Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the Ameri [Paperback]

William R. Polk's _Understanding Iraq_ (2005) makes a valuable contribution to the debate in the U.S. on the war in Iraq and the future steps to be taken. Polk's credentials are impressive, with degrees at Harvard and Cambridge, experience in the U.S. State Department, and direct, first-hand knowledge of Iraq and the Middle East as a whole. The quality of his work matches his credentials.

Throughout much of his book, he provides a broad history of Iraq from ancient times to the present. One of his main premises is that in the scope of history the Fertile Crescent, the Mesopotamian Valley, has been a region defined by internal and external conflict. He argues that repetitive cycles are evident in the broad history of the region (from the dawn of history) to the more recent history of Iraq as a nation-state the past century. He claims, for instance, that the Sumerian "lugals," literally "big man," of roughly 2800 BCE are the ancestors of figures like Saddam Hussein, the self-proclaimed "Hero President." Some of the long historical parallels Polk draws, while they interesting on one level, seem anthropologically universal in the evolution of society (and not specific to Iraq per se). Despite this, Polk's broad analysis is informative and important.

In my opinion, the strongest sections of the book are his discussions of British colonialism, the revolutionary period (after-independence), and the current period of the U.S. led Coalition Authority. Here, historical parallels are manifest. For example, Polk points out that the U.S. provisional constitution in 2004 mandating an interim provisional authority was nearly identical to the British government's mandate for occupation, delivered to the League of Nations in 1922. There are a number of other striking similarities in the recent history.

In these chapters, Polk gives a detailed picture of Sadam Hussein's cruelty, his miscalculations, and the Stalinistic totalitarianism under which Iraqis lived. Polk also acknowleges the social improvements in Iraq before Gulf War I in the health and human services due to an economy strengthened by oil sales. Polk's treatment of the U.S. involvement in Iraqi affairs in the Iran-Iraq War, particularly in arms and sales of chemical agents, and his description of the lead-up to the Gulf War I give a sense of the overall complexity of U.S. - Iraqi relations. He talks candidly about the effects of the trade sanctions on Iraqi civilians in the 1990s. From Polk's perspective, U.S. interests have been, at best, ambiguous and in their worst forms, devastating.

Polk's book ends with a four page analysis of what should be done in the present. He argues that the US should "choose" when it pulls out but also should make known to Iraqi citizens that the American presence is, by definition, temporary. He asserts that the UN should play an active role in the transition and that reconstruction monies should fund Iraqi corporations directly. These views are relevant to the present debate.

Polk's book is one work among many on Iraq, and it should be read in conversation with other accounts, written by Iraqis, civil servants, soldiers, military generals, and scholars of the Middle East. When considered in this context, Polk's work is quite valuable. What is remarkable about the number of books being written about Iraq is their closeness to the actual events unfolding each day. This puts an obvious constraint on authors. At the same time, these works make the newspaper reports clearer and offer a sense of which views are more valid than others.

UNDERSTANDING IRAQ is a brief, but extremely valuable, survey of Iraq's history from the prehistoric Ubaidians to the 2004 Iraq Provisional Authority. The book is divided into six chapters: Ancient Iraq, Islamic Iraq, British Iraq, American Iraq, and Whose Iraq?. The history is interlaced with William Polk's views on how current US policy interacts with that history. He is well-qualified for this task, for he has spent nearly sixty years visiting, studying, and teaching about Iraq. Polk presents a much more credible explanation of why the United States has become unpopular in the Muslim world that Bernard Lewis did in his CRISIS OF ISLAM. He is also a better writer than Lewis, marshalling his facts and opinions into crisp, orderly prose.

Polk identifies mistakes recent US administrations have made in dealing with Iraq; many of them eerily similar to those made by the Brtish during their rule under League of Nations mandate in the 1920's and 1930's. The "shock and awe" of that era was generated by "armed Fords" and biplanes. The British installed as puppet king, Faisal, a man who had never previously set foot in the country. The US selected to head the Provisional Authority, Iyad al-Allawi, who once was a senior Baathist in Saddam's secret police and then for thirty years an anti-Saddam expatriate funded by the CIA. Another grievous US mistake, according to Polk, is in creating a large, well-trained Iraqi army instead of a large, well-trained Iraqi police force. It was the British-trained Iraqi army whose revolt in 1958 led to the dictatorship of Saddam.

Anyone still doubting the old saw about the need to learn from history to avoid repeating its mistakes ought to read the letter T E Lawrence (of Arabia)wrote to the London Times in 1920. "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it..."

Given the author's creditials, of which we are constantly reminded, I expected more out of this book. This is not to say it is a bad book per se. Dr. Polk does provide some excellent insights and points. Having just returned from over a year in Iraq and reading quite a bit on the subject before and during that time, I found various passages in his book that complemented my study and experiences. I would not, however, recommend this book to someone doing a casual read on the subject. Despite the title, "the Whole Sweep of Iraqi History..." merely serves to backup his critique of American policy in Iraq, particularly the alleged role of Neo-Conservatives. I don't necessarily disagree with many of his points--several are right on target--but the reader should understand that this is a book with a clear, political objective. At times the tone is shrill and his "facts" about the events of the last two years, many I witnessed, are often off. His critique of policy mistakes are generally valid, but his proposed solutions are surprisingly naive for someone with his experience with Iraq. While he is rightfully critical of the apparent ignorance of some policy makers and Americans in general about Iraq, I suspect he is guilty of the equally dangerous trap of going native and becoming too close to his subject for objective analysis. A far better book--certainly for someone just starting to read about Iraq--is "The Reckoning" by Sandra Mackey. If you only read one book on Iraq, read Mackey's not Polk's.