Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Leigh Meyers wrote:
>
> >The west believes that Iraq is falling apart.
> >It's not.
> >"Iraq" is a creation of the... British, I believe.
> >There has NEVER been an "Iraq", except on maps.
>
> Christian Parenti, who spent a lot more time in Iraq than you have,
> says this isn't true. A lot of Iraqis identified as Iraqis when they
> talked to him.
It took quite awhile for Pennsylvanians, Georgians, Virginians, etc. to begin to idenfity as "americans." One would expect that (whatever the origins) after 70 years or so those who were labelled as "citizens of Iraq" would begin to see Iraq as real and themselves as Iraqis. It was happening, I believe, in Yugoslavia until various external powers tore it apart after the death of Tito. The process _may_, however, require civil war as a rite of passage. And a people can't have a healthy civil war if outside powers keep interfering.
Carrol