Fatah is afraid it might be excluded from power after the Oct election (Kurdistan 24)
The Fatah Alliance’s poor showing in the October election where it only won 17 seats versus 48 in 2018 has it afraid about its political future. Its rival Moqtada al-Sadr has been calling for a majority government which has stoked fears that Fatah might be excluded from power.
1914 Looting started in Basra city after it fell to British UK appointed governor of vilayet
1915 Battle of Ctesiphon/Salman Pak began UK ignored reports Turks had been reinforced UK suffered
4,511 casualties 1st day Was more than total UK losses during 1st year of war in Mesopotamia Ottomans lost 6,188 casualties
1915 Ottomans called on Indian troops to rise up against UK commanders in Mesopotamia 20th Punjabi
Batt removed after an Indian killed a British soldier
1915 UK official Sykes wrote letter to Sir Percy Cox lead political officers in Mesopotamia Said UK made
deal with Sharif of Mecca and Arab officers in Baghdad to fight Ottomans In return they would get independent Arab state UK would get Basra vilayet
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
1917 Gen Marshall took over command of UK forces in Mesopotamia Told to consolidate position in Basra
and Baghdad vilayets Led him to send out expeditionary forces to take Musayib Hilla Kufa Abu Suhair Samawa Darraji Qara Tappa Khanaqin
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1923 PM Sadoun resigned over differences with Shiite leaders and King Faisal
1923 Jafar Pasha al-Askari became 3rd PM of Iraq Would hold office 2 times Shiites got Finance and
Education ministries in Askari govt Shiite leaders gave pledge of allegiance to King as a result Were 14 govts under Mandate
(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)
1952 Baghdad protests against Regent Started 1952 Intifada Communists one of main organizers
Clashes with police led to 1 dead 52 wounded Led to PM Umari resigning
(Musings On Iraq review The Modern History of Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)
(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)
1997 UN inspectors talked out of visit to Special Republican Guard base by US that did not want
another confrontation that would allow Saddam to blame inspectors
(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)
1998 Izzat al-Dhuri Saddam’s #2 escaped assassination attempt in Karbala
2001 Saudi intel chief Prince Turksi said that bin Laden considered Saddam an apostate
2002 France told US that it did not believe Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger
(Musings On Iraq How US Intelligence Failed The Iraq-Niger Uranium Story)
2002 Russia’s Putin warned U.S. not to unilaterally act against Iraq
2003 US transport plane hit by missile at Baghdad International Airport
2005 Wall St Journal OpEd claimed 9/11 hijacker Atta might have met Iraqi intel agent in Prague in
2001 False story
2006 Commander of US forces in Iraq Gen Casey told Joint Chiefs troop surge would not work
(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)
(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)
2006 UN said over 100,000 Iraqis left country each month mostly going to Syria and Jordan Many were
professionals Shiite death squads and militias operating within police Police accused of kidnappings torture murder bribery theft extortion
(Musings On Iraq review Children of War, Voices Of Iraqi Refugees)
2007 Report captured ISI docs from Sinjar showed 80-110 foreign fighters entered Iraq each month first half
of 2007 41% were Saudis followed Libyans at 18%
(Musings On Iraq The Saudi Role In The Iraqi Insurgency)
2008 Iranian arrested in Wasit 13th detained since Oct Local source thought he might be involved in voter
fraud for 09 election
(Musings On Iraq Iranians And Special Groups Forces Returning To Iraq)
2009 Baghdad aired video confession of 3 men claiming they were Baathists behind Oct 09 Baghdad
bombings Were actually done by ISI
(Musings On Iraq Maliki Returns to Sectarian Politics)
2009 Report police brigade in Diyala Had 130 HUMVEES Needed 650 Don’t have enough radios
or ammo Given mortars with no ammo Problem was with Interior Min
2019 Pro-Iran Hashd released story that Def Min Shammari received disabilities welfare
when he lived in Sweden and docs showing Def Min bought tear gas and used it against demonstrators after Shammari claimed 3rd party shooting demonstrators
(Musings On Iraq Hashd Retaliate Against Iraq’s Defense Minister For Comments On Protests)
2020 Report Iranian Rev Guards Quds Force Cmdr Qaani met with pro-Iran Hashd factions about
halting attacks upon US in Iraq out of fear of Trump retaliation
(Musings On Iraq Iran Warns Its Allies About Attacking US Targets In Iraq)
View the Iraq History Timelines
1914 UK troops entered Basra after Ottomans abandoned city
