Iraqis clinging to cultural identity
Has it ever occurred to you that we, as Americans, are not so different from the various Iraqi factions who seem to prefer tribalism over nationalism? We shake our heads in dismay and sadness as we hear of one group slaughtering another group by the busload. The historical animosity between Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis is staggering leading many Americans to believe that this centuries old hate runs so deep as to be impossible to reverse.
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Yet, we persist in saying, “Why can’t they be like us? Why can’t they come together, not as separate cultures, but as Iraqi’s?” We’ve even had the audacity to use our nation, America, as the gold standard by which nationalism is to be measured. How arrogant we are. How insufferably delusional as we persist in believing that America has traded in its tribal instincts for the general good of nationalism.
In place of Kurd, Sunni and Shiite, we have the Whites, Blacks and Latino tribes, each bound to their respective cultures as tightly as any group in Iraq with not much more sense of collective national identity and we’ve been at it for over 200 years.
What makes us think that we can simply wish away so much cultural history with a snap of our fingers and create an Iraqi nation whose citizens identify themselves as Iraqis before they claim their tribal loyalties?
Perhaps the most important question each of us has to answer before the presidential election is whether or not we are prepared to keep sending our troops and treasure to Iraq until Iraqis can put aside their tribal identities long enough to understand and accept what it really means to be a nation. Only they can do that.
James W. Brown
Shrewsbury Township
