The Iraq War and how it has affected the Middle East
Globalization is a force that affects almost every person on the planet in one way or another; weather it’s through trade and diplomacy or through cultural exchanges. Iraq has experienced a large increase in the amount of attention it has been receiving in past years as it struggles out of one war into another conflict. This attention has increased the amount of interaction Iraq has with the rest of the world and these interactions have left their mark in Iraq in many fields such as politics and economics. These conflicts have also led to significant changes in how the different ethnic groups that live there interact with each other and even replaced the old system of government with a …show more content…
Iraq is a country located in the Middle East and shares a large border with Iran as well as a few other Middle Eastern countries. It has been subject to quite a bit of conflict and violence since the turn of the century and even before. Despite this Iraq was, and still is, a large producer of oil in the Middle East. Before the U.S. led an invasion of Iraq in 2003 the country was led by Saddam Hussein. The government he ran was compromised mostly of Sunnis and there was general distrust of their Shia counterparts, the government believing that their loyalty lay more with Iran than with Iraq despite evidence in conflicts with Iran that showed otherwise. While Sunni dominance had been an historical trend in Iraq, and the Middle East in general, (Nasr, 2006) the amount of exclusivism and mistrust of the other groups that came with the new government was also new. Following the entrance of Saddam as leader of Iraq came a war with Iran, and following that, attacks on Iraqi Kurds, following that an invasion of Kuwait and subsequently a war with the U.S. as it pushed Iraq out of Kuwait. The conflict was followed by uprisings of Shiites and Kurds but these were put down by security forces. The mistreatment of the other ethnic groups and even tribes of Sunnis that threatened to gain too much influence, in Iraq led to deepening tensions between them. But despite all this the country was still quite …show more content…
This likely means that the region will remain in a state of unrest and conflict for some time as the lines have been drawn and many are too hot for blood now to slow down anytime soon, and without a strong, legitimate local government to try and calm things down the violence and number of those fighting is probably only going to increase. We can already see that the violence hasn’t slowed down, even possibly worsening, in recent years with the emergence of a very strong and powerful I.S.I.S. which doesn’t seem poised to unite the region under peaceful coexistence. The emergence of I.S.I.S. along with continued sectarian violence in neighboring countries such as Syria only continue to increase the amount of sectarian violence in Iraq. Iraq’s own deputy prime minister believes that reconciliation is one of the only and most important ways to restore lasting peace to Iraq; he also believes that the U.S. has an obligation to help. "The external power is needed to rearrange things, especially those who were given more [power by the U.S. after the occupation] than they should have been given." (Sprusansky, 2014) The Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. also recently summed up very well the danger and challenges wider sectarian conflict can
Globalization is a force that affects almost every person on the planet in one way or another; weather it’s through trade and diplomacy or through cultural exchanges. Iraq has experienced a large increase in the amount of attention it has been receiving in past years as it struggles out of one war into another conflict. This attention has increased the amount of interaction Iraq has with the rest of the world and these interactions have left their mark in Iraq in many fields such as politics and economics. These conflicts have also led to significant changes in how the different ethnic groups that live there interact with each other and even replaced the old system of government with a …show more content…
Iraq is a country located in the Middle East and shares a large border with Iran as well as a few other Middle Eastern countries. It has been subject to quite a bit of conflict and violence since the turn of the century and even before. Despite this Iraq was, and still is, a large producer of oil in the Middle East. Before the U.S. led an invasion of Iraq in 2003 the country was led by Saddam Hussein. The government he ran was compromised mostly of Sunnis and there was general distrust of their Shia counterparts, the government believing that their loyalty lay more with Iran than with Iraq despite evidence in conflicts with Iran that showed otherwise. While Sunni dominance had been an historical trend in Iraq, and the Middle East in general, (Nasr, 2006) the amount of exclusivism and mistrust of the other groups that came with the new government was also new. Following the entrance of Saddam as leader of Iraq came a war with Iran, and following that, attacks on Iraqi Kurds, following that an invasion of Kuwait and subsequently a war with the U.S. as it pushed Iraq out of Kuwait. The conflict was followed by uprisings of Shiites and Kurds but these were put down by security forces. The mistreatment of the other ethnic groups and even tribes of Sunnis that threatened to gain too much influence, in Iraq led to deepening tensions between them. But despite all this the country was still quite …show more content…
This likely means that the region will remain in a state of unrest and conflict for some time as the lines have been drawn and many are too hot for blood now to slow down anytime soon, and without a strong, legitimate local government to try and calm things down the violence and number of those fighting is probably only going to increase. We can already see that the violence hasn’t slowed down, even possibly worsening, in recent years with the emergence of a very strong and powerful I.S.I.S. which doesn’t seem poised to unite the region under peaceful coexistence. The emergence of I.S.I.S. along with continued sectarian violence in neighboring countries such as Syria only continue to increase the amount of sectarian violence in Iraq. Iraq’s own deputy prime minister believes that reconciliation is one of the only and most important ways to restore lasting peace to Iraq; he also believes that the U.S. has an obligation to help. "The external power is needed to rearrange things, especially those who were given more [power by the U.S. after the occupation] than they should have been given." (Sprusansky, 2014) The Iraqi ambassador to the U.S. also recently summed up very well the danger and challenges wider sectarian conflict can