Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline Ismael. The Iraqi Predicament: People in the Quagmire of Power Politics.

• Author: Measor, John

Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline Ismael. The Iraqi Predicament: People in the Quagmire of Power Politics. London, UK: Pluto Press, 2004. 271 pages + index. Paper $23.95.

Tareq Y. Ismael and William W. Haddad (Eds). Iraq: The Human Cost of History. London, UK: Pluto Press, 2004. 269 pages + index + tables. Hardcover $45.00.

IRAQ, ENGULFED IN UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS of sectarian and political violence, finds itself central to questions of peace and justice in global politics. Within the vast number of monographs published on the country following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, its history as an "artificial" state and its conflict with the United States have often taken precedence over the impact of both foreign and domestic politics on the lives of Iraqis themselves. The Iraqi Predicament: people in the quagmire of power politics by Tareq Y. Ismael and Jacqueline Ismael and Iraq: The Human Cost of History edited by Tareq Y. Ismael and William Haddad strive to center the discussion back on Iraq and the Iraqi people.

Both volumes remind us that U.S. policy did not merely begin affecting Iraqi civilians following either September 11 or the March 2003 invasion, but long before either of those momentous events. The various authors locate the people of Iraq within an often violent global system of economic and political relations, while attempting to give voice to their suffering, and emphasizing their continued opposition to authoritarian rule and foreign control.

Presented in six chapters, The Iraqi Predicament begins its investigation by situating the "Iraq question" in world politics. This is accomplished by measuring the role played by the Iraqi regime within regional and global politics before and after it was targeted as a global pariah by US policy. Following a positive relationship with Washington, the Ba'thist regime was recast after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and again when it was drafted into the Bush administration's "War on Terror" after the attacks of September 11. Ismael and Ismael detail the U.S. government's efforts to support the Iraqi state against domestic challengers--from Kurdish separatists to communists, nationalists and Islamists--and in so doing provide a backdrop to the sophisticated relationships and global structures that allowed Saddam Hussein to become such a dominant player in the regional political milieu.

The price to be paid for the power politics of the regime's expansionary wars was meted out on the Iraqi...