Britain's role in shaping Iraq
By Patrick Cockburn
Author and analyst
What to do about Iraq is hardly a new question for the UK. For it was Britain that drew the map of Iraq, and it has never ceased to play a significant role there.
In the tumbledown city of Kut south of Baghdad, a half-flooded cemetery is one of the few memorials to British control of Iraq. The tops of gravestones stick out of the slimy green water which obscures the names of some of the 40,000 British soldiers who died in Iraq in World War I.
British rule over the three provinces which became present-day Iraq was never happy. It started in 1915 when a small British army tried to capture Baghdad from the Turkish army, but was driven back and forced to surrender at Kut after a long siege.
Lawrence of Arabia
Lawrence of Arabia urged a gas attack against Iraq
When a much-reinforced British Army finally defeated the Turks, the UK was immediately faced with some of the problems still facing anybody seeking to rule Iraq today.
Captain Arnold Wilson, the British civil commissioner in newly captured Baghdad, believed that the creation of the new state was a recipe for disaster.
He warned that the deep differences between the three main communities - Sunni, Shia and Kurds - ensured it could only be "the antithesis of democratic government". This was because the Shia majority rejected domination by the Sunni minority, but "no form of government has been envisaged which does not involve Sunni domination".
Rebellion against British rule broke out in July 1920. The causes were diverse. Arab nationalists wanted independence. Officials who worked for the Turks were marginalised. The Shia clergy disliked the new authorities because they were Christian. The tribesmen were resentful that the British were more effective than the Turks in collecting taxes.
Civilian targets
The centre of the revolt was the middle Euphrates. By the time British rule was restored in 1921, some 2,000 British soldiers and 8,000 Iraqis had been killed or wounded.
In the wake of the rebellion, the UK tried to rule Iraq cheaply and at one remove.
Faisal I, a member of the powerful Hashemite family from Mecca, was appointed king, but was always dependent on British support. He and his descendents never succeeded in establishing their nationalist credentials in Iraqi eyes.
The British also wanted to reduce the cost of ruling Iraq by relying on air power rather than expensive ground troops. It was a testing ground for the Royal Air Force.
Soldier on Ark Royal
British troops are once again heading for Iraq
Arthur "Bomber" Harris, who was to lead the bomber offensive against Germany 20 years later, did not conceal the fact that he aimed at civilian targets.
Harris said in 1924 that he had taught Iraqis "that within 45 minutes a full-sized village can be practically wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or wounded".
Some other British leaders were equally blood-thirsty. After the revolt of 1920, TE Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia - wrote to the London Observer to say: "It is odd that we do not use poison gas on these occasions."
Loosened ties
Iraq became formally independent in 1932, but British influence, though diminishing, remained important.
Winston Churchill
"I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes"
In 1941 Rashid Ali, a former Ottoman officer, became prime minister, backed by four army colonels.
Encouraged by Hitler's victories in Europe, the new government sought to whittle away at British imperial control. Britain sent troops from Jordan and India. Despite the rebels' hopes, German support never came and Iraqi troops were defeated after a month's fighting.
After World War II, the alliance with Britain carried increasing dangers for the Hashemite government as the influence of Arab nationalism increased throughout the Middle East.
The last two airbases controlled by Britain were handed back to Iraq in 1955. But three years later, the last British influence was removed when a military coup overthrew the Hashemite dynasty.
In the subsequent power struggles, Saddam Hussein worked his way up through the ranks - a rise supported by the West, anxious to preserve its influence in the region.
Patrick Cockburn is the author, with Andrew Cockburn, of Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession, published in September 2002.