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1926 Jaffar al-Askari became PM of Iraq for 2nd time Were 14 govts under Mandate
(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)
1927 King Faisal asked for full Iraqi independence and ending roll of British High Commissioner in
negotiations over new Anglo-Iraq Treaty
1946 PM Umari forced to resign in aftermath of Kirkuk Massacre where oil strikers killed
1946 Nuri al-Said became PM 4th time Continued repression of opposition parties
(Musings On Iraq interview with Historian Phebe Marr comparing PM Said with PM Maliki)
(Musings On Iraq interview with Western Kentucky’s Prof Romero on the Qasim govt)
(Musings On Iraq review ‘Independent Iraq’ The Monarchy & British Influence, 1941-1958)
(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)
1963 Syria said it would send 2nd army brigade to help fight Barzani revolt if Baghdad
asked Arif govt said no
1963 New govt led by PM Yahya said it wanted peace with Kurds
(Musings On Iraq review of 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 review Journey Among Brave Men, Travels in Kurdistan)
1983 Iran’s Op Wa al-Fajr 4 ended Took 180 sq mi of land in Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan Iran lost
5000 dead 15,000 wounded Iraq lost 2800 dead
(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)
1994 KDP and PUK signed new strategic agreement Didn’t stop disagreements over tariffs and control of
Irbil
1997 UN Special Commission on Iraq weapons inspections met to resolve crisis between Baghdad and
inspectors Russia argued Iraq largely disarmed and that complaints of obstruction were unfounded
1997 UN weapons inspectors returned to Iraq US and UK had plan to cause confrontation with
Iraq to justify military strike
(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 Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)
(Musings On Iraq review Neighbors, Not Friends, Iraq And Iran After The Gulf Wars)
1998 Adviser to UN chief said could never 100% prove WMD disarmament and at some
point inspections became political and impossible to prove negative
2001 Bush told Natl Sec Adv Rice he wanted Def Sec Rumsfeld to start planning for Iraq
(Musings On Iraq Was Iraq An Imminent Threat To The West?)
2001 Bush told Def Sec Rumsfeld to update war plans for Iraq Wanted it done secretly Was first
official step in Iraq invasion
(Musings On Iraq review Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessment)
(Musings On Iraq review Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy
Tragedy)
(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)
(Musings On Iraq review Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account Of The Decision To
Invade Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review The Endgame, The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from
George W. Bush to Barack Obama)
2002 NATO summit Bush was talking about war with Iraq and using new UN inspections as
catalyst for action
2003 UN turned over Oil for Food program to CPA
2003 UK intel report Badr Brigade maintained close ties to Iran that armed and funded it
(Musings On Iraq Overview of Iran’s Influence In Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)
(Musings On Iraq US Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 7 Muqawama Wa Intiqaam (Resistance And Reprisals), May-August 2003)
2004 Iraq Election Commission announced vote for transitional assembly to draft constitution would
happen 1/30/05 along with provincial vote
2006 Iraq and Syria announced renewal of diplomatic relations which were broken during Iran-Iraq War
2006 UN reported 3,709 civilians killed in Oct 06 was highest since 2003 invasion
2006 Report US training mission for Iraqi forces full of problems Officers leading teams poorly picked
Many hadn’t seen combat Didn’t understand mission and weren’t prepared Didn’t have standardized guidelines for mission Didn’t get support from US military Didn’t get supplies and enough interpreters Didn’t get full teams
(Musings On Iraq review The U.S. Army In The Iraq War: Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil
War, 2003-2006)
2007 Gen Petraeus said number of foreign fighters coming to Iraq down by about 1/3 in part due to greater
interdiction by Syria
2008 Presidential Council said Tribal Support Councils should be integrated into provincial govts Were
created as part of patronage network by PM Maliki before 09 election
(Musings On Iraq Argument For Maliki Being Iraq’s Next Strongman)
(Musings On Iraq Disputes Over Tribal Support Councils)
2009 Report on failed US funded reconstruction projects $270 mil water plant in Nasiriya only worked at
limited capacity because too sophisticated for Iraqi workers $4 mil maternity hospital in Hilla didn’t have staff or enough supplies Iraqis never trained on equipment US installed $98 mil wastewater treatment plant in Fallujah only reached 1/3 of homes because govt didn’t deliver fuel $7.9 mil hospital in Baghdad didn’t have staff or supplies so it was closed $165 mil Basra Children’s Hospital was $115 mil over budget
