1921 Colonial Secretary Churchill memo said he supported
Iraqi govt and independence to maintain
British influence in Iraq
(Musings
On Iraq article on Churchill’s views on Mesopotamia)
(Musings
On Iraq book review Churchill’s
Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)
(Musings
On Iraq book review Supremacy And
Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)
1945 Iraqi forces launched new assault upon Kurdish forces
in Barzan vs 1943 Barzani revolt
(Musings
On Iraq book review of The Kurds, A
Modern History)
(Musings
On Iraq book review Kurds of Iraq,
Tragedy and Hope)
1980 Iran shelled Khanaqin and Mandali in Diyala and bombed
two other towns Saddam accused Iran of
starting hostilities
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 lost 100 soldiers while Iran 50
(Musings
On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War
Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)
1980 Iraq mobilized its armed forces to prepare for invasion
of Iran
1991 UN investigation of impact of sanctions on Iraq
suggested oil for food program
1994 Iraq accused Iran of arming Shiite opposition groups in
southern marshes
1996 US fired 17 more cruise missiles at Iraqi air defense
sites in response to Saddam’s moves against PUK
2002 At meeting on Al Qaeda Rumsfeld said Iraq more
important than Al Qaeda
2002 Bush sent letter to Speaker of House saying US had to
deal with disarming Iraq
(Musings
On Iraq book 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 guagmire
(Musings
On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The
Selling Of The Iraq War)
(Musings
On Iraq book review Leap of Faith,
Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy
Tragedy)
(Musings
On Iraq book review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein,
Deciding on Conflict)
2002 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
(Musings
On Iraq Book Review The Report of the
Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)
(Musings
On Iraq book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)
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)
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 article on how poor US intel work led to claim Iraq rebuilt its
nuclear weapons program)
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 book 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
2004 US op to clear Tal Afar began
2006 Report Dora south Baghdad 1st 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 up more than 1,000 into Sahwa in Abu Ghraib
Attacks in district dropped 2/3 as a result
Local Iraqi army battalion tried to
arrest members of Sahwa in April and US had to intervene US tried to enroll
2400 sahwa into Interior Min Ministry accepted 1,700 but changed the names of 23%
of them
2007 Report US shifting from national to local
reconciliation because PM Maliki govt not making changes
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 divisions operating independently
dropped from 10 to 6 Congressional report found
couldn’t determine capabilities of
ISF Interior and Defense Ministries don’t know how many personnel they have
Don’t know how many employees show up each day Pentagon claimed 65% of ISF show
up each day Analysts believe it’s around 50% ISF paid in cash and get 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 book review Fiasco: The American Military Adventure In Iraq)
2008 PM Maliki govt-KRG announced deal over KhanaqinDiyala
Iraqi army would withdraw from
Qara Tappa and Jalawla areas just
occupied Peshmerga would return to them
(Musings
On Iraq article on Maliki-KRG deal over Khanaqin)
(Musings
On Iraq book review Iraq From War To
A New Authoritarianism)
2015 Allawi condemned PM Abadi saying his reforms were
unconstitutional
(Musings
On Iraq interview with Reidar Visser on PM Abadi’s reform program)
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
View the Iraq History Timelines
