Review Samuel Helfont, The Iraq Wars, A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2025

  

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.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 6 Bakr govt put down protests led by Dawa killing 16 Arrested 2000 including Ayatollah al-Hakim

 

1919 Gertrude Bell met with Naqib of Baghdad who said he wanted British rule in Iraq under Sir Percy Cox

Warned that Shiites should not be trusted Said didn’t want any of the Sharifan family to rule because were not from Iraq

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This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 5 Sec State Powell gave UN speech claiming Iraq had WMD and ties to Al Qaeda

 

1914 Lord Hardinge visited Basra Assured locals that British would protect their interests Met by anti-UK

            protests in Qurna and Shaiba

Iraq Playing Chicken Over Maliki Nomination For Prime Minister

  

Iraq is currently trying to form a new government and is playing a high stakes game of chicken with the United States at the same time.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 4 Sykes-Picot Agreement approved Baghdad and Basra would’ve gone to UK Mosul to France Sharif Hussein would’ve gotten his own state

 

1916 Sykes-Picot agreement approved by UK Foreign Office Gave Baghdad and Basra vilayets to UK

            Mosul to France Included independent Arab state for Sharif Hussein

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This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 3 Blair govt issued report on Iraq’s deception campaign to hide its WMD Turned out it was plagiarized from a college student’s paper

 

1915 India Viceroy Lord Hardinge said UK should take Basra to control Persian Gulf and

make it second Egypt

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 2 PM Sadr said new Anglo-Iraq Treaty would not be ratified due to opposition Came after 1000s protested against it

 

1920 General Haldane made commander in Iraq Told to draw down troops to save money for London

(Musings On Iraq review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq)