This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 18

 

1959 Gen Qasim called Ahwaz and Mohammareh in Iran Arab Started supporting Arabs in Khuzistan

province

1980 Iraq advanced 50km into Zagros Mountains in Iranian Kurdistan

(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 review Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1998 Pres Clinton changed US Iraq policy from containment to regime change Didn’t take

            action to implement policy

(Musings On Iraq review Neighbors, Not Friends, Iraq And Iran After The Gulf Wars)

2002 NSC meeting on UN inspections Bush said Iraq not cooperating Bush told Sec State Powell that if

Iraq was in material breach that would mean war

(Musings On Iraq review The WMD Mirage, Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for War)

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

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Inquiry Section 3.6 Development of UK Strategy and Options, November 2002 to January 2003)

2002 Bush met with Spanish Pres Anzar Said Iraq’s weapons declaration was a joke and US would

eventually have to remove Saddam

2002 Sec Def Rumsfeld ordered start of civil administration to run postwar Iraq 3 months before

invasion

(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 on Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Chapter 3 The Department of Defense Takes Charge)

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

Tragedy)

(Musings On Iraq review Hard Lessons, The Iraq Reconstruction Experience)

2002 Saddam scrapped all of Iraq’s defense plans for US invasion and replaced them with one he made

himself War plans consisted of concentric circles around Baghdad and defending main cities

(Musings On Iraq US Army History of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 3 Maneuvering Into Position)

2002 CIA Dir Tenet asked Germans if Iraqi defector CURVEBALL could be interviewed about his

claims Iraq had mobile WMD labs Germany said no Labs didn’t exist

(Musings On Iraq How Iraqi Defector CURVEBALL Became Basis For US Claims That Iraq Had WMD)

(Musings On Iraq Look Who The LA Times Dug Up – CURVEBALL)

(Musings On Iraq The Story Of CURVEBALL And Iraq’s Mobile Biological Weapons Labs)

(Musings On Iraq review The WMD Mirage, Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for War)

2002 UK Foreign Sec Straw said Iraq in material breach of UN resolutions with its weapons declaration

that denied it had WMD

2002 IAEA head in Reuters No evidence that Iraq had worked on any nuclear facilities since 1998

(Musings On Iraq UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Created An Iraqi Nuclear Threat In 2002)

2002 UK Defense Ministry admitted that ships were taking troops and tanks to Persian Gulf

2002 CIA briefed Bush and NSC on difficulties recruiting and maintaining sources in Iraq Said

talking about war while going to UN made Iraqis not willing to come forward because unsure US was going to remove Saddam

2002 State Dept posted listing of omissions in Iraq’s UN weapons declaration

2003 UK cabinet meeting said that capturing Saddam wouldn’t likely affect security PM Blair disagreed

saying it would open the door to progress in Iraq

2005 Bush national speech said Iraqi elections were a turning point for democracy in Middle East

and US withdrawal would show US lack of resolve

(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Future The aftermath of regime change)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Dysfunctional Democracy)

(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)

(Musings On Iraq review What Happened, Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)

(Musings On Iraq review The U.S. Army In The Iraq War: Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil

War, 2003-2006)

2005 Allawi’s Iraqiya filed more than 60 complaints of voting violations including members of

security forces supporting United Iraqi Alliance

2006 Sadr endorsed insurgent attacks on US forces claiming it was resistance to the west

2007 Sec State Rice met with Pres Talabani and VP Abdul Mahdi Both said Maliki was a problem Rice

told them US sticking with Maliki

2007 Sec State Rice told PM Maliki his govt was failing Said he had to follow Aug agreement to share

decision making with Presidency Council Maliki said others in govt were obstructionists

2007 White House report Attacks in Baghdad down 80% since Nov 06 Murders down 90% Car bombs

down 70% Dec avg just below 600 attacks per wk down from 1,600 per wk in Jun

2007 Turkey bombed PKK positions in Kurdistan Then 300 troops moved 3km into Iraq US provided

intel and targeting to Turkey In return Turkey agreed to recognize KRG

2007 Report by US Military Academy ISI defeated on tactical and operations level in Baghdad and Anbar

Trying to rebuild in north and along Syrian border Iraqis turned on ISI Foreign fighters dropped ISF more competent Police retrained but still had issues Army much better Corruption in ISF endemic ISF still lacking in counterinsurgency logistics maintenance medical units artillery armor No air force Iraqi govt dysfunctional Economy slowly recovering US military acting as de facto Iraqi state on the ground Many Sunnis now working with US against ISI No Sunni leadership Mahdi Army consolidating control of Baghdad areas conquered Political parties act like mafias US had to continue to develop ISF US couldn’t continue to act as Iraqi govt

2008 Congressman Waxman released memo saying Natl Sec Adv Rice and Attny Gen Gonzalez misled

Congress about Bush claiming Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa in his 02 State of the Union Rice claimed she didn’t know CIA objected to the story when her staff was warned 4 times not to use it Gonzalez lied to Senate saying CIA approved Bush using story twice when it didn’t

(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)

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

2008 Ninewa council voted to postpone 09 provincial elections Council controlled by Kurds who were

afraid they would lose power

2008 PM Maliki had Counter Terror Unit raid Interior Min and arrested 23 workers he claimed

were involved in Baathist plot Charges later dropped Many believed it was a warning to Interior Min Bolani who formed his own party to run in 09 elections

2009 Asaib Ahl Al-Haq issued fatwa on Syria War saying it wasn’t about defending Sayid Zeinab

shrine but fighting infidels and defending Islam

(Musings On Iraq Asaib Ahl Al-Haq From A Breakaway Sadr Militia To Defenders Of Iraq)

2009 Iranian soldiers occupied Well No 4 in Fauqi oil field in Maysan PM Maliki said nothing Interior

Min said was not important Foreign Min said Iran and Iraq would talk about border soon

(Musings On Iraq Disputed Oil Field Leads To Flare Up Between Iraq And Iran)

(Musings On Iraq More Questions Than Answers On Iran-Iraq Oil Field Dispute)

2011 VP Hashemi stopped at Baghdad airport some of his bodyguards arrested and then allowed to

fly to Sulaymaniya

(Musings On Iraq Charges Against Iraq’s Vice President, And Why They Matter)

2011 Fin Min Issawi and Dep PM Mutlaq temporarily detained at Baghdad airport while trying to

take flight to Irbil to meet with Pres Barzani

(Musings On Iraq Is Iraq’s Finance Minister Next On Maliki’s Hit List?)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

2012 Pres Talabani had a stroke effectively ending his political career although he would remain in

office

2017 Protests broke out in Sulaymaniya Kalar Rania Taq Taq Chamchamal and five other towns

against the Kurdish establishment

(Musings On Iraq New Wave Of Kurdistna Protests Harken Back To 2011)

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