(Musings On Iraq More On Wasted Reconstruction Projects In Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq review Hard Lessons, The Iraq Reconstruction Experience)
2009 Report Oxfam found 90% of Iraq’s 180 hospitals didn’t have basic supplies
2019 Kataib Hezbollah said Def Min bought tear gas used vs protesters after Def Min
Shammari claimed that 3rd party shooting demonstrators
(Musings On Iraq Hashd Retaliate Against Iraq’s Defense Minister For Comments On Protests)
(Musings On Iraq Instrument Of Iran’s Power In Iraq And Syria Kataib Hezbollah)
2019 Report Natl Sec Adv Fayad Badr head Amiri PM Abdul Mahdi’s chief of staff
Hashemi met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei in Tehran Said protests would be put down with force and PM Abdul Mahdi supported
(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)
(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)
View the Iraq History Timelines
1914 Arab tribes told British forces Ottomans had abandoned Basra British forces set out to
take city
1920 US complained 3rd time to UK about San Remo agreement that divided up Iraqi oil between
France and England
1920 British worked out ceasefire with Hachcham tribe last one fighting in 1920 Revolt
(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)
(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)
1922 Abdul Muhsin Sadoun became Iraq’s 2nd PM His orders were to organize elections for an assembly to
write constitution Were 14 govts under Mandate
(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)
1922 Lausanne conference convened to end WWI with Ottomans and decide whether British or
Turks got Mosul vilyat
(Musings On Iraq How The Ottoman Province Of Mosul Became Part Of Iraq)
1958 Iraqi Communist Party and United Democratic Party of Kurdistan issued joint statement
on cooperation Communists wanted to take over Kurdish party
(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)
(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)
1963 Pres Arif put down Baathist National Guard revolt in Basra Baghdad Mosul
1963 Tahir Yahya became premier Held office 2 times
1973 KDP and Communists agreed to end hostilities between the two KDP had been attacking
Communists for its alliance with Bakr govt
(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)
(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)
1982 Tariq Aziz accused US and Soviet Union of allowing weapons to be sent to Iran during Iran-
Iraq War
1997 Russia brokered deal to allow US members of UN inspectors back into Iraq In return
inspections would be completed quickly and UN would begin talks over ending sanctions
(Musings On Iraq Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)
(Musings On Iraq review The Greatest Threat, Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, And The Growing Crisis Of Global Security)
1998 UN inspectors asked for 12 documents were told some documents never existed and would
only turn over edited version of others
(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 Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)
(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)
2001 US Embassy in Niger reported that Niger official said no way it could produce enough uranium
reports claimed Iraq bought from it
(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)
(Musings On Iraq review The WMD Mirage, Iraq’s Decade of Deception and America’s False Premise for War)
2001 Wall St Journal OpEd by Eliot Cohen said Iraq helped Al Qaeda and had WMD so should be
attacked
2003 Suicide truck bomb hit PUK office in Kirkuk killing 5
(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)
2003 US army team with dogs arrived at Abu Ghraib prison which were used to abuse prisoners
2005 Report on how US relied upon Iraqi defector CURVEBALL for intel on Iraq’s WMD when
they were warned he was unreliable
(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)
2006 Joint Chiefs told to prepare plan for surge in troops in Iraq
(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)
(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)
2006 Pentagon claimed US carried out Marshall Plan in Iraq and accomplished minor miracle
rebuilding country
(Musings On Iraq review Hard Lessons, The Iraq Reconstruction Experience)
2006 Report Sec Def Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs were resistant to acknowledge insurgency in Iraq
when it started
2007 Captured ISI financier from Mosul said he had $6 mil budget and 500 men in his unit Got money
from extortion kidnapping and from Syria Said ISI had connections to most businesses in Mosul
2007 Report 46,000 refugees returned to Iraq in Oct 07 Displaced Min said 10,000 went to Baghdad US
