This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 7

1920 War Min Churchill wrote there were far too many British troops in Iraq than could be

sustained and therefore a new Iraq policy should be created

(Musings On Iraq article on Churchill’s ideas on Mesopotamia/Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)

1921 Gertrude Bell wrote that Shiites were mad that they were not in govt and govt wanted to remain all

Sunni

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

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

1924 UK Colonial Sec Thomas wrote British air power was effective way to control rebellions tribes in Iraq

1941 Germany told Italy it was thinking of arming Iraq and was going to give money to Mufti of

Jerusalem who was living in Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq book review of Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)

1959 Former Dep PM Arif sentenced to death after being sent away as Amb to Germany and secretly

returned to Iraq

1968 General de Gaulle met President Arif in Paris and signed arms agreement

1983 Iranian Op Fajr al-Nasr Launched main attack upon Fakkeh with 30,000 troops in central front Got to

outskirts of Fakkeh but forced to withdraw

1987 Iraqi counterattacks vs Iran Op Karbala 5 recaptured 20sqkm in Basra

(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)

1998 Fmr Bush Nat Sec Adv Scowcroft said he wished the 91 uprising never happened because he wanted a

military coup to remove Saddam

2001 CIA report to Congress no evidence Iraq reconstituted WMD program since 1990s

(Musings On Iraq article on the origins of Iraq’s WMD programs)

2002 Gen Franks presented revised Iraq invasion plans to Bush at White House

(Musings On Iraq book review of Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessment)

2003 Pres Chirac called Bush saying there were alternatives to war with Iraq Said if war happened France

would help with reconstruction

2003 US officials pushed back against Powell’s UN speech Told Wash Post Zarqawi connected to Al Qaeda

but not part of group

2003 UK admitted paper on Iraq deception campaign over its WMD was plagiarized from US college

student paper

2003 Pres Mubarak’s son Gamal visited Bush saying Saddam might want to go into exile in Egypt

2003 State Dept gave translated copies of Iraq-Niger uranium deal to CIA Were not considered important to

case Iraq restarted nuke program so docs not analyzed

(Musings On Iraq article on Iraq-Niger uranium story)

2004 Rumsfeld said Iraq war Saddam’s fault for his deception and defiance

2004 Bush and Cheney said Iraq war justified because Saddam could have made WMD Gave up argument

he had them

2005 Insurgents complained to Newsweek that Zarqawi was trying to hijack insurgency and opposed his

attacks upon Iraqi civilians

2007 Report Jan 07 Sec State Rice said her dept was ready for civilian surge in Iraq Feb told Sec Def Gates

would need 6 months to find personnel and train them Asked military to fill 1/3 of 350 civilian spots on Provincial Recon Teams Infuriated Pentagon

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