Letter: Iraq’s problems rooted in nation’s beginnings

Thursday, Oct. 5, 2006 | 7:32 a.m.

The violence in Iraq we see nightly on our TV screens is horrifying. Why can't these people stop fighting and work together? History provides one explanation.

In 1921 the British created the new nation of Iraq from three Ottoman provinces: Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. These provinces had existed autonomously for hundreds of years and had ethnic, cultural and religious distinctions. The residents of the three provinces had no desire to be united as a country. The British ignored their concerns.

The citizens of Iraq actively resisted the British plan. There were four armed insurrections between 1921 and 1936. Iraq's national government has been replaced more than 50 times, usually by a military coup.

The Baath Party came to power through a coup in 1968. In the following years, the Baathists ruthlessly suppressed their political opponents. The regional tensions within Iraq were forced underground.

Today, with Baathist control removed by the U.S. military, regional issues have re-emerged to challenge the Iraqi central government. The level of violence between Iraqis is now approaching that of a civil war.

Tradition is an important part of the cultures of the Middle East. It's no surprise that the three Ottoman provinces of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul still exist in the hearts of the people. Our government would be wise to accept and work with the people's desires, not against them. Iraq as a political unit should be dissolved, and its peoples permitted to seek their own future.

William Haven, Henderson