Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq

232 Pages·2003·24.897 MB·English

by  Tariq Ali

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The invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United'
States and Britain - with retrospective sanction of this
recolonisation bythe United Nations- marks a turning
pointinworld historyandarenewal ofthetwo-hundred-
year-old war waged by the North against the South.
Whateverthefinal outcome, the assault and captureof
Iraq by the American Empire and its bloodshot British
adjutant - and the resistance it has provoked - will
shape the politics ofthe twenty-first century.
RIA
In this passionate and provocative book, Tariq Ali
argues against the view that sees imperialist
occupation as the only viable solution to bring about
regime-change in corrupt and dictatorial states. The
American Empire, like all its predecessors, acts
primarily out of self-interest. Now, as before, it is the
political, economic and strategic needs of the United
States that determine its foreign policy.
Bush in Babylon is above all a history of Iraqi
resistance against empires old and new. Imperial
interventions in the past created a layer of
collaborators who could only be removed via a
revolution; butthetragedy of Iraq is also self-inflicted.
The radical colonels, courageous communists and
burnt-out Ba'athistsfailed toestablish astableandjust
democratic republic, thus enabling a return visit by
imperialism.
Like the author's previous work. The Clash of
Fundamentalisms, this book presents a magnificent
cultural history; a heartfelt homage to the great poets
of Iraq and the Arab world whose influence remained
strong throughouttheir long periods ofexile, and who
are united in poetic resistance to the latest
catastrophe.
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Bush in Babylon
V
By the same author
NON-FICTION
Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power (1970)
Can Pakistan Survive? (1982)
The Nehrus and the Gandhis (1985)
1968 andAfter: Inside the Revolution (1978)
Street FightingYears:AnAutobiography ofthe Sixties (1987)
Revolution From Above:Where is the Soviet Union Gouig? (1988)
The Clash ofFundamentalisms (2002)
FICTION
The Islam Quintet
Shadows ofthe PomegranateTree (1992)
The Book ofSaladin (1998)
Tlie Stone Woman (1999)
The Fall-of-ConimunismTrilogy
Redemption (1991)
Fear ofMirrors (1998)
Bush in Babylon
The Recolonisation of Iraq
TARIQ
ALI
V
VERSO
London • NewYork
First published byVerso 2003
©TariqAll 2003
All rights reserved
The moral rights ofthe author have been asserted
3579 8642
10
Verso
UK:6 Meard Street,LondonWIF OEG
USA: ISOVanck Street, NewYork,NY 10014-4606
www.versobooks.coni
Verso is the imprint ofNew Left Books
ISBN 1-85984-583-5
ISBN 1-85984-536-3 (Australian paperback)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ali,Tariq.
Bush in Babylon: the recolonisation ofIraq /TariqAli.- 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-85984-583-5
1. IraqWar,2003. 2. IraqWar, 2003-Occupied territories.
3.United States-Relations-lraq. 4. Iraq-Relations-United States.
I.Title.
DS79.76.A39 2003
956.7044'3-dc22
2003017638
Typeset in Bembo
Printed and bound in the USA by R.R.Donnelley & Sons
Printed andbound in the UK byBath Press
Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press
-
ForAislia and her comrades
a newgeneration on the march.