Saddam's War of Words: Politics, Religion, and the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

PREFACE

PREFACE Edward Gibbon observed of the various Roman divinities that the people believed them all, the philosophers disbelieved them all, and the politicians found them all equally useful. Such was the case in the Gulf War when Iraq turned to religion as a weapon, seeking to delegitimate the coalition arrayed against it, while appealing to other Arab states to join its jihad. Saddam’s War of Words first charts the historical context of the Gulf War and advances specific political reasons why Iraq invaded Kuwait. It also examines the ‘‘slow baptism’’ of the Iraqi Bath party prior to the invasion, suggesting reasons the regime modified its secular ideology to embrace an instrumental use of Islam. With that background, Saddam ’s War of Words then poses and seeks to answer these questions: How extensively and in what specific ways did Iraq appeal to Islam during the Kuwait Crisis? How did elites, Islamists, and the elusive Arab ‘‘street’’ respond to that appeal, both in and out of the coalition, and why did they respond as they did? What longer-term effects resulted from that appeal? What implications may be drawn from this use of religion? Saddam’s War of Words argues that Iraq’s calculated appeal to Islam was extraordinarily pervasive. It argues further Saddam proved effective in his fusing of two parallel global narrations (Arab nationalism and Islam), eliciting broad popular response. It finds the coalition was compelled to mount a broad countercampaign, focused especially on defending the religious legitimacy of employing non-Islamic forces against an Islamic regime. The result was a ‘‘war of fatwas,’’ with a contending use of texts and traditions and countercalls to jihad. The war’s end, however, saw a reaffirmation of the Arab interstate system, yet not in such a way that the ideas of an Islamic umma or a nation min alkhaleej ila al-muheet (from the gulf to the ocean) ceased to carry cognitive and emotive importance. Moreover, Saddam’sWar of Words argues that neither side in the war constituted a monolithic force; and it finds the employment of Islamic Tseng 2004.1.9 09:57 6983 Long / SADDAM’S WAR OF WORDS / sheet 9 of 288 discourse on all sides to be not simply an argument for or against Saddam , but a powerful and often nuanced deliberation on regional and international issues. Finally, I argue, the tragic events of September 11th are, in a significant way, connected to what I have called ‘‘the unconcluded other Gulf War.’’ x s a d da m ’ s wa r o f wo r d s Tseng 2004.1.9 09:57 6983 Long / SADDAM’S WAR OF WORDS / sheet 10 of 288 ...