Fifty Years On: A Free Iraq or New Masters?

The American and Iraqi governments are continuing their negotiations to find a legal basis for a continued US presence in Iraq after the end of this year, when the current United Nations mandate expires. An agreement is promised before the end of July.

Coincidentally, this July will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution which brought to an end the last foreign military presence in Iraq. The coup of 14 July 1958 overthrew the pro-Western Iraqi monarchy, set up a republic, and forced the British to give up their last military base in the country.

By the 1930 Anglo-Iraqi treaty, Britain agreed to give Iraq independence (in 1932), but in return the British government retained the right to keep military forces in the country. The two principal bases were the air stations at Habbaniyah, west of Baghdad, and Shaibah, outside Basra.

In 1952 Egyptian army officers deposed King Farouk and set up a republic, which was soon dominated by Gamal Abdel Nasser. His doctrine of secular pan-Arab nationalism won many adherents throughout the Middle East, and these included senior officers in the Iraqi army.

Nasser believed that one great Arab state could be created and as a first step Egypt and Syria announced their union at the United Arab Republic (UAR) in early 1958. In Iraq both the king, Faisal II, and the prime minister, Nuri al-Said, were hostile to this new creation. As a defensive measure, Iraq announced a link with Jordan, which was also pro-Western, anti-Nasser, and ruled by a Hashemite royal family.

In Lebanon many Muslims wanted the country to join the new UAR, but the Christian Maronites were hostile to such action, moving the country towards civil war. King Hussein of Jordan feared that pro-Nasser elements in his country were conspiring against him and appealed for Iraqi support. The Iraqi government promised to send troops to aid him.

These troops were to travel via Baghdad, giving pro-Nasser army officers such as General Qasim and Colonel Arif the perfect opportunity to launch their own coup. On 14 July Arif's men seized control of Baghdad and murdered King Faisal and most of the Iraqi royal family. On the following day Nuri al-Said was hunted down and killed.

In reaction to these events in the Middle East, President Eisenhower authorised the first US military intervention in the region. American marines landed at Beirut and peace was soon restored in Lebanon. British paratroops were flown to Jordan to bolster King Hussein's grip on power. However, there was no repeat of Britain's 1941 intervention in Iraq to overthrow a hostile government.

Instead Britain tamely accepted the new republican government in Baghdad which was soon dominated by General Qasim. The British government had already relinquished the Shaibah air base in 1956. The new ruler of Iraq now demanded a British withdrawal from Habbaniyah. This was completed in May 1959, ending a British military presence in Iraq which had begun more than forty years earlier during the First World War.

Today the old air base at Habbaniyah is Camp Habbaniyah, garrisoned by US forces. Shaibah was incorporated in Basra International Airport in the 1960s. That airport was occupied by the British during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and is now their last major base in the country. The wheel seems to have come full circle. The bases given up fifty years ago are once again in the hands of Western military forces. How long will they stay this time?

Despite the nationalist protestations of some Iraqi politicians and demands from certain quarters in the United States for an early American withdrawal, it seems unlikely that the US military will be pulling out of Iraq in the near future. All that is up for negotiation is the terms on which the Americans remain in that country. Any country that accepts American bases, whether it be Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, South Korea, or Japan, has to grant US forces extraterritorial status. The Iraqi government too will be forced to do this, although whether this status will be extended to civilian security contractors is another matter. Only a repeat of the 1958 revolution might prevent the Americans from staying on, but that seems a very remote possibility.