IRAQ YESTERDAY, IRAQ TODAY

Abstract

Abstract

This study intends to shed some light on why Iraq has been in the news

quite a bit, and why it has come to play the role it has in world affairs of

the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It concerns Iraq

yesterday and today.

Introduction

The paper makes one simple assumption: the notion that all human life on

this planet – Muslim and non-Muslim, female and male, civilian and

military, poor or rich, ‘North’ or ‘South’, white or black– carries exactly

the same intrinsic worth. This essential value of human life is due to the

presence of the Divine spirit in all of humanity, the same spirit that,

according to the Qur’an, God breathed into each and every human being

[Qur’an 15:29 and 38:72]. From this premise of the worth and dignity of

each and every human life and the right of each community to realize

their vision of prosperity, dignity and righteousness, as long as that vision

does not come at the expense of any other community, the researcher

intends to begin this study.

The paper is divided into two parts, the first concerns Iraq before the

war of 2003 – referred to in this study as Iraq yesterday; the second part

tackles a number of current issues and attempts to find answers for some

controversial questions including: What are the causes and consequences

of the US war on Iraq and the occupation of this country? Is it invasion or

liberation? Is it true that post-war excuses for invasion and occupation are

to make Iraq a western-style democracy and to spread Western values or

is the US actually putting on a terrifying show for the whole world to see

and yield? And eventually where is the value of human life?