(click for larger photo)
'Why are otherwise intelligent people in Britain and the United States surprised on learning that the occupation is detested by a majority of Iraqi citizens? Empires sometimes forget who they are crusading against and why, but the occupied rarely suffer from such confusions.'
History Repeats Itself by a Reader from Maryland, posted on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2003
If there is any truth to the adage "history repeats itself", its in the modern history of the Iraq. One of the most brilliant living writers, Tariq Ali, takes us on a tour de force study of the history of that war-torn country, from the first British invasion during World War I, to the latest Anglo-American occupation. Ali's piercing intellect dissects Iraq's history in an attempt to understand why things have happened the way they are, providing a critical understanding not only of Western imperial policies but also of the causes for Arab weakness. Written in June 2003, only 3 months after the invasion, this book demonstrates considerable prescience about the outcome of events in Iraq, predicting an intensification of the resistance and a Shi'a uprising, among other things. Those in the West who are tired of contradictions in the official justifications for the war will do well to pick up a copy of this book and learn more about how this 'liberation' of Iraq is really no different from the first British occupation at the turn of the 20th century, down to the very rhetoric used in the West to gain support for the war.
Apart from the remarkable wealth of accurate information, this book enjoys a style of writing that is unsurpassed in modern historical writing. Once into the book, I could not resist the urge to continue, laying the book down only reluctantly at the end of two sleepless nights spent enjoying it. Excellent reading!
dcpalestine.org