Wednesday, September 4, 2019

This Day in Iraqi History - Sep 4

1921 Colonial Secretary Churchill memo said he supported Iraqi govt and independence to maintain
British influence in Iraq
(Musings On Iraq article on Churchill’s views on Mesopotamia)
(Musings On Iraq book review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq book review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)
1945 Iraqi forces launched new assault upon Kurdish forces in Barzan vs 1943 Barzani revolt
(Musings On Iraq book review of The Kurds, A Modern History)
(Musings On Iraq book review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)
1980 Iran shelled Khanaqin and Mandali in Diyala and bombed two other towns Saddam accused Iran of
starting hostilities
1980 Saddam ordered army to seize disputed areas with Iran Would take 201 sq miles of territory including
small islands in Shatt al-Arab Iraqis lost 100 soldiers while Iran 50
(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)
1980 Iraq mobilized its armed forces to prepare for invasion of Iran
1991 UN investigation of impact of sanctions on Iraq suggested oil for food program
1994 Iraq accused Iran of arming Shiite opposition groups in southern marshes
1996 US fired 17 more cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense sites in response to Saddam’s moves against PUK
2002 At meeting on Al Qaeda Rumsfeld said Iraq more important than Al Qaeda
2002 Bush sent letter to Speaker of House saying US had to deal with disarming Iraq
(Musings On Iraq book review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy
Tragedy)
2002 Rep Ike Skelton wrote letter to Pres Bush “To win victory is easy, to preserve its fruits, difficult”
2002 Bush met with Congressional leaders to lobby for resolution on use of force vs Iraq Many were
receptive to idea House majority leader Dick Armey told Bush if he invaded Iraq US would be stuck in a guagmire
(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)
(Musings On Iraq book review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy
Tragedy)
(Musings On Iraq book review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict)
2002 Rumsfeld briefed large number of Congressmen on Iraq He wasn’t prepared and wouldn’t divulge any
info on threat
2002 UK Defense Ministry paper said that US had no clear postwar strategy for Iraq and that meant no
winning plan
(Musings On Iraq Book Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)
(Musings On Iraq book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)
2002 PM Blair told Foreign Sec Cook Iraq’s army depleted so he was trying to get nuclear weapons
2002 UK Foreign Office memo Would be very hard to get UN to vote on any resolution setting
            ultimatum for Iraq to comply with weapons inspections or face consequences
(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Section 3.4 Development of UK Iraq Strategy and Options, Late July to 14 September 2002)
2002 Report on whether Iraq working on its nuclear program Quoted INC defector ex-nuke scientist
Hamza who claimed Iraq could have bomb by 2005 Iraq took reporters to suspected nuke site at Al Qaim and was destroyed 
(Musings On Iraq article on how poor US intel work led to claim Iraq rebuilt its nuclear weapons program)
2002 Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder ruled out German participation in any Iraq war even with
UN and EU approval
2003 Fmr CENCTOM Cmdr Gen Zinni said US had no strategy in Iraq and danger of failing
(Musings On Iraq book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)
2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld said US speeding up creation of new Iraqi security forces in face of growing attacks
2003 Def Sec Rumsfeld talked with Iraq commanders about troop withdrawal Pentagon plan was to
            have 25,000-30,000 troops in Iraq by Sep 03 but US had 130,000 instead because of violence
2004 US op to clear Tal Afar began
2006 Report Dora south Baghdad 1st area Op Together Forward II started in Deaths down dramatically
Question of whether area could be held by Iraqi forces National Police brigade to take control but had little to no training
2007 US signed up more than 1,000 into Sahwa in Abu Ghraib Attacks in district dropped 2/3 as a result
Local Iraqi army battalion tried to arrest members of Sahwa in April and US had to intervene US tried to enroll 2400 sahwa into Interior Min Ministry accepted 1,700 but changed the names of 23% of them
2007 Report US shifting from national to local reconciliation because PM Maliki govt not making changes
US started directly paying Awakening because Baghdad refused to do so Trying sahwa amongst Shiite tribes to counter militias Still hoped govt would eventually start reconciliation
2007 Report number of divisions operating independently dropped from 10 to 6 Congressional report found
couldn’t determine capabilities of ISF Interior and Defense Ministries don’t know how many personnel they have Don’t know how many employees show up each day Pentagon claimed 65% of ISF show up each day Analysts believe it’s around 50% ISF paid in cash and get days off to go home and deliver money
2007 After draft of book released that said Bush didn’t know the Iraqi army was going to be disbanded
Bremer released letter from May 03 he sent to Bush saying the military was going to be disbanded
(Musings On Iraq book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)
2008 PM Maliki govt-KRG announced deal over KhanaqinDiyala Iraqi army would withdraw from
Qara Tappa and Jalawla areas just occupied Peshmerga would return to them
(Musings On Iraq article on Maliki-KRG deal over Khanaqin)
(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)
(Musings On Iraq book review Iraq After America, Strongmen, Sectarians, Resistance)
2015 Allawi condemned PM Abadi saying his reforms were unconstitutional
(Musings On Iraq interview with Reidar Visser on PM Abadi’s reform program)
2018 Protest in Zubayr and Basra City over water crisis In Basra city 7 killed dozens wounded when
security forces fired into crowd to break up demonstration Provincial council building burned Basra Ops Cmdr building attacked

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