Abstract
Since the first suicide attack on an U.S. checkpoint in Iraq in March 2003, much attention has been given to the Sunni Arab (henceforth “Sunni”) resistance. There is almost a unanimous agreement that this resistance is the result of the U.S. invasion, implying that this was the formative event for the insurgency.1 Very little attention is given to the political and social currents among the Sunnis, thus amplifying the role of supporters of the former regime in its ranks. This paper examines whether Sunni resistance to the regime existed under the Ba’th, and how it might be related to the current phenomenon. Such a wider perspective will contribute to a better understanding of Sunni discontent in today’s Iraq. Additionally, it will help to assess the historical significance of the U.S.-led invasion.
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Notes
For an insightful description of the Sunni insurgency see: Patrick Graham, “Beyond Fallujah: A Year with the Iraqi Resistance,” Harper’s Magazine (June 2004), pp. 37–48. In Arabic: Zaki Shihab, al-‘Iraq yahtariq; shahadat min qalb al-muqawama, London: Riyadh al-Rayes, 2006, and Adil al-Jawjari, Asrar wa-khafaya al-muqawama al ‘Iraqiya, Damascus and Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, 2005.
Ronen Zeidel, “Tikrit and the Tikritis: A Provincial Town, Regional Community and State in 20th Century Iraq,” Ph.D Thesis, University of Haifa, March 2004, pp. 265–271.
Amatzia Baram, “Who are the Insurgents? Sunni Arab Rebels in Iraq,” USIP, Special Report, no.134 (April 2005). David Baran, Vivre la tyrannie et lui survivre: L’Irak en transition, Paris: Mille et Une Nuits, 2004. pp. 64–70. Zaki Shihab, p. 36.
Taha Hamid al-Shabib, Khasirat al-raghif Baghdad: al-Mansur, 2000. See also an interesting discussion on the role of intellectuals under the Ba’th in Salam Abud, Thaqafat al-’unf fi al-’Iraq, Cologne: al-Jamal, 2002, pp. 122–131, 238–270 and Eric Davis, Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 21–23, 200–227.
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© 2010 Amatzia Baram, Achim Rohde, and Ronen Zeidel
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Zeidel, R. (2010). On Servility and Survival: The Sunni Opposition to Saddam and the Origins of the Current Sunni Leadership in Iraq. In: Baram, A., Rohde, A., Zeidel, R. (eds) Iraq Between Occupations. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115491_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115491_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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