilian casualties.

But a prolonged and bloody conflict would engender lasting bitterness.

And a newly assertive Iraqi nationalism would make post-war challenges even more daunting than they already are.