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Weird how much information was chartered of the the US after they conquered Iraq. How are Iraqi researchers able to effectively research their country adequately, if they have to travel to US to access documents from their institutions? It is a cultural loss.
Homegenous societies are far easier to put through social manipulations than heterogeneous ones. A state first duty is to have legibility of the territory and people it controls.
Totalitarian/authoritarian regimes forget this fact in their administration of their territory until "shocks" occur and they realise how weak their power is outside the capital, then they go for collective correction to those minorities.
When a state punishes at the level of a nation (ethnicity, language) it triggers nationalism. State create the citizen behaviour that they confront as a result of policy action lin line with their constraints.
Beliefs are important factors when discussing behaviour they are jointly produced. If people have fragmented beliefs. They produce fragmented results. (Sectarian identity, national identity and politics).
By all accounts given high oil prices, Iraq was a very successful nation in the 1970's. Economic growth was steady, there was a welfare state, employment was at 100%,
Repression polices were low (Peace agreement with Iran to stop supporting Kurds, clamp down on communism while adopting then into the political party etc) because public good were high.
Then "the fire nation attacked" or Saddam (secure in his political power) with the Iran's Islamic revolution, was triggered to annoyance, then launched a stupid war.
Saddam overestimated his military ability, underestimated theirs. Used Shi'i soilders like connon folder and let the Kurdish rebellion get out of control (refused to forest's the rebellion alliance with Iran) while punishing the whole kurdish people.
Suffered huge economic losses, fractured national identity and image crisis . He needed a win to solve all three problems thus Quatar. Which led to destruction of the Shi'i south that then triggered the north.
Decentralised protests are the worst things for governments. They are faced with low intelligence on who to target and must use large suppression tactics which usually may bring peace but fractures society way more.
Madeline Alright with the coldest statement in world politics. The death of 500,000 children is a worthy price to the Saddam regime for invading Iraq.
Those economic sanctions were horrible to the Iraq economy where it was its most vulnerable. Which means high repression tactics, to control high dissatisfaction. When you are strained and have to decide, your systematic bias gets exposed real quick.
The people suffered & Saddam rule was weak so he had to focus his power on his collation rather than "the people". Meaning he had to become more corrupt to hold power. (Read The Dictator's Handbook Book by Alastair Smith and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita)
The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (with its faction in Syria and Iraq) was a very oppressive tool for social and political control. All the brutality of the Communist Party of China, with none of the subtly in ideology. Very totalitarian in its approach.
Rumors. One of tools a totalitarian regime seeks to control a society is by having a monopoly of information. By controlling officials/major brand of information distribution media etc But that control is a bit weak.
While the media might be the way the government provides information, it is not the way the citizens talk about information. Citizens talk about it through rumors (with an increase in technology this is still a factors but less significantly so).
So for a regime to have a pulse of society, it need to collect rumors about it, to perform psychological analysis of it. Because rumors are the one thing it can't really control. (Wonder what is the pyscho analysis of the Nigerian people believing says of the "Jubril" rumors).
Religion and its institutions will always challenge the state especially when the state is inefficient in providing public good to introduce secularism. When totalitarian state is ineffective it must eventually clash with a religious institution.
Saddam had army deserters ear amputtated, with evasion more than once leading to both ears amputtated and a "minus" sign etched on the forehead. With medical decree outlawing medical treatment for ear amputee's. Arrested doctors who refused to comply with the amputations.
The USA basically did not understand the country and just came in with assumptions that triggered religious and secterain politics. The believed that if they threw money at the state, a nation will grow will grow from the fractures they are responsible for. End.
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