The purpose of these historical approaches is to project them onto the current situation and depict the rivals as longtime enemies. Therefore, grudges accumulate and Iraqis begin to see the other as an enemy who not only is fighting them but who also fought their ancestors long ago. These attempts to revive historical disputes date back to the era of the former regime.
The former regime established the ideology of the Iraqi-Iranian conflict as part of a historical journey that goes back centuries and millennia, starting with the conflicts of ancient history up until the last Iranian-Iraqi war of 1980-1988.
The regime used educational systems and research centers to entrench this ideological stereotype. Hundreds of research studies about the conflicts of ancient history, which took place between Mesopotamians and neighboring peoples of the east, were issued with this false and fake image.
Books as well as school and university curricula have been filled with stories about archaic historical victories and persecutions. They have portrayed Iraq as a united historical identity for thousands of years so that it matches Iran’s united historical identity. Yet, no such identity has been scientifically proven.
Nothing has changed in this ideologized reality charged with historical rancor and hatred following the fall of the regime in 2003. Instead, things have evolved and expanded in different forms and directions. The Sunni and Shiite parties fed this ideologized image with new fire, stemming from a religious heritage that was not initially linked to the real occurrences of today.
The reason is that these parties were formed under the assumption that religion represents the status quo in all its dimensions and inclinations. Consequently, the status quo should be analyzed and understood in a religious historical context of old conflicts. This resembles the former regime’s assumption that the ideological image of Arab nationalism within the intellectual framework of the Baath Party represented the status quo of the country.
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