In The Bomb In My Garden Dr Mahdi Obeidi tells the story of how Iraq tried to produce a nuclear bomb in the early 1990s. He was in charge of building centrifuges to enrich uranium. He goes through Iraq’s nuclear ambitions, how they covertly worked to gain the know-how and technology, how United Nations inspectors dismantled the program and then how the U.S. bungled its search for WMD after the 2003 invasion.
The International Struggle Over Iraq is a study by David Malone of the relationship between the United Nations, its permanent members and Iraq from the Iran-Iraq War to the U.S. occupation. The book is up and down in parts but the conclusions are sound. The author argues that from the 1980s-90s the U.N. was increasingly effective in dealing with Iraq because the great powers agreed on using it as a tool in their foreign policy but afterwards the U.S. and U.K. acted increasingly on their own sidelining the organization until it was largely irrelevant although Malone wouldn’t agree with that last point.
Samuel Helfont released his third book on Iraq entitled The Iraq Wars, A Very Short Introduction. It is a brief review of U.S.-Iraq relations from the 1990s to the 2014 war versus the Islamic State. He provides some new and interesting insights on how Iraq became a focus of American foreign policy.
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.
Weiner, Robert, Live from Baghdad, Gathering News At Ground Zero, Doubleday, 1992
Robert Weiner was a CNN producer who was in Iraq during the start of the Gulf War. He provides an inside look at how the news is put together. It’s actually not as interesting as a reporters’ accounts and things don’t really get going until the bombs started dropping.
Anderson, Ewan and Rashidian, Khalil, Iraq and the continuing Middle East crisis, Pinter Publishers, 1991
Iraq and the continuing Middle East crisis by Ewan Anderson and Khalil Rashidian was written as a short yet in depth background book to the Gulf War. The first two-thirds are about all the major issues in the Middle East from ideology to Palestine to oil. The last third is about Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Gulf War. For its time it was very impressive since few in the West who was the intended audience knew much about the entire region. Today there’s not much to be gained from it as there are others that focus solely upon the war and give much more detail.
Haass, Richard, War of Necessity, War of Choice, A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars, Simon & Schuster, 2009
Richard Haass worked in both the George H.W. Bush and the George W. Bush administrations. Originally he was in the National Security Council under National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft and then went to work for Secretary of State Colin Powell in the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department. These positions led him to be involved in making policy over Iraq. Haass argues that the Gulf War was a necessary war to preserve America’s national interests while the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not needed.
Bennis, Phyllis Moushabeck, Michel Edited by, Beyond The Storm, A Gulf Crisis Reader, Olive Branch Press, 1991
Beyond The Storm, A Gulf Crisis Reader is an anthology on the Gulf War. Like any such collection there is a huge range of topics covered and the quality varies. The editors Phyllis Bennis and Michel Moushabeck should be given credit for finding a large number of Arab writers to contribute since their voices are usually absent from coverage on the Middle East. The book also covers a huge range of issues not just the war such as human rights, the environment, how various countries dealt with the conflict, etc.
Woods, Kevin, the mother of all battles, Saddam Hussein’s Strategic Plan For The Persian Gulf War, Naval Institute Press, 2008
the mother of all battles, Saddam Hussein’s Strategic Plan For The Persian Gulf War was the first book in the Iraqi Perspectives Project. Using captured Baath documents Kevin Woods attempted to give the Iraqi side of the Gulf War. He showed how Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership had a completely different mindset than their Western opponents. This explains how Saddam believed that he won the Gulf War.
El-Solh, Raghid, Britain’s 2 Wars With Iraq 1941 1991, Garnet Publishing Limited, 1996
Raghid El-Solh’s Britain’s 2 Wars With Iraq 1941 1991 is a tale of two halves. It covers the Anglo-Iraq War which was part of the larger World War 2 conflict as well as the Gulf War. The author argues that England has historically attempted to maintain the status quo in the Middle East which came into conflict with various Iraqi leaders. The coverage of first war is quite good while the section on the Gulf War reads like Saddam era propaganda.
Bulloch, John and Morris, Harvey, Saddam’s War, Faber and Faber, 1991
Saddam’s War is a very short and thorough overview of the causes of the Gulf War. It was written by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris who worked for the Independent newspaper in London as a journalist and an editor. It provides a good introduction for anyone interested in the conflict.