commander in Baghdad said displacement in city mostly ended Nov 07 UN said not yet time for Iraqis to return Still 2.3 mil displaced Govt was inflating return numbers
(Musings On Iraq review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)
(Musings On Iraq review Children of War, Voices Of Iraqi Refugees)
2008 PM Maliki accused Kurds of violating constitution Said had diplomatic offices from other countries
Peshmerga were outside KRG Signed oil contracts Called for constitution to be amended to increase power of central govt to counter Kurds
2008 Sadrists twice disrupted reading of Status of Forces Agreement in parliament Rushed speaker and
threatened ministers Security guards called in to stop them
2008 Report competition between Islamic Party that ran Anbar and Awakening growing Sheikhs claimed
Islamic Party bribing voters and handing out land Islamic Party said same thing about Awakening Also trying to divide Awakening sheikhs Sheikh Abu Risha joined with Islamic Party
(Musings On Iraq interview with author Carter Malkasian on Anbar Awakening)
2008 Report PM Maliki demanded Diyala Sahwa be turned over to govt control by Jan 09 Govt agreed to
integrate 33% of them into ISF Build vocational training centers for rest Maliki appointed Diyala police chief accused of running death squads and targeting Sunnis Arrested Diyala Sahwa who were going to run in 09 election
2009 ISCI head Hakim said Baathists should be able to take part in Iraqi politics if didn’t have blood on
their hands Was counter to PM Maliki increasingly talking about Baathist threat before 2010 elections
(Musings On Iraq Maliki Returns to Sectarian Politics)
2009 Fadhil Baghdad Sahwa head Mashhadani sentenced to death for murder during civil war Part of PM
Maliki’s crackdown on Sahwa
(Musings On Iraq Fadhil Sons of Iraq Leader Sentenced To Death)
2019 US review found ISF too dependent upon Coalition and couldn’t hold cleared territory or
Syrian border Said IS disjointed Couldn’t carry out major attacks couldn’t penetrate cities couldn’t garner popular support
(Musings On Iraq US Report Finds Continued Shortcomings In Iraqi Forces While Islamic State Disjointed)
View the Iraq History Timelines
1914 British troops took Fort Zain, Basra Ottomans retreated to Basra city
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1922 UK High Comm for Iraq Sir Cox Iraqi officials Nuri al-Said, Jaafar Askari, Ibn Saud met to draw
border between Iraq and what would become Saudi Arabia After 6 days Cox drew straight line dividing 2
(Musings On Iraq Drawing The Iraq-Saudi-Kuwait Border In The Sand)
1973 KDP and Communists began talks to end hostilities between two KDP had been attacking
Communists for its alliance with Bakr govt
(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)
(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)
1991 UN report said Iraqi forces used torture and mass killings to put down Shiite uprising after Gulf
War
1997 KDP recaptured lost territory from PUK
(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)
1997 Inspectors presented to UN Sec Council unresolved issues with Iraq and to highlight its continued
non-cooperation Outstanding issues were SCUD missile fuel, VX gas and biological weapons program
(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Rejection Of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD And 2003 Invasion)
(Musings On Iraq review The Greatest Threat, Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, And The Growing Crisis Of Global Security)
1997 UN told that dramatic increase in Iraqi oil smuggling through Iran violating UN sanctions
1997 Wash Post OpEd by Wolfowitz and Khalilzad called for US to overthrow Saddam
(Musings On Iraq review The Road to Iraq, The Making of a Neoconservative War)
(Musings On Iraq review The United States And Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents)
1998 Iraqis refused to hand over documents to UN inspectors
(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)
(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)
(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 Report Sec 1.1 UK Iraq Strategy 1990 To 2000)
1999 UN Res 1275 extended Oil for Food program for Iraq
2001 Def Policy Board head Richard Perle told CNN Saddam would be the next phase of the war
on terror Said Americans would be greeted as liberators in Iraq
2002 UK Def Min official warned Blair’s office that without proper postwar planning Iraq war could
fail
(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)
2003 Car bomb at Sheikh Suleiman’s home after he made deal with US for police to take over security in
Ramadi
2004 Assoc of Muslim Scholars announced Sunni boycott of Jan 05 elections claiming results would
be fake and non-representative
(Musings On Iraq U.S. Army History of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 15 – Transformation IN A Time Of War, January-April 2005)
