This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 21 Trump said if US had taken Iraq’s oil IS might not have been created Said US still had chance to take Iraq’s oil

 

1916 Battle of Hanna Defile British attacked Ottomans but failed 2,741 British casualties

Was defeat in British effort to relieve siege at Kut

Musings On Iraq In The News

  

Musings On Iraq is cited in Death, Dominance, and State-Building, The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention by MIT Professor Roger Petersen. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. 

 

View all of Musings On Iraq's Citations here  

Death Sentences Reversed In Activist Sajjad Al-Iraqi’s Case

  

In 2020 Sajjad al-Iraqi a young protester in Nasiriya was kidnapped. In 2023 two people were sentenced to death in absentia for his murder. Just recently those charges were dropped likely in a political move.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 20 Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance created to run Iraq 2 months before war

 

1915 UK troops and ships attacked Turks and Arabs in Ruta Creek, Basra Turned back Did wound Ottoman

commander in Basra who was sent to Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

Iraq Resistance Factions Helped Put Down Iranian Protests

  

It appears that protests in Iran have once again been suppressed by the government. Members of the Iraqi Resistance helped sending several hundred men to assist Tehran.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 19 Mulla Mustafa Barzani met with Iraqi and Iranian Kurds in USSR to discuss pan-Kurdish movement

 

1915 Ottoman governor of Baghdad wrote US consulate that British were distributing money to clerics in

Najaf and Karbala

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 18 UN inspectors said no WMD found at sites listed by US

 

1915 US consulate report UK forces in Basra under constant harassment by tribes

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 17 Saddam ordered missile strikes on Israel during Gulf War

 

1913 US consul in Baghdad wrote if British took Mesopotamia there would be little resistance because

public so apathetic

Review Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie, Saddam Hussein And The Crisis In The Gulf, Times Books, 1990

  

Today Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie are infamous. Miller cozied up to the Bush administration and Ahmed Chalabi before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and helped spread their propaganda about weapons of mass destruction to justify the war. Mylroie supported Iraq and then felt betrayed by the invasion of Kuwait and turned into a conspiracy theorist blaming the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 on Baghdad. Saddam Hussein And The Crisis in The Gulf was written before all that and is surprisingly good. It stands as a decent background to Saddam and the Gulf War. Not only that but it was very cynical about the cause of the conflict.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 16 Op Desert Storm to expel Iraq from Kuwait started

 

1943 Iraq declared war on Axis

(Musings On Iraq review Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 15 1948 Anglo-Iraq Treaty signed Led to major protests in Iraq

  

1915 Sir Percy Cox reported some Arab sheikhs had given up ties with UK and joined Turks following

calls for jihad

Iran Cuts Natural Gas Exports To Iraq Again

  

In late December 2024 Iran once again cut off its natural gas exports to Iraq. Baghdad is dependent upon this supply which is delivered completely at the whim of its neighbor.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 14 Election Comm approved banning 511 candidates from 2010 election for Baathist ties Accountability & Justice Comm said more candidates and lists should be banned

 

1928 Abdul Sadoun became PM for 3^rd of 4 times Replaced Askari who was forced to resign over

opposition to his conscription plan for army Sadoun compromise between King and England to try to get Anglo-Iraq Treaty passed

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Between the Two World Wars, The Militarist Origins of Tyranny)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 13 Sec State Powell told Bush if he invaded Iraq would have to run the country

 

1843 Baghdad Gov Najib attacked Karbala to take it from gangs that ran town aligned with merchants and

clerics Slaughtered large number of inhabitants

Iraq’s Oil Revenues Continue To Drop Posing Major Problems For Budget

 

For the second month Iraq’s oil exports and revenues dipped posing more problems for the country’s bloated budget.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 12 Churchill said Faisal might be best man to be king of Iraq

 

866 Papers of Abbasid Caliph Mutasin’s resignation signed

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 11 Mongol siege of Baghdad began Would kill entire population of city

 

1258 Mongols began siege of Baghdad Would eventually kill the entire population of the city

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 10 3 Iraqi exiles told Bush US forces would be greeted with sweets and flowers if they invaded Iraq

 

1917 British failed at 2^nd attack upon Ottomans at Khadairi Bend outside Kut

Review Sara Daniel, Voyage To A Stricken Land, Four Years on the Ground Reporting from Iraq: A Woman’s Inside Story, Arcade Publishing, 2006

 

Sara Daniel was a French reporter who went to Iraq at the start of the war. Each chapter in her book Voyage To A Stricken Land, Four Years on the Ground reporting from Iraq: A Woman’s Inside Story covers a specific time period and topic from the invasion to the insurgency to the Iraqi and American troops. She came away from her experience extremely cynical believing that Iraq was falling into a civil war due to the U.S. mishandling the occupation.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 9 Qasim refused to legalize Communist Party even though it was his biggest supporter

 

1916 British took Shaikh Saad after Ottomans retreated but not before inflicting heavy

British casualties

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 8 Churchill said Arab govt should be formed in Iraq because too expensive for UK to maintain control of Mesopotamia

866 Abbasid Caliph Mutasin deposed by his adviser Ibn Tahir

Pro-Iran Resistance Factions In Iraq Beginning Debate On Disarming

 

There is an ongoing debate within Iraq about whether the Pro-Iran Resistance factions should give into U.S. demands and disarm or not. While several groups have come out for and against the idea the real discussion is about what disarmament means and how it could be implemented.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 7 Iran fired missiles at Anbar and Irbil in retaliation for deaths of Gen Suleimani and Abu Muhandis

 

866 Ibn Tahir negotiated deal to split revenues of Baghdad with Samarra and depose Abbasid Caliph

Mutasin in return

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 6 Accountability and Justice Comm banned 511 candidates from election for Baathist ties Part of Shiite parties effort to make election about Baathists

 

1909 Riots in Mosul killed Sheikh Said Sufi leader in Sulaymaniya Led his followers to

revolt cutting off trade in northern Mosul province

Iraq Takes 1st Steps In Forming New Govt

 

Iraq is taking its first steps towards forming a new government. The ruling parties however are still deadlocked over who will be the next president and prime minister.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 5 Asaib Ahl Al-Haq’s Khazali released from prison in US-UK-Iraq deal to get release of British worker AAH kidnapped

 

1909 Riot in Mosul after Kirkuk soldier insulted a woman Organized by elites opposed to

Ottoman reforms 60 killed

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 4 Gen Qasim gave up claims to Kuwait

 

1916 British attacked Shaikh Saad in campaign to relieve troops trapped at Kut Turned back

by Ottomans 600 British casualties

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 3 US killed Hashd leader Abu Muhandis and Iran’s Quds Force cmdr Gen Suleimani in Baghdad for rocket attacks on US personnel in Iraq

 

1916 Sykes and Picot drafted deal on dividing Ottoman Empire Baghdad and Basra vilayets

would go to UK Mosul to France Would also include independent Arab state for Sharif Hussein

(Musings On Iraq review Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923)

(Musings On Iraq review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq)

Review Lloyd Gardner, The Long Road To Baghdad, A History Of U.S. Foreign Policy From The 1970s To The Present, The New Press, 2008

 

Rutgers University Professor Lloyd Gardner attempted to explain the larger ideas behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq in The Long Road To Baghdad, A History Of U.S. Foreign Policy From The 1970s To The Present. He argues that the war was the result of a change in foreign policy philosophy from the realism of the Cold War to a new idealism based upon asserting American power and spreading democracy. The problem is Gardner gets lost in the details and side stories and loses track of his argument.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 2 ISIS seized control of Fallujah in aftermath of PM Maliki shutting down Anbar protests

 

1915 Suleiman Bey took over Iraq Command for Ottomans Called on Arab sheikhs to join war against

British and planned on retaking Basra

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 1 After PM Maliki shut down Anbar protest sites ISI destroyed police stations in Ramadi and Fallujah as insurgency made its return

 

1914 UK set out from Qurna, Basra north Found Tigris River had been blocked Gunboats

couldn’t follow Forced UK to retreat back to Qurna

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)