This Day In Iraqi History - Sep 4 Saddam mobilized armed forces and ordered seizure of disputed border towns to find excuse to invade Iran

 

1921 Colonial Secretary Churchill memo said he supported Iraqi govt and independence to

maintain British influence in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Britain In Iraq, Contriving King and Country)

(Musings On Iraq review Britain’s Informal Empire In The Middle East, A Case Study of Iraq 1929-1941)

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

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)

 

1945 Iraqi forces along with anti-Barzani tribes launched new assault upon Mulla Mustafa Barzani

forces in Barzan

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

(Musings On Iraq Explaining Kurdish Nationalism Interview With Teen Tech Univ Prof Michael Gunter)

1980 Iran shelled Khanaqin and Mandali in Diyala and bombed two other towns Saddam accused

Iran of starting hostilities

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

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 would lose 100 soldiers while Iran 50 Goal was to push Iranian military and artillery back to secure staging areas for invasion

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

1980 Iraq mobilized its armed forces to prepare for invasion of Iran

1986 Iran launched 2^nd attack upon al-Amiq oil terminal 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 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)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan, September 1980-May 1982)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 3: Iraq’s Triumph)

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

1989 Iraq Amb to UN Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikrit wrote half-brother Saddam Said Iraq faced no

threat from Europe USSR friendly Only threats were US and Israel Said US wanted to control Mideast US would launch psychological campaign vs Iraq over human rights Kurds sectarianism US would start economic campaign by manipulating oil prices to exacerbate Iraq’s debt Said US would invade Iraq from the inside Asked if Arab Cooperation Council was part of US plot vs Iraq

(Musings On Iraq review mother of all battles, Saddam Hussein’s Strategic Plan For The Persian Gulf War)

1990 Sec State Baker told Congress Kuwait crisis wasn’t about oil from that country but Saddam

being able to dictate future of global economy

1991 UN investigation of impact of sanctions on Iraq suggested oil for food program

(Musings On Iraq review Invisible War, The United States And The Iraq Sanctions)

1994 Iraq accused Iran of arming Shiite opposition groups in southern marshes

1995 UN chief inspector Ekeus said Iraq admitted to biological artillery shells bombs and warheads

Had larger quantities of anthrax (8,500 liters) and botulinum (19,000 liters) than previously declared Iraq also had crash program in Aug 90 to build nuclear bomb within a year but didn’t have triggers

(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 review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)

(Musings On Iraq review Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program 1981-1991)

(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)

1996 US fired 17 more cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense sites in response to Saddam’s moves

against PUK

2001 1^st major NSC meeting on Al Qaeda by Bush admin Def Sec Rumsfeld said Iraq was more

important

(Musings On Iraq review Against All Enemies, Inside America’s War on Terror)

2002 Bush sent letter to Speaker of House saying US had to deal with disarming Iraq

(Musings On Iraq 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 quagmire

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

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

Tragedy)

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

2002 Def Sec 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 Warned postwar Iraq would take a long time

(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)

(Musings On Iraq review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Inquiry Section 6.1 Development of the Military Options for an Invasion of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Inquiry Section 6.4 Planning and Preparation For A Post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, Mid-2001 to January 2003)

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)

(Musings On Iraq Chilcot Report Section 3.5 Development of UK Strategy and Options September to November 2002 – Negotiation of Resolution 1441)

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 How US Intelligence Created An Iraqi Nuclear Threat In 2002)

(Musings On Iraq review Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War)

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 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

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

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

War, 2003-2006)

2004 US op to clear Tal Afar Ninewa began to secure it before Jan 05 elections

(Musings On Iraq US Army History of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 14 Fighting To The Elections, August-December 2004)

2006 Report Dora south Baghdad 1^st 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 more than 1000 into Sahwa in Abu Ghraib Attacks in area dropped 2/3 Local Iraqi

army tried to arrest Sahwa in Apr US had to intervene US tried to enroll 2400 sahwa into Inter Min Only accepted 1700 but changed the names of 23% of them

(Musings On Iraq review Surge, My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War)

2007 Report US shifted from national to local reconciliation because PM Maliki not changing 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 Iraqi divisions operating independently dropped from 10 to 6 Congressional

report found couldn’t determine capabilities of ISF Inter and Def Mins didn’t know how many personnel they had Didn’t know how many employees showed up each day Pentagon claimed 65% of ISF showed up each day Analysts believed it was around 50% ISF paid in cash and got 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 review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)

2008 Report Sahwa leader in Baquba Diyala said govt warrants out for Sahwa were meant to break

them up before 09 elections US paid Sahwa in Diyala to stay home to avoid confrontations with govt US officer said no govt jobs for Diyala Sahwa Interior Min general said Sahwa in Baquba were over

(Musings On Iraq What’s In The Future For The Sons of Iraq?)

