Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 February 14

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February 14

How Jan de Hartog came up with the concept for The Fourposter

How did Jan de Hartog come up with the concept for The Fourposter? Yellow Sunstreaker (talk) 01:21, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Are you talking about The Fourposter? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 01:26, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Yes, that’s correct. Yellow Sunstreaker (talk) 01:48, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

A Study Guide for Jan de Hartog's "The Fourposter" says that the play was written while he was hiding from the Gestapo in an old people's home. There doesn't seem to be much else online. Alansplodge (talk) 21:39, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Did Saddam Hussein ever dream of expanding elsewhere?

I know that Saddam Hussein waged wars against Iran and Kuwait (and also against an international coalition which fought to liberate Kuwait during the Gulf War) in order to acquire more territory for Iraq. However, I'm wondering if Saddam ever aimed to expand Iraq in other directions as well. I'm presuming that Turkey would have been completely off-limits due to it being a NATO member, but what about Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia? Did Saddam ever seriously consider or even merely think about invading those countries in order to acquire more territory for Iraq? 68.96.93.163 (talk) 08:23, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

There were certainly fears that he would go on to attack Saudi Arabia: see Gulf_War#Military_means. I don't know if this was actually his intention though. Iapetus (talk) 09:39, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Ok. 68.96.93.163 (talk) 07:59, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

"Did Saddam ... merely think about...?" Is there a list of every single thought Saddam had throughout his entire life that we can search through? Is there a reason to think that such a list exists? 209.149.113.5 (talk) 19:57, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Well, do we have records of Saddam's cabinet meetings? This could give us some knowledge about Saddam's thoughts. 68.96.93.163 (talk) 07:59, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

If that is your opinion, then the question should be "Did Saddam mention it in his cabinet meetings?" instead of "Did here merely think about it?" 71.12.10.227 (talk) 16:05, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

That wouldn't necessarily be the only source for his ideas, though. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 18:53, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

• Iraq's territorial goals were subordinate to their goal to be the leaders of a Pan Arabic State. The Ba'athists in control of Iraq saw themselves as the vanguard of a Pan-Arabic movement. You can see other Ba'athist attempts at Pan-Arabism in the United Arab Republic, for example. Iraq had always had skirmishes with Iran; however, as long as Iran was just about Iran (i.e. under Mosaddegh and the Shahs), Iraq mostly let them be, other than some conflicts over control of the Shatt al-Arab. However, after the Iranian Revolution, the Ayatollah espoused a distinctly Shi'a-led pan-Islamic vision, and as such, posed a real threat to the Ba'athist goals and aims. They didn't really want to rule Iran, they just wanted the Ayatollah to not get in their way of their own plans, and he was definitely doing that. The territorial claims they had against Kuwait and Iran (Khuzestan Province) were certainly real, but not central to their long-term aims. They only really wanted Khuzestan because it is home to most of the Iranian Arabs, and also because they had lots of oil, and oil is money. It had little to do with acquiring territory for its own sake.

Did Saddam also hope to deliver enough of a shock to the Iranian regime that it would be overthrown by angry Iranians? 68.96.93.163 (talk) 07:59, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

A destablized Iran in any form was useful to Ba'athist goals. --Jayron32 14:01, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

• The only significant Turkish Arabic province bordering Iraq is Şırnak Province, and I don't know that they really looked to invade Turkey to get it; Turkey was always happy to be a secular state, and wasn't all that interested in getting involved the politics of Pan-Arabism or Pan-Islamism, plus there's no oil there. As far as other countries bordering; Syria was already a Ba'athist state, so no need to invade there. I am also not aware of any conflicts with Jordan or Saudi Arabia, prior to the first Gulf war. Saudi Arabian and Iraqi relations were always tense, but manageable. I don't know that Saddam had any cause to fight them directly. --Jayron32 20:18, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Makes sense about Turkey, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, but wasn't Syria hostile to Iraq and allied to Iran in spite of Syria being Ba'athist (and secular) like Iraq was? 68.96.93.163 (talk) 07:59, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

It was an internal Ba'athist struggle that wasn't likely to result in one side or the other seeking territorial gains through warfare. It was more political in nature, Iraq–Syria relations#Ba'athist Iraq and Syria, which is to say neither one wanted to capture territory from the other, and though both sides sought to eventually be on top in their vision of Ba'athist Pan Arabism, neither saw conquering the other country or taking territory from the other as a means to that end. Your question asked "Who did Iraq want to take territory from" not "Who did Iraq dislike" or "Who did Iraq have conflict with". Those are different questions. --Jayron32 13:59, 18 February 2019 (UTC)