Thursday, March 12, 2020

This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 12


1921 Start of Cairo Conference where Britain decided on its future MidEast policy with Mesopotamia
being a centerpiece Colonial Secretary Churchill’s main concern at Cairo Conference was cutting costs for London Said British troops would be withdrawn in Mesopotamia as quickly as possible Air power would be used instead for control Sir Percy Cox and Gen Haldane objected to Churchill’s troops reduction plan saying soldiers still needed in Mesopotamia Royal Air Force said it would need another year to set up in Mesopotamia Meant Churchill could not withdraw British troops as quickly as he wanted Most at conference supported a Hashemite either Faisal or Abdullah becoming ruler in Mesopotamia Churchill said putting Faisal in power in Mesopotamia would be part of larger policy to have Hashemites beholden to England in Mecca and Transjordan Churchill believed putting Faisal in power would lead to Mesopotamian govt that could run things and save UK money Churchill was open to creating a Kurdish state Thought would be a buffer between Turkey and Mesopotamia Sir Percy Cox and Gertrude Bell argued for a unitary Mesopotamian state that included Kurds at Cairo Conference
(Musings On Iraq article on the Cairo conference and the selection of Faisal to be first king of Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq interview with Princeton’s Sara Pursley on Sykes-Picot and creation of 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 of Gertrude Bell And Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq book review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)
(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)
(Musings On Iraq book review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)
(Musings On Iraq book review of The Kurds, A Modern History)
1959 Nasser gave 2nd speech attacking Iraqi Communists Said that they would never be able to stop Arab
nationalism Said that Communists relied upon Shiites for support who opposed Arab nationalism Denied that he supported Col Arif against Qasim govt
(Musings On Iraq book review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)
(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)
1974 After talks broke down with Baghdad and it imposed own law for Kurdistan KDP restarted
rebellion
1975 Baghdad offered KDP truce to allow its forces to retreat to Iran or surrender
(Musings On Iraq book review of The Kurds, A Modern History)
(Musings On Iraq book review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)
(Musings On Iraq book review Killing Hope, U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II)
(Musings On Iraq book review The Great Betrayal, How America Abandoned The Kurds And Lost The Middle East)
(Musings On Iraq article on Nixon admin support for Kurdish revolt)
1979 At National Security Council Saddam decided that govt would take control of religious sphere to
protect country from ideas that could threaten the regime
1984 Iraq called off attacks into Basra marshes to try to recapture Majnoon Islands Iran lost 20,000 dead
30,000 wounded 1,000 captured Iraq lost 3,000 dead 9,000 wounded and 1/6 of its oil reserves
(Musings On Iraq book review of Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)
1985 Iran Op Badr reached Tigris River and began building bridge across it then forced back Reached
Baghdad-Basra highway and took Qurna but then retaken by Iraqis 2 Revolutionary Guard divisions attacked from Majnoon Islands and forced Iraqis to retreat
(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval Postgraduate School’s Ostovar on history of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard)
(Musings On Iraq book review Vanguard of the Imam, Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard)
1985 Iraq started using chemical weapons against Iran’s Op Badr over next 4 weeks Iran claimed it
suffered 4,600 casualties as a result
1986 CIA said that Iraq facing worst situation since start of war after Iran captured Fao Peninsula
Warned that if Iran carried out more offensives could break the Iraqi army and Saddam could be deposed
(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 of Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)
(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 The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)
1991 Govt operation to retake Najaf from Shiite rebels began
1991 Iraqi refugees fleeing country claimed govt forces used napalm to put down uprising
(Musings On Iraq interview with National Univ of Singapore’s Fanar Haddad on the Impact of the 1991 Uprising)
(Musings On Iraq article on 1st hand accounts of 1991 Uprising)
(Musings On Iraq article on Saddam’s view of 1991 Uprising)
(Ahulbayt Video on 1991 Uprising)
(Musings On Iraq article on how US encouraged 1991 uprising)
1993 Iraqi army attacked Aweina Kurdistan killing 30
2002 Blair For Pol Adv Manning met with Natl Sec Adv Rice and said UK supported regime change in
Iraq but needed good strategy
(Musings On Iraq Book Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)
2002 2 CIA reports said aluminum tubes Iraq tried to buy were for centrifuges and Iraq might be trying
to build a nuclear weapon
(Musings On Iraq article on the aluminum tubes story)
(Musings On Iraq article on how poor US intel work led to claim Iraq rebuilt its nuclear weapons program)
2003 Bush called PM Blair about vote on 2nd UN resolution on Iraq Bush said if didn’t have votes
shouldn’t have a vote
2003 Bush called Mexican Pres Fox and Chilean Pres Lagos on 2nd UN resolution Fox non-committal
Lagos said he would vote no
2003 Bush called PM Blair and said that vote on 2nd UN resolution was dead
(Musings On Iraq Book Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)
2003 UN committee reported on Iraq violating sanctions
2003 Iraqi scientists began private interviews with UN inspectors
(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)
(Musings On Iraq article Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)
2003 Bush endorsed Def Dept plan for quick transition to Iraqi authority made up of exiles and Kurds
after war
(Musings On Iraq book review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy Tragedy)
2003 UndersecDef Feith briefed NSC on postwar plans for Iraqi Foreign Min military and intel services
Said Foreign Ministry and embassies needed to be purged Wanted to disband intel services Republican Guard State Security Office and militias and cut Iraqi military to just 3-5 divisions
(Musings On Iraq article on Part I Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Planning for Postwar Iraq September 2001 to May 2003)
2003 White House reviewed plan to ship $1.7 bil in frozen Iraqi assets in U.S. to Iraq to pay for Iraqi
public workers and pensions
2004 Sadrists destroyed Gypsy village of Qawliya, Qadisiya
(Musings On Iraq article on the destruction of Qawliya)
2006 2 bombings of markets in Sadr City kill 58
(Musings On Iraq book review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)
2006 US soldiers gang raped 14 yr old Iraqi girl in Mahmudiya and then killed her family
2007 Report Sadr met with Ayatollah Sistani and asked what he should do about attacks upon his
movement Sistani told him he could withdraw or take the consequences Sadr ended up leaving for Iran
2008 2nd day of fighting Mahdi Army forced police out of Kut Came after Sadr said militia could defend
themselves during freeze Police raided Sadrists areas in city leading to fighting
2008 Pentagon said it would not publicly release its study that found no Iraq-Al Qaeda links based upon
600,000 captured Iraq docs Would not even be posted on the Internet
2008 US reported violence had hit nadir Hadn’t dropped from Nov 07-Feb 08 Avg number of insurgents
attacks went from 180 per day in Jun 07 to 60 per day in Jan 08
2008 Sir Synnott former CPA official in charge of south Iraq said UK wanted to portray stable Iraq after
invasion but didn’t spend time and money to rebuild country Said CPA focused on large projects but not small sustainable ones that would have benefited more Iraqis
2016 PM Abadi called on political parties to present their technocratic candidates for new cabinet Only 3
parties did so
2018 Municipal workers protested in Zubayr Basra over not getting paid for 2 months Threw stones at
govt offices

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  1914 Sir Percy Cox issued statement in Arabic that British had occupied Basra and UK was at war with Ottomans and had ...