Review A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith, A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023

 

A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War by journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an engaging story about him growing up in Baghdad and then experiencing the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. It’s a tale of a nation beset by problems from the 1990s sanctions that impoverished most to the exiles that created a new ethnosectarian political system that was then used it to justify violence. The new elite ended up killing its youth in the street for protesting against corruption. It’s an important addition to the cannon because it not only includes his own recollections of this period but also many Iraqi civilians, soldiers and officials when most books are by and about Westerners.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 30 Start of 1920 Revolt vs British Mandate in Iraq

(Shia Waves)

 

1915 UK committee wrote paper advocating for break up of Ottoman Empire and creation of

Iraq to control its oil and agriculture Cabinet didn’t agree

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

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

Security In Iraq Jun 22-28, 2023

The Islamic State remained largely dormant in Iraq during the fourth week of June. There were just four incidents from June 22-28. There were two incidents the week before. This was the 21^st straight week incidents were in single digits.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 29 Nouri mosque in Mosul liberated where IS’s Baghdadi declared the caliphate Iraqi forces claimed Mosul freed but fighting continued

 

1915 US consulate report on anti-Turk riot in Karbala

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 28 CPA disbanded and sovereignty returned to Iraq

(NBC News)

 

1914 Ottomans agreed to oil concessions for British and Germans in Mosul and Baghdad

provinces Never happened because WWI

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 27 Iraq’s Revolutionary Command Council approved invasion of Kuwait

 

1916 UK report on defeat at Kut published Led to Secretary of State for India Chamberlain to resign

Blamed India for mismanaging and never adequately funding war in Mesopotamia

Over 1.1 Mil Still Displaced As Returns Largely End In Iraq

(IOM)

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the pre-eminent group working on displacement with the Iraqi government. It released its latest report for the first four months of 2023 and found barely any change in the number of internal refugees from the end of 2022.