AAARGH
[BACKGROUND: In 1917, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire,
the British occupied Iraq and established a colonial government.
The Arab and Kurdish people of Iraq resisted the British occupation,
and by 1920 this had developed into a full scale national revolt,
which cost the British dearly. As the Iraqi resistance gained
strength, the British resorted to increasingly repressive measures,
including the use of posion gas.]
All quotes in the excerpt are properly footnoted in the original
book, with full references to British archives and papers. Excerpt
from pages 179-181 of Simons, Geoff. "IRAQ: FROM SUMER TO
SUDAN". London: St. Martins Press, 1994:
" Winston Churchill, as colonial secretary, was sensitive
to the cost of policing the Empire; and was in consequence keen
to exploit the potential of modern technology. This strategy had
particular relevance to operations in Iraq. On 19 February, 1920,
before the start of the Arab uprising, Churchill (then Secretary
for War and Air) wrote to Sir Hugh Trenchard, the pioneer of air
warfare. Would it be possible for Trenchard to take control of
Iraq? This would entail "the provision of some kind of asphyxiating
bombs calculated to cause disablement of some kind but not death...for
use in preliminary operations against turbulent tribes."
"Churchill was in no doubt that gas could be profitably employed
against the Kurds and Iraqis (as well as against other peoples
in the Empire): "I do not understand this squeamishness about
the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against
uncivilised tribes." Henry Wilson shared Churchills enthusiasm
for gas as an instrument of colonial control but the British cabinet
was reluctant to sanction the use of a weapon that had caused
such misery and revulsion in the First World War. Churchill himself
was keen to argue that gas, fired from ground-based guns or dropped
from aircraft, would cause "only discomfort or illness, but
not death" to dissident tribespeople; but his optimistic
view of the effects of gas were mistaken. It was likely that the
suggested gas would permanently damage eyesight and "kill
children and sickly persons, more especially as the people against
whom we intend to use it have no medical knowledge with which
to supply antidotes."
"Churchill remained unimpressed by such considerations, arguing
that the use of gas, a "scientific expedient," should
not be prevented "by the prejudices of those who do not think
clearly". In the event, gas was used against the Iraqi rebels
with excellent moral effect" though gas shells were not dropped
from aircraft because of practical difficulties [.....]
"Today in 1993 there are still Iraqis and Kurds who remember
being bombed and machine-gunned by the RAF in the 1920s. A Kurd
from the Korak mountains commented, seventy years after the event:
"They were bombing here in the Kaniya Khoran...Sometimes
they raided three times a day." Wing Commander Lewis, then
of 30 Squadron (RAF), Iraq, recalls how quite often "one
would get a signal that a certain Kurdish village would have to
be bombed...", the RAF pilots being ordered to bomb any Kurd
who looked hostile. In the same vein, Squadron-Leader Kendal of
30 Squadron recalls that if the tribespeople were doing something
they ought not be doing then you shot them."
"Similarly, Wing-Commander Gale, also of 30 Squadron: "If
the Kurds hadn't learned by our example to behave themselves in
a civilised way then we had to spank their bottoms. This was done
by bombs and guns.
"Wing-Commander Sir Arthur Harris (later Bomber Harris, head
of wartime Bomber Command) was happy to emphasise that "The
Arab and Kurd now know what real bombing means in casualties and
damage. Within forty-five minutes a full-size village can be practically
wiped out and a third of its inhabitants killed or injured."
It was an easy matter to bomb and machine-gun the tribespeople,
because they had no means of defence or retalitation. Iraq and
Kurdistan were also useful laboratories for new weapons; devices
specifically developed by the Air Ministry for use against tribal
villages. The ministry drew up a list of possible weapons, some
of them the forerunners of napalm and air-to-ground missiles:
Phosphorus bombs, war rockets, metal crowsfeet [to maim livestock]
man-killing shrapnel, liquid fire, delay-action bombs. Many of
these weapons were first used in Kurdistan. "
+++++++++++++++++++
Excerpt from pages 179-181 of Geoff Simons, Iraq: From Sumer
to Saddam,.
London: St. Martins Press, 1994.
L'adresse électronique de ce document est: http://aaargh-international.org/fran/actu/actu001/doc2001/irak.html
Ce texte a été affiché sur Internet à des fins purement éducatives, pour encourager la recherche, sur une base non-commerciale et pour une utilisation mesurée par le Secrétariat international de l'Association des Anciens Amateurs de Récits de Guerre et d'Holocaustes (AAARGH). L'adresse électronique du Secrétariat est <aaarghinternational@hotmail.com>. L'adresse postale est: PO Box 81475, Chicago, IL 60681-0475, USA.
Afficher un texte sur le Web équivaut à mettre un document sur le rayonnage d'une bibliothèque publique. Cela nous coûte un peu d'argent et de travail. Nous pensons que c'est le lecteur volontaire qui en profite et nous le supposons capable de penser par lui-même. Un lecteur qui va chercher un document sur le Web le fait toujours à ses risques et périls. Quant à l'auteur, il n'y a pas lieu de supposer qu'il partage la responsabilité des autres textes consultables sur ce site. En raison des lois qui instituent une censure spécifique dans certains pays (Allemagne, France, Israël, Suisse, Canada, et d'autres), nous ne demandons pas l'agrément des auteurs qui y vivent car ils ne sont pas libres de consentir.
Nous nous plaçons sous
la protection de l'article 19 de la Déclaration des Droits
de l'homme, qui stipule:
ARTICLE 19
<Tout individu a droit à la liberté d'opinion
et d'expression, ce qui implique le droit de ne pas être
inquiété pour ses opinions et celui de chercher,
de recevoir et de répandre, sans considération de
frontière, les informations et les idées par quelque
moyen d'expression que ce soit>
Déclaration internationale des droits de l'homme,
adoptée par l'Assemblée générale de
l'ONU à Paris, le 10 décembre 1948.