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)
2004 Gen Smith dep cmdr CENTCOM said insurgents were carrying out effective intimidation
campaign before Jan 05 elections
2005 Marines killed 24 civilians in revenge for Marine being killed by IED in Haditha
2005 2 days of insurgent attacks upon Shiites left 324 civilians dead and wounded
2005 Police kidnaped Dawa Dep Health Min Saffar Made video of him repeating insurgent
demands Then executed him Done by Sadrists to silence Saffar who was attempting to stop them using ministry to run death squads
2006 Dep Health Min Saffar kidnapped by policeman run by Mahdi Army Killed him under orders of Dep
Health Min Zamili
2006 Suicide car bomb hit day laborers in Hillah killing 22 wounding 44 3 car bombs hit bus station
east Baghdad killing 10 injuring 45
(Musings On Iraq review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)
(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)
2006 Syrian Foreign Minister visited Baghdad 1st high ranking Syrian official to visit since 2003 Said
Assad backed Maliki govt and wanted foreign troops to withdraw
2006 Iraqi Islamic Party said warrant for Dhari head of Muslim Scholars Assoc ended Maliki’s
reconciliation program Iraqi Accordance Front demanded warrant be withdrawn 1,000 protested in Adhamiya against warrant
2006 AP reported more Iraqis died in first three weeks of Nov than all of Oct Nov 1-19 1,319 dead vs
1,216 in Oct
2007 US-Iraqi raids on Sadrists in Diwaniya and Najaf Dozens of Mahdi Army members arrested 70
police in Diwaniya dismissed for connections to militia Was part of Op Lion’s Leap vs Mahdi Army Came after fighting between Mahdi Army and Badr
(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)
2007 Report Maliki govt denied services to Baghdad’s Ghaziliya Neighborhood split between Sahwa
Ghaziliya guardians and police connected to sectarian killings
2019 Most of the ruling parties met in Baghdad Agreed to give PM Abdul Mahdi 45 days
to carry out reforms
2019 Human Rights Commission called on PM Abdul Mahdi to stop ISF kidnapping
activists and journalists
(Musings On Iraq Iraqi Forces Kidnapping Protesters In Intimidation Campaign)
(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)
2020 Asaib Ahl Al-Haq’s leader Qais Khazali announced that ceasefire with the U.S. was over
(Musings On Iraq Asaib Ahl Al-Haq From A Breakaway Sadr Militia To Defenders Of Iraq)
View the Iraq History Timelines
Review Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock, Guests of the Sheik, An Ethnography Of An Iraqi Village, New York: Anchor Books, 1989
Guests of the Sheik, An Ethnography Of An Iraqi Village might be one of my favorite books about Iraq. In 1957 newlyweds Elizabeth Warnock Fernea and her husband Bob went to the small town of El Nahra in southern Iraq so that her husband might do an anthropological study of tribal life. Fernea knew little about the Middle East and only had a basic course in Arabic before leaving. She decided to live traditionally with the women of the village which filled her with much trepidation. She became integrated into the town as it became her new home for the two years that she lived there, which she brought to life with her writing.
1534 Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I conquered Baghdad from Safavids
1914 British launched second attack on Ottoman forces in Fort Zain, Basra
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
1915 UK learned 11-12,000 Ottomans dug into Salman Pak Actually had 21,000 men vs 12,000 for UK
1922 Sheikh Barzinji declared independent Kurdish kingdom in Sulaymaniya
1929 Naji al-Suwaidi became PM Were 14 govts under Mandate
1963 Pres Arif removed Baathists from govt including PM Bakr Baath National Guard militia rose up in
Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk Head of Baath National Guard Wandawi bombed Presidential Palace Escaped to Syria afterward
(Musings On Iraq review Socialist Iraq, A Study in Iraqi Politics Since 1968)
1968 Barzani called on UN to intervene in Iraq during Kurdish revolt Claimed Bakr govt
committing genocide
(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)
(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)
1973 Communists said they would stop anti-KDP propaganda campaign attacking it as feudal party
and capitalist tool
(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)
(Musings On Iraq Interview with Prof Johan Franzen on the history of the Iraqi Communist Party)
1979 Naji Suwaidi became premier of Iraq
1980 UN Special Rep to Iran and Iraq Olof Palme began mediation mission to try to stop war
1987 Iraq bombed 2 abandoned nuclear reactors in south Iran 2nd time
(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)
1997 Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with Iraqis trying to convince them to cooperate with
