Oil and the Kurdish question : how democracies go to war in the era of late capitalism / Stephen C. Pelletiere.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pelletiere, Stephen C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988.

Military relations.

Halabjah (Iraq)--History--Bombardment, 1988.

Halabjah (Iraq).

Anfal Campaign, Iraq, 1986-1989.

Middle East--Politics and government.

Middle East.

Politics and government.

United States--Military relations--Middle East.

United States.

Middle East--Military relations--United States.

Iraq.

Iraq--Halabjah.

Middle East Region.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 195 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2016]

Summary:

Oil and the Kurdish Question: How Democracies Go to War in the Era of Late Capitalism critiques the conventional narrative of the Iran-Iraq War and the associated Anfal campaign. This narrative claims that in the last two years (1987-1988) of the Iran-Iraq War, the Ba'thists dominated the fighting using gas attacks. According to this narrative, the Ba'thists also used gas in a fearsome campaign of extermination against the Kurds of northern Iraq. This book argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the Iraqis trained hard to turn the tables on Iran in the last months of the war and won by superior generalship without the use of gas. Further, it was only when the Iranians conceded defeat that the Iraqi army went north and-in the space of nine days, using conventional arms-suppressed pockets of Kurdish insurgent unrest. Oil and the Kurdish Question also examines how publicists exploited the narrative of the Kurdish Anfal as justification for America to declare war on Iraq. It exposes a scheme laid out before the war that aimed to defeat Iraq, deconstruct it, and create an autonomous Kurdish regional government that would then let lucrative oil concessions to interests mainly in the west. This intrigue accomplished two things: it subverted Iraq's oil nationalization law-which forbade granting concessions to foreigners-and it ended Iraq's existence as a sovereign nation-state. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

1. Background of events

2. Critiquing the narrative

3. The trial of Saddam Hussein

4. A corrupt enterprise

5. Death of a system

Conclusion

Appendix A: The realm paper

Bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Pelletiere, Stephen C., author. Oil and the Kurdish question.

ISBN:

9781498516662

1498516661

OCLC:

934238563