The Gulf Crisis and New World Order — Page 352
Sampling of public opinion on the Gulf War Other Air Force officers were unhappy that their bombers were being used to prop up an unpopular puppet king. 'Nobody really enjoyed bombing the Kurds,' one pilot later recalled, 'for their crime was merely to be rebels against the Iraqi government. Yet there were some who relished the thought of bringing Kurdish rebels to heel. . . ' (David Omissi is a research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. His book 'Air power and colonial comrol' was recemly published by Manchester University Press. ) Links Canada February 1991 (Winnipeg Coordinati ng Committee for Disarmament) states: "Most of the Persian Gulf region was under the domination of the Turkish Ottoman Empire until the arrival of British naval power in the early part of the 19th century. The British conquered and took control over the coastal areas around the Gulf and some of the interior. When oil was discovered in Iran, the British took control over that valuable resource, too. During the First World War, the British promised the Arabs independence (Hussein-McMahon treaty) in return for their support against the Ottoman Turks. But the British also signed the Sykes Picot Treaty with the French, which divided up the region among the two empires based on where each had built railway lines. As a token, the British gave Jordan and Iraq to two branches of the Hashemite family which had ruled Mecca, the holy city of Islam on the Red Sea. Saudi Arabia During this period, Sheikh Ibo Saud, the leader of Saudi family, conquered most of Arabian Peninsula with brutal military force (1902- 1935), killing many men and confiscating flocks of sheep and goats which were the livelihood of the people of the region; the Saudis took no male prisoners. Ibn Saud married hundreds of women as a way of cementing his diverse kingdom. Today, Saudi Arabia is ruled by a royal family made up of a few thousand of Ibn Saud's descendants and relatives. Toe Saudi conquest, which is still fresh in the memories of those who were conquered, engendered hatred for the Saudi family. The people also feel religious dissatisfaction with their rulers, since the 352