Eliminate Iraq and Iran?
Eliminate Iraq and Iran
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Jack Wheeler
Freedom Research Foundation
Monday, Dec. 2, 2002
Not the countries. Certainly not the people who live in them. Eliminate the countries' names. "Iraq" is a plain Arabic noun – al-iraq – meaning the shore and grazing area of a river. Inspiring, isn't it? The country of Iraq was an invention of the British after World War I, who along with the French were carving up pieces of the defeated Ottoman Empire into colonies called League of Nations Mandates.
Stitched together from three distinct Ottoman vilayets or provinces – Kurdish Mosul, Sunni Arab Baghdad, and Shiite Arab Basra (but excluding the pre-existing British colony of Kuwait, run by the al-Sabah family) – the area had the name "Iraq" foisted upon it by the Brits, who installed their puppet Faisal Hashem as king after the Saudis kicked him and his family out of Arabia. Thus was born the Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq.
Invented in 1921, the Iraqi Kingdom lasted 37 years. In 1958, the "royal" family was slaughtered, a military dictatorship established which Saddam Hussein took over in 1979, yet the name Iraq remained (officially Al-Jumhurria al-Iraqia, the Republic of the River Shore).
The same year of Iraq's invention, 1921, saw a military coup next door in Persia. An officer of the Persian Cossacks Brigade, Reza Khan Pahlavi, and his troops overthrew the Qajar dynasty that had ruled since 1794. By 1926, Reza was calling himself Shah.
For over 100 years, the British and Russians had played imperial games with Persia. An attempt to escape from Anglo-Russian dominance led Reza Shah into dalliance with the Germans. To curry favor with the new Nazi government, Reza in 1935, without warning or explanation, decreed that Persia would henceforth be named "Iran," or Land of the Aryans.
Hitler was quite pleased that a country would rename itself as the original homeland of his Aryan Master Race, so an alliance was formed, resulting in a joint British-Russian invasion of Tehran that kicked out Reza and installed his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the new shah. The son kept the Nazi-racist name "Iran," however, as did the fellow who overthrew him in 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini.
It is obvious that next year, 2003, will see the overthrow of the current governments of Iraq and Iran – the first by either palace coup or the U.S. military, the second by popular revolt. Iraq will desperately need a national glue to hold it together, to overcome its enormous centrifugal forces. A critically necessary ingredient in that glue will be renaming the country, to reach back and recapture the extraordinary history and achievements of its predecessor with the ancient name of Mesopotamia.
In one stroke, the country of Mesopotamia – The Land Between Two Rivers, as the Greeks called it – would erase the horrible legacy of the last 82 years as Iraq, remind the world that it is the original Cradle of Civilization where history's first city-states were born circa 4,000 B.C., unite all its peoples – Kurds, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turcomen, Sunnis and Shiites – under its ancient historical legacy, and announce to the world that Civilization's Cradle is ready and eager to participate in the civilization of the 21st century.
Names have power. There is a magical resonance to Mesopotamia. Such a name, coupled with a stable government providing public safety and a rule of law, would result in a flood of tourists excited to explore 6,000 years of history, to visit the sites of Babylon, Nineveh, Abraham's Ur, scores of other biblical locations, and fabled Baghdad. If there is any place on earth that needs a fresh start, it's Iraq. The best way would be to shuck the disgraced name itself and begin anew with the original, Mesopotamia.
It is equally incumbent on Iran to rename itself Persia. "Iranians" have no history, no heritage, other than the Pahlavi dictatorship and the ghastly Ayatollah oppression following it. As they are now poised to rid themselves of Mullah Tyranny, they too require a new national identity, one that can give them a deep pride in their 2,500-year-old culture beginning with Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire.
The "Iranian" people have no connection to a glorious past, and thus no foundation for a flourishing future. Persia, like Mesopotamia, is a name that has magic. Its people need to recapture that magic. They need to recover their history not only before Khomeini and Reza Shah, but also before Islam.
By studying that history (which is not allowed today), they will remember that an Arab nomadic horde invaded Persia in 637 A.D., conquered their ancestors and forced them by sword and fire to renounce their own religion (Zoroastrianism) and adopt Islam.
Zoroastrianism is reviving in Iran now, with Nowruz (the Zoroastrian New Year coinciding with Spring Equinox) being celebrated by hundreds of thousands. The overthrow of the hated mullahs by student/popular revolt next year will see an explosion of interest by the Persian people in their ancestral legacy and religion.
Renaming their country back to the original – Persia – would solidify and formalize this revival, and their rejection of their immediate oppressed past with its tainted Nazi-racist title.
The democratization and de-radicalization of Iraq and Iran will be the tipping point in the War on Moslem Terrorism. Giving back these lands their ancient and revered names – Mesopotamia and Persia – will ensure that the point stays tipped.
© 2002 Dr. Jack Wheeler and the Freedom Research Foundation
Jack Wheeler is the president of the Freedom Research Foundation.
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