Coll, Steve, The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq, Penguin Press, 2024
Twenty years after the Iraq invasion a comprehensive book including both the US and Iraqi perspectives on what led to the conflict has finally been published. That’s thanks to Steve Coll and his The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq. The author traces U.S.-Iraq relations from the Iran-Iraq War to the 2000s to show how the two countries constantly misread each other leading to false assumptions and the eventual overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Kelly, Michael, Martyrs’ Day, Chronicle of a Small War, New York: Vintage Books, 2001
Michael Kelly was a journalist who traveled throughout the Middle East during the Gulf War. His book, Martyrs’ Day, Chronicle of a Small War reads like a travel journal. It is full of all the places he went from Iraq to Jordan to Israel to Egypt to Saudi Arabia to Turkey, the people he met and the adventures he had. There are some interesting parts like his interviews with Kuwaitis right after the Gulf War and Iraqis during the sanctions, but it is not essential reading. It’s more of a deep background book or for someone who wants a light read.
Woods, Kevin, Murray, Williamson and Holaday, Thomas, Saddam’s War, An Iraqi Military Perspective of the Iran-Iraq War, Washington D.C.: Institute For National Strategic Studies, 2009
Saddam’s War, An Iraqi Military Perspective of the Iran-Iraq War came about as part of a U.S. government program to understand Iraq after the 2003 invasion. The book is based upon 16 interviews with General Raad Hamdani in 2007 who served in the Iraqi army from the 1960s until 2003. Most of the discussion focuses upon the Iran-Iraq War but it also touches on the Gulf War, the U.S. invasion and the post-Saddam era. Hamdani’s main opinion was that Saddam undermined the Iraqi military and became more isolated as time went by to the country’s detriment.
Atkinson, Rick, Crusade, The Untold Story Of The Persian Gulf War, Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993
Rick Atkinson’s Crusade The Untold Story Of The Persian Gulf War is a blow by blow account of the planning and execution of the Gulf War by the American military. It starts with the Iraqi surrender and then flashes back to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the American response. It’s a quick moving story with information for both the casual reader and the military historian. It’s main focus is upon General Normal Schwarzkopf and his strengths and weaknesses.
Helfont, Samuel, Iraq Against The World, Saddam, America, And The Post-Cold War Order, New York: Oxford University Press, 2023
Professor Samuel Helfont of the Naval War College has written his second book, Iraq Against The World, Saddam, America, And The Post-Cold War Order, again largely based upon Baathist documents that were captured after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This time he focuses upon how Iraq tried to break down the new world order that President Bush proclaimed after the Gulf War. The U.S. hoped that there would be an international system based upon rule of law and enforced by the United Nations. Iraq was the focus of this strategy as it had U.N. sanctions and weapons inspectors for over a dozen years. Saddam’s response was to have Baathist offices and embassies around the world organize information campaigns and protests against Iraq’s treatment. Helfont breaks new ground with this work as few have delved into this topic before.
Freedman, Lawrence and Karsh, Efraim, The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991, Diplomacy and War in the New World Order, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993
The Gulf Conflict 1990-1991, Diplomacy and War in the New World Order by Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh is one of the most comprehensive books about the Gulf War. Most others on the topic follow the same script. They go over Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. led response, Iraq’s intransigence and then the Gulf War. Freedman and Karsh have that plus the international response from countries like England, France, the Soviet Union and Japan along with all the diplomatic negotiations that led up to the war. If you want to get a complete story of the crisis then The Gulf Conflict should be at the top of your list.
Haselkorn, Avigdor, The Continuing Storm, Iraq, Poisonous Weapons, and Deterrence, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999
The Continuing Storm, Iraq, Poisonous Weapons, and Deterrence by Avigdor Haselkorn should be a lesson on how not to write a book. The author takes bits of evidence and endlessly speculates about their meaning and possible impact. His thesis is that the entire Gulf War and its aftermath centered around Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD). He goes as far as to argue that President Bush ordered the end of the war because he was afraid of an Iraqi WMD attack upon Israel which could have responded with a nuclear bomb. Haselkorn’s argument goes from interesting to off the rails rather quickly.
Steavenson, Wendell, The Weight of a Mustard Seed, The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny, New York: Collins, 2009
The Weight of a Mustard Seed, The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny by journalist Wendell Steavenson is the story of General Kamel Sachet and his family and friends. General Sachet fought in the Iran-Iraq War and the Gulf War, and then served as governor of Maysan before he was executed by the government. Steavenson wanted to know why people like Sachet served the Baath, how it affected their morality and how they could live with themselves?
Review Dildy, Douglas & Cooper, Tom, F-15C Eagle vs MiG-23/25, Iraq 1991, Oxford, New York, 2016
F-15C Eagle vs MiG-23/25, Iraq 1991 was part of Osprey’s Duel series where they took two weapons systems that faced off against each other and compared them. All the books follow the same format. They explain how the weapons were developed, their specifications, the two sides that used them, the combat that took place and then a closing evaluation. This one focuses upon the U.S. facing Iraq in the Gulf War where the U.S. achieved a resounding victory but not without some losses and difficulties.
Edmund Ghareeb’s The Kurdish Question In Iraq is a bit of an oddity. On the one hand it takes much of what the Baath gove...
