In 1917, Lt Gen Stanley Maude marched with the British army into Baghdad – then part of the Ottoman empire – with a proclamation. “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators,” he said.
No one within earshot believed him.
The Iraqis all knew the British came as colonizers, and the iron fist of British domination proved them right. By 1920, British rule was so despised in Iraq that a popular rebellion uniting the country’s many divisions of sect (Sunnis and Shias), class (merchant and laborer) and geography (urban and rural) broke out. To quell the uprising, the British resorted to a massive aerial bombing campaign, killing thousands of Iraqis…..more
