In the final post of our series on Countries in Conflict we look at the sectarian strife that threatens to tear apart Iraq. Prior to World War One the area now known as Iraq had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire. After the war the Ottoman Empire was divided up, and the British Mandate of Mesopotamia was established by League of Nations mandate. Unfortunately the territorial limits of Iraq were decided upon without taking into account the politics of the different ethnic and religious groups in the country, in particular those of the Kurds and the Assyrians to the north.
 
These old divides have came to the fore since the US led coalition invasion in March 2003. Stability in region has plummeted as a growing insurgence and lack of an effective plan post-Saddam Hussein rule took their toll. It was the latter which had the most crippling effect. With not nearly enough men on the ground to occupy the country and a shortage of supplies to repair the infrastructure destroyed meant inconceivable consequences:

• There are now more than 4.7 million refugees of Iraq, which is more than 16.3% of the population.
• Two million fled Iraq while approximately 2.7 million are internally displaced people.
• Roughly 40% of Iraq’s middle class is believed to have fled. Most are fleeing systematic persecution and have no desire to return.
• An estimated 331 school teachers were killed in the first four months of 2006 and at least 2,000 Iraqi doctors have been murdered and 250 kidnapped since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
• Corruption is also emdemnic in Iraq’s government. In 2010, according to the Failed States Index, Iraq was the world’s seventh most politically unstable country.
• Most politicians try to steal as much money as they can while they are in power and in 2008 Al Jazeera reported $13 Billion of Iraqi oil revenues in U.S. care was improperly accounted for, of which $2.6 billion is totally unaccounted for.

 Under Saddam, Iraq had a callous and at times evil government, but the state was firmly part of the Arab world and had a clear secular national identity. What has been created in its place is a country of power-hungry political parties based on ethnic and religious divides. There is much still to improve, however, all American forces are scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2011.

Is it fair to trace all of this back to poor decisions made by British politicians decades ago or is it meaningless and counter-productive to put the blame on events that happened so long ago?. We shall be debating the legacy of the British Empire on November 17th - “Britain’s former colonies should stop blaming the Empire for their ills.”