Saddam's government had people of different religions in it. Is there a way that they could have controlled the outcome? Well ironically the idea of sectarianism was linked to this idea of representation right. And so the political system to be democratic had to be based on identities. But of course that's not what happened. Instead a very you know the small group of elite was able to instrumentalize those identities to control people. That's where sectarianism starts coming in.
What happened in Iraq once the Americans and the British arrived? Why was the transfer of power a far from smooth operation? And what else went wrong in what should have been the mission for liberation?
In the second episode of this series Iraq: Legacy of War, brought to you by Intelligence Squared, host Manveen Rana, is joined again by Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq Initiative at Chatham House; and Clare Short, who was Secretary of State for International Development from 1997 to 2003.
To listen to the whole series now please subscribe via Intelligence Squared Premium on Apple Podcasts or here: https://iq2premium.supercast.com/ for ad-free listening, bonus content, early access and much more.
This series was produced by Farah Jassat and Catharine Hughes, with editing and artwork from Catharine Hughes. Music is by Lesfm. Excerpts featured in this episode are from BBC news.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices