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The Second Iraq War was
a real eye opener for me regarding a lot of the realities of international
politics. I've got really quite
interested in the motivations & influences
for policy decisions & the long term planning that goes into them. Also,
the fluid nature
of unfolding events often means short term goals can take the thinking of
an administration needing to score points with the voting
population at home whilst still conform to the realities of the international
situation. This often lead to unforeseen consequences at
home and abroad as the different players act in varying ways dependant on
their particular reading of the situation and cultural
expectations. Something I also got an inkling of in Miles Copeland Jr's, 'Game
of Nations' about Suez when he worked for
the CIA in the region.
Iraq also highlighted
just how much multinationals influence national policy and the roll of the
media in helping dictate the
mainstream narrative told to the general population and in the age of Twitter
and blogging how other information (and disinformation),
along with wild unsubstantiated speculation, all being given equal credance.
Also in this new age
of spin, the myriad of thinly veiled forms of racism, Islamaphobia etc. in
the reporting of stories, not dissimilar
to the propaganda campaigns of WW1 blaming the war squarely at the feet of
Germany, even to the point of forcing it to be written
into the Treaty of Versailles. We invaded Iraq under various justifications
starting with vague implied links to 911, then 'sexed up'
dossiers on missile threats (the truth of which was already known to the US
& UK).
Then after the war watching
the handing out of contracts to various corporations intricately involved
in many aspects of the war,
from intelligence to logistical support. Beyond that there's the 'privitisation'
of the war whereby private military contractors now
outnumber US forces 3:1. Another interesting aspect of that figure is the
national breakdown of those privately contracted personel.
There's pretty much a hierarchy within that group which closely follows national
lines. The guys guarding the compounds etc. (the slightly
less risky posts) tend to be European/US nationals, moving further afield
until you find the personal bodyguards you'll see around
Iraqi diplomats and local figureheads will tend to have been recruited from
African nations. Some lives seem to be more
expendable than others. Loads of information & detail to write stories
around.
Anyway, the best way
to reflect some of these things without getting into any arguement with anyone
was to make it a different,
but similar world filled with characters who might just look a bit like Saddam
Hussan, Col. Gadaffi, Hugo Chavez etc.
