Spain 1808 – Iraq 2003: Some Thoughts on the Use and Abuse of History

This article examines the frequent comparisons drawn between the American intervention in Iraq in 2003 and the French intervention in Spain in 1808. In brief, George Bush and Napoleon Bonaparte have been said to have been driven by the same motivation–according to taste, imperialism, hubris or misplaced crusading fervor–and to have achieved the same result, namely an unwinnable guerrilla war fuelled by xenophobia and fundamentalist religion. Whilst no attempt is made to attack the opposition to the war in Iraq from which these claims stem, it is here argued that they rest on a false impression of the Peninsular War of 1808-14 that is in large part derived from, first, the construction of a national myth in nineteenth-century Spain, and, second, the desire of French veterans and historians to explain away Napoleon’s defeat in Spain and legitimise his cause. In short, then, this article argues that, just as intelligence was spun to support the cause of intervention, so history has been spun to support its anti-thesis.