This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 28

 

1929 Fmr Iraq High Comm Dobbs said if Iraq moved forward in its own dysfunctional way

and was better off than it was under Ottomans England would have succeeded

1998 US began attacks upon Iraqi air defense system in north as part of no fly zones

1998 Italian paper claimed Saddam and bin Laden made pact to act against US and Iraq offered

Saddam safe haven False story

2001 CENTCOM commander Gen Franks presented latest version of Iraq war plan to Bush in Crawford,

Texas Franks had 7 lines of operation that could be used independently or in conjunction Were bombings and missile attacks Special Forces penetrating into Iraq Ground operations by army and marines Information deception and psychological operations CIA support for Iraqi opposition diplomacy and humanitarian aid to Iraqi population Included 9 “slices” of Iraq that could be targeted Were Leadership internal security and intelligence agencies WMD missiles Republican Guard territory of Iraq Iraqi army infrastructure and civilian population Plan would need support of Kuwait Saudi Arabia Jordan Turkey Bahrain Qatar UAE Oman and England Could start with just 105,000 troops and then 230,000 more coming in next 60-90 days Franks wanted to start building up forces and supplies in region immediately get CIA to start building up support within Iraq and diplomacy to build up support amongst Gulf States Franks said US would be ready for Iraq invasion by April to June 2002 Had no postwar plan Had no postwar plan

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

(Musings On Iraq review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy

Tragedy)

2001 After Gen Franks briefing Bush asked CIA Dir Tenet about intel on Iraq Said was very thin CIA

only had 2 sources inside Iraq and contact with them erratic

2001 CIA Dir Tenet said Iraqi opposition wouldn't work with US without seeing strong commitment

from Washington

2001 Bush ordered State and Defense Depts to start building up support amongst regional countries

for Iraq invasion

2001 Bush asked Gen Franks if plan good enough to win Franks said yes with some work Bush told Gen

Franks he wanted Saddam removed as soon as possible and suggested 2002 for war

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict)

2001 Def Sec Rumsfeld told Bush Iraq war would be over fast and quick US would quickly turn over power

to Iraqis and withdraw

(Musings On Iraq Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction’s “Hard Lessons” – Part I: Planning for Postwar Iraq September 2001 to May 2003)

(Musings On Iraq review Liberate And Leave, Fatal Flaws In The Early Strategy For Postwar Iraq)

2001 Pentagon’s Def Policy Board’s Richard Perle OpEd in NY Times said US had to attack Iraq

(Musings On Iraq review Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq)

2002 Report NSC Sr Dir Near East Abrams drafted plan for US to seize control of Iraq’s southern oil

fields

2003 Iraqi Governing Council wrote letter to UN about CPA’s plans to hold caucuses instead of

elections for new Iraq parliament

2004 Bin Laden online statement praised Zarqawi giving him allegiance

(Musings On Iraq interview with former CIA analyst Nada Bakos who tracked Zarqawi)

2005 UN endorsed December elections for a permanent Iraqi parliament

2006 Report Mahdi Army moving block by block across Ghaziliya Baghdad forcing out Sunnis Many

displaced Sunnis moved to center of district where sheikh set up militia to protect them from Mahdi Army

(Musings On Iraq review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

(Musings On Iraq Columbia University Charts Sectarian Cleansing Of Baghdad)

2006 NSC agreed that Gen Petraeus would be new Iraq commander for Surge

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq interview with New America Foundation’s Ollivant On Reassessing the Surge)

2010 PM Maliki said no changes would be made to the SOFA agreement with the US and all its

troops would leave Iraq

2010 Sadrist became governor of Maysan in return for Sadr’s support for Maliki’s 2^nd term

(Musings On Iraq Sadrists Gain Control Of Maysan Governorship)

2012 Protests spread from Fallujah to Diyala Ninewa and Salahaddin in response to PM Maliki issuing

warrant for Fin Min Issawi

(Musings On Iraq Prime Minister Maliki Targets Another Member Of The Iraqi National Movement In An Act Of Political Intimidation)

2013 PM Maliki ordered arrest of MP Alwani for taking part in protests Gun battle ensued killing

Alwani’s brother and some of his bodyguards

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s PM Maliki Goes From Offensive Against Al Qaeda To Crackdown On Anbar Protestors)

2013 Speaker Nujafi said arrest of MP Alwani illegal due to parliamentary immunity Called for

investigation

2013 Speaker Nujafi’s parliamentary investigative group into arrest of MP Alwani blocked from

entering Anbar by ISF

2013 PM Maliki ordered arrest of Sheikh Sulaiman for his role in Anbar protests Sulaiman fled to Irbil

(Musings On Iraq With Fighting Still Going On In Anbar Province Iraq’s Premier Maliki Continues To Issue Arrest Warrants From Protest Leaders)

2013 Curfew imposed in Ramadi

2014 Iran announced Iranian Rev Guard Gen Taqavi died in Salahaddin fighting IS 5^th IRGC

member killed in Iraq during war

(Musings On Iraq Fifth Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force member Dies In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval Postgraduate School’s Ostovar on history of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard)

(Musings On Iraq review Vanguard of the Imam, Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard)

2015 Iraqi forces freed Ramadi

2016 Last bridge crossing Tigris in Mosul destroyed by Coalition airstrike to prevent IS retreating

from eastern to western section of city

2017 KRG PM Barzani said that PM Abadi was punishing the Kurds and unwilling to compromise

while Maliki was offering reconciliation Came after Maliki gave interview to Rudaw saying that Baghdad-Irbil relations needed to be improved

(Musings On Iraq Maliki-KDP Reconciliation In Iraq)

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