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 Lisa Blaydes, State Of Repression, Iraq Under Saddam Hussein, Princeton University Press, 2018

Blaydes, Lisa, State Of Repression, Iraq Under Saddam Hussein, Princeton University Press, 2018

 

Lisa Blaydes’ State Of Repression, Iraq Under Saddam Hussein takes new approaches to analyzing the rule of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein. Like recent books it argues that the Baath and Saddam ruled through a combination of carrots and sticks. What the author focuses upon is how those two approaches formed political identities in the country. She argues that those parts of Iraqi society that were easily penetrated by the state faced more nuanced acts of repression while those that were more difficult suffered collective punishment which led to new political communities being formed.

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

Future Of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi?

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria along with the incoming Trump administration is leading the Iraqi political class and Iran to question the future of the Hashd al-Shaabi.

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)

What Happened With Iraq’s Axis of Resistance And The Fall Of The Syrian Regime?

The fall of the Assad government in December 2024 has sent shockwaves through Iraq. It was a major loss for the pro-Iran Hashd known as the Islamic Resistance who’d gone there in 2011 at the direction of Iran to support Damascus and used the country to launch attacks upon American forces stationed there and Israel. That raises the question of why the Resistance didn’t put up a major fight to try to preserve the regime.