ABSTRACT
Speaking about relations between Iraq and the United States is reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw's satirical article 'On the Origins and History of the Snakes of Ireland'. Speaking about relations between Iraq and the United States is reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw's satirical article 'On the Origins and History of the Snakes of Ireland'. Statistics clearly demonstrate, and American business is well aware, that Iraq has increasingly turned towards the West, and to a large extent towards the United States, for the technologies and products required for development. While the United States became the main Western ally of Saudi Arabia and Turkey in the late 1940s and assumed the senior Western role in Egypt, Iran, Lebanon and even Jordan in the early and middle 1950s, Iraq remained a British stronghold. In the late 1970s the Soviets began shifting attention from the core Arab world to the Middle East periphery.
