The Iraq War: The Larger Picture

Ever since the Iraq war began the press has been crawling with all sorts of news that has to do with the conduct of the war; the images of the war; the perception of the war on the homefront; and the conclusion of the war. But as politicians consider withdrawling troops from Iraq no one is asking the real question; what is the affect of the war on a larger scale; for if we understand the greater affects of the Iraq War we will know how to deal with the war's conclusion.

What has happen in Iraq is not like Vietnam or Afganistan for neither of these countries were regional military and political powers; they were proud nations with a proud history but they were not focal points of an entire region. Let us remember that in the Gulf War of 1991 Iraq had a large military that was so much a threat that several nations combined in an alliance to defeat Saddam Hussien in Kuwait at that time. Also let us remember that Iraq in the 1980's fought a large war called the Iran Iraq War that disrupted the entire Persian Gulf region. Iraq was a regional power much like Brazil is in South America or South Africa is in Sub-Saharan Africa and with the Iraq war now being fought we are not only seeing the removal of Saddam Hussien but the troubles of establishing a central government in a fragmented society. One of the most interesting things about Iraqi history over 5000 years is that it has always took strong leaders to forge unity but when that strong leader is gone the nation fragments; such things happened after the reign of the Babylonian/Iraqi king Nebuchadnezzar 2500 years; when he ruled they were the strongest nation in the world but the moment he died the people turned on each other and within a generation they were gone from being a world power.

The question and the reasons for the fighting in the Iraq War now is who will fill in this power vacuum; for who ever fills in this power vacuum will also deeply affect a highly unstable region or the world called the Middle East in which religions and culture can trigger another World War. If we are not careful Iraq will be to another global conflict what the Spanish Civil War was to the world before World War II.