Henry Robert Conway Dobbs Quotes
Iraq may be able to run along in a corrupt, inefficient, oriental sort of way, something better than she was under Turkish rule…. If this is the result, even though it be not a very splendid one, we shall have built better than we know.
Things were not so different 80 years ago.
Sir Henry Robert Conway Dobbs, 1871-1934, High Commissioner, Statement ~1926, Quoted by Joel Rayburn in “The Last Exist From Iraq,” Foreign Affairs March/April 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
She was referring to the aftermath of the Iraq War.
Although both of his historical African successes have been successful, most of the leaders argue that the vestige of colonialism was the biggest obstacle and but for the colonial history, they would be much further ahead than they are.
This famous quotation, from this important address, at such a critical time in history has been admired for years. Despite his great oratory, the next months were to see almost 2 million Indians of all faiths killed in what was probably the worst internecine violence in human history. Ironically, the politically motivated terrorism had stopped since all the decisions had been made. The motivation for the frightful atrocities that took place from then on was vengeance and fear of more vengeance." 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
The neo-conservative expectation of the American invasion of Iraq almost a century later was essentially the same, and the false expectation led to the same kind of failure as the George W. Bush debacle of the early 21st century.
The Sudan was then under the control of the Egyptian government.
Leading English politicians were warning of the cost of occupying Iraq. The political and military effort did not go well either. See {585253}. The development costs were even more massive in the ill-fated George W. Bush, invasion and occupation of Iraq in the early 21st century. The English policy makers like the Bush administration were expecting a more welcoming reaction. See {585250}.
This is a fascinating historical quotation. The English Foreign Minister and sent a draft of his proposed policy of English involvement to make Spain more democratic to counteract the influence of France which was then England’s arch enemy. The French had a military-oriented right wing government. The Queen, although only 27 years old at the time, had a brilliant grasp of foreign policy and the sagacity of an elder statesman. (And women in the United Kingdom could not even vote.) She realized that once England was involved in nation building and backing one party in Spain, England would be responsible for whatever that party ended up doing, and yet England really could not control the situation. Corruption, violations of civil rights, impoverishment all might occur, and England would have to defend those things lest the French who would then support the opposition would gain an upper hand in a proxy war. The situation was very similar to the United States getting involved in Vietnam and supporting the South Vietnam government which, despite U. S. efforts to the contrary, was totally corrupt, inept, religiously discriminatory, and totally inept in providing good government to the people. A similar situation occurred with the American intervention in Afghanistan where the President operated a totally corrupt and inept government and we were forced to support him. On other occasions she goes even further and actually writes new copy of policies personally. Note that the formality of the time required that the Queen refer to herself in the third person and not the first.
Sir Henry Robert Conway Dobbs GBE KCSI KCMG KCIE FRGS was an administrator in British India and High Commissioner in Iraq.
