Wirt Atmar writes:
> The British Gen. Maude marched into Baghdad in 1917, following the fall of
> the Ottoman Empire, declaring that they had come "not as conquerors, but
as
> liberators." The British said that their intentions were to stay only a
few
> months, certainly no more than a few years, only until a new civil
government could
> be established.
>
> That decision to withdraw took a bit longer than was originally promised
and
> was eventually put off until 1953. In 1920, a vast reserve of oil was
> discovered in what was now northern Iraq at Kirkuk. Only very little
earlier, a young
> Winston Churchill had decreed that the British Royal Navy was to convert
its
> entire fleet to oil-driven ships. Staying in Iraq had now become a matter
of
> "national security."

This is somewhat misleading.  The British maintained bases in Iraq until the
1950s (just as we have bases in Germany), but there was an independent
government there for part of that time.  Iraq was a League of Nations
mandate, as were many other territories --
http://www2.uta.edu/stillwell/notes-file/lon-man.htm

There was a government in charge of domestic affairs throughout most of the
1920s and it became fully independent in 1932.  However, the British invaded
Iraq in 1941 when a pro-German government came to power.
See http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/iraq/,  particularly
http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/iraq/iraq15.html
http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/iraq/iraq16.html
http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/iraq/iraq17.html

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