weapons inspectors
(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 Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)
(Musings On Iraq review The Saddam Tapes)
1998 UN inspections began again in Iraq with goal of causing a confrontation to justify US bombing
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In The Eye of the Storm)
(Musings On Iraq review Out Of The Ashes, The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein)
2001 Def Policy Board’s Richard Perle was one of the first to say Iraq was a threat because of
WMD and ties to Al Qaeda during interview on ABC
2002 New UN inspectors arrived in Baghdad
2003 CENTCOM cmdr Gen Abizaid’s advisers said Iraqi police lacked resources training program
ineffective US couldn’t provide it logistics Said police effort could fail
(Musings On Iraq interview with Col Ted Spain on how US struggled to establish law and order in post-invasion Iraq)
(Musings On Iraq interview with Jerry Burke police and Interior Min adviser on how US failed to develop the Iraqi police)
(Musings On Iraq US Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1- Chapter 8 – Muddling Through August-October 2003)
(Musings On Iraq review The U.S. Army In The Iraq War: Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil
War, 2003-2006)
2005 House Republicans attacked Democrats for trying to cut and run in Iraq by backing withdrawal
US policy was withdrawal
2005 Al Qaeda in Iraq bombed Shiite mosque in Khanaqin Diyala 74 dead
(Musings On Iraq review The Caliphate At War, Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State)
(Musings On Iraq review The ISIS Reader, Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement)
2005 Study 90-96% of insurgency were Iraqis only 4-10% foreign fighters
2006 Pentagon and Joint Chiefs papers on Iraq said US should follow Gen Casey plan to withdraw turn
things over to Iraqis Joint Chiefs paper said Iraq falling into civil war US strategy not working
(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)
(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)
(Musings On Iraq review The War Within, A Secret White House History 2006-2008)
(Musings On Iraq review The U.S. Army In The Iraq War: Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil
War, 2003-2006)
2006 US intel report on Iraq said US had no good options in Iraq
2006 VP Cheney’s office memo on Iraq said US should back Shiites and Kurds and forget about Sunnis
2008 US signed Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq that set 12/31/11 withdrawal date for US forces
2008 Report PM Maliki fired or replaced 17 anti-corruption officials Some were inspector generals at
Water Culture Trade Youth Mins and perhaps Foreign Affairs Min Central Bank of Iraq Sunni and Christian Endowments Some replaced by Dawa officials to strengthen Maliki’s hold over ministries
(Musings On Iraq Lack Of Commitment To Fight Corruption In Iraqi Government)
2008 US forces arrested another Iranian Rev Guard Quds Force member This time at Baghdad airport
12th Iranian arrested since Oct US accused him of smuggling weapons into Iraq
(Musings On Iraq Iranians And Special Groups Forces Returning To Iraq)
2008 Presidential Council sent letter to PM Maliki that govt money being spent on his Tribal Support
Councils should be spent upon ISF instead Councils were created as patronage networks for Maliki before 2009 elections
(Musings On Iraq Argument For Maliki Being Iraq’s Next Strongman)
(Musings On Iraq Disputes Over Tribal Support Councils)
2009 VP Hashemi vetoed parliamentary election law saying it would reduce Sunni seats Kurdish
Alliance State of Law ISCI amended law to cut possible seats for Sunnis
(Musings On Iraq VP Hashemi Shoots Himself In The Foot With Veto Of Iraqi Election Law)
2009 ISF arrested 73 IS suspects for Oct 25 Baghdad bombings Maliki govt claimed it was
Baathists
2018 Sheikh Gharawi one of the leaders of the Basra protest movement assassinated
2019 PM Abdul Mahdi’s office said it would issue warrants for teachers behind school
strikes
2019 Some major roads in Basra blocked for strike including some to Rumaila oil field
Road to Karbala airport and refinery blocked
2019 Report on 100s of leaked Iranian documents on its Iraq ties Included head of Mil Intel under PM
Maliki who said that he would do whatever he could to help Iran Intel head helped Iran assassinate Iraqi pilots from Iran-Iraq War and ISF officers
2020 Report Fmr Leighton Holdings official arrested in Australia on bribery charges Allegedly
involved in $77.6 mil in bribes to South Oil Company and Oil Min officials including fmr Oil Ministers Shahristani and Luaibi
(Musings On Iraq Australian Arrested In Iraqi Corruption Case)
View the Iraq History Timelines
1915 UK cmdr in Mesopotamia Gen Nixon told to march on Baghdad Gen Townshend said he couldn’t advance without more supplies ( Musing...
