By Eric Margolis

The Bush Administration's plans to invade Iraq and install a client regime in Baghdad may be popular in America, but to the outside world they increasingly recall old-fashioned British imperialism. If Administration hawks studied Iraq's gory history, they would learn it ranks among the most disastrous and tragic creations of Britain's colonial policy, and offers a grim reminder of what Bush's planned 'regime change' in Baghdad may bring.

At the end of World War I, the victorious British and French fell like wolves on the rotting carcass of the defeated Ottoman Empire. After promising Arabs independence, Britain betrayed them, dividing the ex-Ottoman Mideast into weak states run from London. Oil had recently been discovered at either end of the Fertile Crescent: in the north around Mosul in Kurdish tribal territory; and in southern marshes bordering Iran. To secure oil for the Royal Navy, Britain created Iraq and put a puppet king, Faisal, on its throne. Faisal was to have been made king of Syria, but France managed to snatch Syria away from Britain.

To form Iraq, Britain knitted together three utterly disparate, mutually hostile regions: Kurdish tribal lands: the Sunni Muslim region around Baghdad, then a small city with a predominantly Jewish and Christian population: and the Shia south. The result was an unstable, artificial Frankenstein state í? a Mideast Yugoslavia.

In 1920, Iraqis rose in revolt against Britain but were crushed. The British RAF routinely bombed, strafed, and even used poison gas against rebellious Kurdish and Shia tribesmen. Nineteen years later, King Ghazi I threatened to invade Kuwait í? part of historic Iraq until detached by British oil imperialists. He died soon after in a mysterious car crash, the work of Iraqis said, of British intelligence.

In 1941, Iraqis again rebelled against their British masters, but were crushed by RAF bombers. After the war, London put a new king, Faisal II, on the throne. But real power was wielded by Britain's man in Baghdad, Prime Minister Nouri as-Said. The US and Britain forced Iraq to join the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact and sell its oil at give-away prices to the west.

To prevent a coup, the small Iraqi Army was denied ammunition. British troops and the RAF kept Faisal in power. But in July, 1958, a colonel named Kassem convinced Nouri to allow his men a few rounds of ammunition for training. Kassem marched out of Baghdad, turned around, marched back, and stormed the Palace. King Faisal was executed. Nouri as-Said tried to escape, disguised as a woman. He was captured by a mob, castrated, and hanged from a lamppost. Kassem ordered British troops out of Iraq, and withdrew from the hated Baghdad Pact.

Col. Kassem turned out to be a murderous lunatic, executing thousands of Iraqis and bombing the Kurds. He threatened to invade Kuwait and was only stopped when Britain massed troops in its protectorate.

Five years later, Kassem was overthrown by Nasserite officers and machine-gunned on national TV. Col. Abdul Salam Aref took power, with discreet help from CIA and British Intelligence, MI6.

Three years later Col. Aref was assassinated by a bomb in his helicopter. His brother Col. Abdul Rahman took power. But he was overthrown by a cabal of officers from the underground Baath Party, led by Gen. Hassan al-Bakr. A young Baath party enforcer named Saddam Hussein played a significant role in the coup, and was said to have had links to CIA and MI6.

But the Baath regime then flirted with the Soviet Union, so the US, Britain, and Israel joined Iran in arming and funding Iraq's Kurds to rebel against Baghdad. In June, 1979, Saddam Hussein ousted Gen. al-Bakir. The lucky general became Iraq's only head of state to leave office alive.

Saddam, the Arab Stalin, emerged as the most ruthless but also most effective ruler in Iraq's history. He used Iraq's oil revenues to massively modernize and industrialize his nation - and an iron fist to keep it united.

Three months later, Saddam invaded Iran at the urging of the US, Britain, and the Gulf Arabs in a foolish attempt to overthrow its new Islamic government and return the oil-rich nation to western control. Washington and London secretly financed and armed Iraq, providing technicians and materials to produce poison gas and germ warfare weapons. When Iraq's Kurds rebelled, Iraq followed Britain's example by using poison gas against them.

Two years after the stalemated end of the Iraq-Iran war, Iraq invaded Kuwait, which had been stealing Iraqi oil through by slant drilling and undermining Iraq's battered economy. Extremely ambiguous if not purposely deceptive US diplomacy convinced Saddam he had a green light to invade and punish Kuwait. This he did, with disastrous consequences. Many Arabs believe Saddam fell right into a trap prepared for him by President George Bush Sr. US bombing and ensuing sanctions transformed Iraq from the most modern Arab nation into the most backwards.

Iraq's leaders change, but one fact remains constant. This inherently unnatural, unstable, unmanageable nation has the Mideast's second largest reserves of oil and will thus remain the object of great power lust. Iraq's long agony seems fated to continue as the US prepares to follow in Britain's imperial footsteps.

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