This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 16

1917 British defeated Ottoman forces at Dahra Bend

1922 Gertrude Bell complained to her father that King Feisal had surrounded himself with nationalists that

demanded Iraq’s complete independence from England

(Musings On Iraq book review of Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)

1944 Parliamentary Party formed mostly of large land holding sheikhs Supported whatever govt Regent

backed

1979 Saddam said unifying Iraq and Syria was part of the Arab revolution

1979 Saddam said Iraq would respect choice of the Iranian people with their revolution

1984 Iran cut Basra-Baghdad highway between Maysan and Wasit

1986 Iraqi intelligence fell for Iranian deception and claimed attack upon Fao not main Iranian

attack Meant Iraq didn’t send reinforcements

1986 Iraq made another attempt to retake Fao Peninsula Only advanced 2 km Iraqis lost 7,000 casualties

and 1,500 prisoners taken Iranians lost 8,000 casualties in Op Wa al-Fajr 8 that took Fao Peninsula

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Anthony Tucker-Jones on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Tom Cooper on Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq book review of Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)

1989 Iraq formed Arab Cooperation Council with Egypt Jordan Yemen to counter Gulf Cooperation

Council

1991 US troops destroyed Iraqi radar facility while Apache helicopters conducted raid in depth behind Iraqi

lines in Iraq

1992 Defense Secretary Cheney said that if U.S. had overthrown Saddam would have to decide what kind of

govt to establish Would have been hard to capture Saddam Would have to decide how many casualties willing to take How many troops would have to stay in Iraq to keep govt going

2001 Bush told speechwriter David Frum that he was going to get rid of Saddam  

2001 UK Attorney Gen Lord Williams approved air attacks out of no fly zones in Iraq for self defense

2001 US and UK planes bombed 20 radar and command and control centers in Iraq outside of No Fly Zone

Claimed Iraq had upgraded its air defenses Then said bombed Iraq to stop it from upgrading its defenses

2002 Bush signed secret NSC directive calling for covert action against Iraq by CIA Had budget of $189 mil

for 2 years Plan included supporting Iraqi opposition Sabotage missions inside Iraq Working with other countries Information campaign vs Iraq attacking Iraqi revenue sources and disrupting its smuggling operations

2003 Rice claimed Iraq was deceiving UN weapons inspectors

(Musings On Iraq article on UN weapons inspections)

2004 Report Iraqi and US sources said Iraqi forces would not be able to provide security after sovereignty

transferred to Iraq

2004 CIA said it still believed Iraqi defector CURVEBALL was credible source for intel that Iraq had mobile

WMD labs Turned out to be false source

(Musings On Iraq article on how CURVEBALL influenced US intel on Iraq’s WMD)

(Musings On Iraq articles on the CURVEBALL story)

2006 Sec State Rice told Senate oil production and electricity below postwar levels in Iraq Said initial

problems with rebuilding Iraqi security forces fixed and as Iraqi forces stood up US forces would do less

2006 Sec Def Rumsfeld told House US was not in Iraq to do nation building that was up to Iraqis to do

2008 Maliki said Al Qaeda in Iraq had mostly been driven from Baghdad

2010 ISI set off 4 suicide car bombs targeting hotels in Baghdad where foreign press stayed

2011 Maliki visited Kuwait after Kuwait premier visited Iraq in 1^st high level meet between 2 countries

since 1990

2016 Allawi said no reason to remove cabinet until Abadi presented a strategic plan

(Musings On Iraq interview with Reidar Visser on PM Abadi’s reform program)

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