IRAQ: One too many nations or three too few
September 19th, 2008
in:
CPTnet
19 September 2008
IRAQ: One too many nations or three too few
By Don Kahle
[Note: the following piece has been edited for length. Those wishing to read the original release, “An Impromptu History Lesson,” will find it at http://www.dksez.com/, along with his original version of “IRAQ: Noticing the women,” a CPTnet release that appeared on 17 September 2008. (On his website, the title is “Women Burdened in Iraq.”)]
Dana Hassan’s hobby is history, but his work is focused on the here-and-now. He is program coordinator for R.E.A.C.H. (Rehabilitation, Education, and Community Health), which grew out of earlier efforts by Oxfam International. REACH thinks long-term about peacemaking; its teams come to a community and begin rebuilding the fractured human networks that make a community grow and strengthen over time.
Hassan insists his group’s work is not secondary to meeting physical needs. “Since the fall of Saddam, people are lost,” he observes. “Saddam’s regime made it very simple. Join the military and we will take care of you. Don’t think. We come to people’s homes. Often their first question is ‘Could you tell us what we need?’”
“It’s slow work, changing how people think. We teach them they have rights. That gives them hope.” He pauses to reflect. “Peace is peace,” Hassan says, “It’s a gift from the God.”
“What about peace between nations, across borders?” I ask.
Hassan pushes back from his desk, stands, and smiles. “Ahh! It’s a big question.” Here his history hobby helps his work.
He strides to a small wipe-off board and draws a Rorschach blot that represents Iraq. Two horizontal lines near the center divide the blot into uneven thirds. We are about to receive a lesson that explains in a few minutes why Iraq has been such a contentious nation since it was formed in 1920 by European colonial powers.
“ The Sunni are the smallest third, filling the middle stripe. The Kurds dominate north and the Shiites south. The south is bordered by Jordan to the west and Iran to the east, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in between. Jordan is mostly Sunni, and so is neighboring Saudi Arabia. But the Saudi ruling families are Wahhabi, separate from the leaders of Jordan. Iran is mostly Shiite, but Iraqi Sunnis keep Iraqi Shiites from getting too close. Kuwait is mostly Chaldean, connecting with Baghdad, where most Iraqi Chaldeans live.”
Lines and arrows are filling the board. He is drawing straight lines, squiggly lines, and dotted lines — trying to map the dynamics between the groups. He wishes he had a larger board and more colored markers.
“The northern borders are just as confusing. Syria’s population is mostly Sunni, but the leaders are Shiite. These Shiite leaders want to work with the Iranian leaders, but Iraqi Kurdistan is in between. Turkey is to the north, but they fear the Kurds. They use the Assyrians to keep the Kurds on both sides of their border apart. Christians are used the same way on the border between Iraq and Syria.”
Hassan’s point is clear. When the victors of World War I carved the Middle East into nation states, they made one too many or three too few. On his diagram, the borders of Iraq were barely visible beneath all the other lines of interest.
No wonder community identity cannot thrive here without the teaching of conflict resolution first.
Members of the 31July-14 August delegation to the Kurdish region in were were Patricia Blocksome (Manhattan, Kansas), Mary Grace (Wolftown, Virginia), Nathan Hoover (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Donald Kahle (Eugene, Oregon), Hayley Kemp (Plymouth, England), and Kathleen O'Malley (Albuquerque, New Mexico).
19 September 2008
IRAQ: One too many nations or three too few
By Don Kahle
[Note: the following piece has been edited for length. Those wishing to read the original release, “An Impromptu History Lesson,” will find it at http://www.dksez.com/, along with his original version of “IRAQ: Noticing the women,” a CPTnet release that appeared on 17 September 2008. (On his website, the title is “Women Burdened in Iraq.”)]
Dana Hassan’s hobby is history, but his work is focused on the here-and-now. He is program coordinator for R.E.A.C.H. (Rehabilitation, Education, and Community Health), which grew out of earlier efforts by Oxfam International. REACH thinks long-term about peacemaking; its teams come to a community and begin rebuilding the fractured human networks that make a community grow and strengthen over time.
Hassan insists his group’s work is not secondary to meeting physical needs. “Since the fall of Saddam, people are lost,” he observes. “Saddam’s regime made it very simple. Join the military and we will take care of you. Don’t think. We come to people’s homes. Often their first question is ‘Could you tell us what we need?’”
“It’s slow work, changing how people think. We teach them they have rights. That gives them hope.” He pauses to reflect. “Peace is peace,” Hassan says, “It’s a gift from the God.”
“What about peace between nations, across borders?” I ask.
Hassan pushes back from his desk, stands, and smiles. “Ahh! It’s a big question.” Here his history hobby helps his work.
He strides to a small wipe-off board and draws a Rorschach blot that represents Iraq. Two horizontal lines near the center divide the blot into uneven thirds. We are about to receive a lesson that explains in a few minutes why Iraq has been such a contentious nation since it was formed in 1920 by European colonial powers.
“ The Sunni are the smallest third, filling the middle stripe. The Kurds dominate north and the Shiites south. The south is bordered by Jordan to the west and Iran to the east, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in between. Jordan is mostly Sunni, and so is neighboring Saudi Arabia. But the Saudi ruling families are Wahhabi, separate from the leaders of Jordan. Iran is mostly Shiite, but Iraqi Sunnis keep Iraqi Shiites from getting too close. Kuwait is mostly Chaldean, connecting with Baghdad, where most Iraqi Chaldeans live.”
Lines and arrows are filling the board. He is drawing straight lines, squiggly lines, and dotted lines — trying to map the dynamics between the groups. He wishes he had a larger board and more colored markers.
“The northern borders are just as confusing. Syria’s population is mostly Sunni, but the leaders are Shiite. These Shiite leaders want to work with the Iranian leaders, but Iraqi Kurdistan is in between. Turkey is to the north, but they fear the Kurds. They use the Assyrians to keep the Kurds on both sides of their border apart. Christians are used the same way on the border between Iraq and Syria.”
Hassan’s point is clear. When the victors of World War I carved the Middle East into nation states, they made one too many or three too few. On his diagram, the borders of Iraq were barely visible beneath all the other lines of interest.
No wonder community identity cannot thrive here without the teaching of conflict resolution first.
Members of the 31July-14 August delegation to the Kurdish region in were were Patricia Blocksome (Manhattan, Kansas), Mary Grace (Wolftown, Virginia), Nathan Hoover (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Donald Kahle (Eugene, Oregon), Hayley Kemp (Plymouth, England), and Kathleen O'Malley (Albuquerque, New Mexico).