(Musings On Iraq Carrot and the Stick With Diyala’s Sons of Iraq, Or Just The Sticks?)

2009 3^rd British guard kidnapped and murdered by Asaib Ahl Al-Haq had body released

(Musings On Iraq 2007 Political Kidnappings In Iraq Involving Asaib Ahl Al-Haq)

(Musings On Iraq League Of Righteous Breaks Off talks With Baghdad)

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

2009 Iraq Turkey Syria signed agreement to monitor water levels on the Euphrates and Tigris Did

nothing for Iraq

2010 Report Maliki govt released lower casualty figures Some ISF commanders didn’t report

violence because would make them look bad Iraqi intel officer said he was under pressure from superiors to underreport violence

2012 PUK complained that KDP was denying it positions in KRG outside of Sulaymaniya

2012 Report Iraq afraid Syrian civil war would spill over into Iraq Reason why Maliki govt

supported Assad

(Musings On Iraq Understanding Iraq’s Syrian Policy)

2012 Report Obama admin failed to get PM Maliki to stop Iran flying military supplies to Syria over

Iraq

2012 Report Maliki govt considered cutting money from KRG’s share of budget for not meeting oil

export quota set up in 2012 budget

2014 Report Iranian soldiers carrying out joint ops with Peshmerga in Diyala and Ninewa Source

said 30 Iranians killed fighting alongside Peshmerga

(Musings On Iraq Iranian Mobilization In Iraq In The Face Of The Insurgent Surge)

2014 Report Iran supported PM Maliki for 3^rd term until Mosul fell Quds Force Cmdr Gen Suleimani

went to Iraq to help plan defense vs IS Was disappointed in Maliki

(Musings On Iraq Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Commander General Suleimani And His Role In Iraq, An Interview With The New Yorker’s Dexter Filkins)

2015 Allawi condemned PM Abadi saying his reforms were unconstitutional

(Musings On Iraq A Review Of Iraq Premier Abadi’s Reform Program Interview With Reidar Visser)

2016 Report Jan 3 US contractors for General Dynamics in Baghdad kidnapped by Sadr’s Saraya al-

Salam unit Held for 1 month

2016 Sadrists govt workers held strike in Baghdad Demanded new govt

2017 KRG official went to Iran Told Tehran opposed KRG independence referendum Gorran and

Kurdistan Islamic Group called for vote to be delayed

(Musings On Iraq What’s Next For Kurdistan After The Referendum?)

(Musings On Iraq review The Great Betrayal, How America Abandoned The Kurds And Lost The Middle East)

2017 Hashd leader said that Kurds couldn’t dictate terms of Hawija Kirkuk op and keep Hashd out

(Musings On Iraq Arguing Over The Upcoming Hawija Operation)

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

(Musings On Iraq Basra Explodes In Rage and Riots Over Water Crisis)

2018 Report Iran cut water flow to Zab River in Sulaymaniya after new dam started operating in

Jun

2019 Hashd leader Abu Muhandis ordered that Hashd would form its own air force

2019 Human Rights Watch Abdul Mahdi govt forced more than 2000 displaced out of camp

in Ninewa since end of Aug Done by army and Displacement Min

(Musings On Iraq Iraq Trying To End Displacement Crisis By Expelling People From Camps)

2020 Kataib Hezbollah affiliated Raba Allah demanded that TV station apologize for insulting the

clergy and religious scholars Threatened to burn down office Did that 2 days later

2021 Meeting of protest groups in Baghdad Said they would boycott Oct 2021 elections

2023 KRG said federal funds not enough to pay region’s govt workers Baghdad sent $382 bil

KRG needed $717 bil for all its bills KRG officials attacked budget for being unfair Was due to KRG’s failed oil policy

(Musings On Iraq Iraqi Kurdistan’s Failed Independent Oil Strategy)

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