13 Year Anniversary Of Musings On Iraq

13 years ago today I started Musings On Iraq. I first became interested in the country on 9/11 when I heard former CIA Director James Woosley tell Dan Rather that the United States had to hit Iraq even if it had nothing to do with the terrorist attack. I couldn’t understand why he said it and it stood out in my mind. In 2002 the Bush administration began its public campaign to convince the U.S. that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power. I decided I needed to know why the president was making this decision and started researching the topic. Six years later I decided to put that work on the Internet. I’d like to thank all the readers, more than 9.5 million page views! that have checked out the blog since then and all the many people that have helped me over the years.

Review The Outlaw State, Saddam Hussein’s Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis

Sciolino, Elaine, The Outlaw State, Saddam Hussein’s Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis, New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991

 

The 1990 invasion of Kuwait set off the first book boom on Iraq in the West. Many of these releases were by authors simply wishing to cash in on the fad leading to a wide range in quality. The Outlaw State, Saddam Hussein’s Quest for Power and the Gulf Crisis was one of the better books to come out during this period. The author Elaine Sciolino was a New York Times reporter who’d been to Iraq several times during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and right before the start of the Gulf War. Each chapter is on a different topic from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship to a history of Iraq to its weapons of mass destruction. Rather than just focusing upon the Kuwait crisis its main goal was to provide background to Iraq and why it went to war. Sciolino’s main thesis was that Saddam believed in using force rather than negotiations due to his background and he miscalculated the international situation.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 17

 

1920 Arab govt run by British advisors approved by London Head political officer in Iraq Wilson

told to announce it to Iraqis

1920 Calls for revolt vs British posted in Hilla British political officer arrested those calling for

revolt and exiled them

(Musings On Iraq review of 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)

1927 Lord Cecil said British public opinion was overwhelmingly against staying in Iraq

1954 PM Umari resigned so he could go on annual vacation to Turkey to escape summer heat in Iraq

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

1963 Kurds blew up two oil wells in Kirkuk province during Barzani revolt

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

(Musings On Iraq review Journey Among Brave Men, Travels in Kurdistan)

1981 Col Qaddafi announced he would go to Tehran and Baghdad to try to negotiate

            ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War Libya supported Iran 

1987 Iran Op Fath 7 Iranian Rev Guard and PUK attacked Iraqi 27^th Div supply lines in Kurdistan

(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 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)

1996 UN said Iraq smuggling oil through Iranian waters breaking sanctions

2003 CIA report to Dir Tenet said that Niger-Iraq uranium story was dropped because based upon

fake docs

(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)

2003 CIA report that it found docs at Iraqi scientist’s home that proved Saddam had nuke program

Proved false

2003 Report UK official in CPA said Iraq reconstruction in chaos because no strategy Said CPA

was most chaotic organization he’d ever worked for Couldn’t deal with needs and lacked resources to make change in Iraq

2004 PM Allawi promised reprisals against insurgents after suicide bombing of Iraqi army base

(Musings On Iraq review The Occupation of Iraq, Winning The War, Losing The Peace)

(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)

2004 Natl Sec Adv Rice told Bremer Bush supported early end to CPA

(Musings On Iraq review State of Denial, Bush At War, Part III)

2004 Bush refuted 9/11 Comm Said Iraq-Al Qaeda had connections and that was why Iraq was a

threat

(Musings On Iraq review What Happened, Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)

2004 Cheney said 9/11 Comm didn’t look at the overwhelming evidence of Iraq-Al Qaeda

connections Claimed he had intel on Iraq-Al Qaeda ties that 9/11 Comm didn’t That intel later proved false

2005 Constitutional Committee agreed to expand number of Sunnis from 2 to 17 with another 10

as advisers under heavy US and UK pressure

(Musings On Iraq interview with constitutional scholar Zaid al-Ali on Iraq’s constitution)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

(Musings On Iraq review The Occupation of Iraq, Winning The War, Losing The Peace)

2007 Report PM Maliki complained to US Cmdr in Iraq Gen Petraeus about Sahwa program

(Musings On Iraq review Surge, My Journey with General David Petraeus and the Remaking of the Iraq War)

2008 Truck bomb by Mahdi Army or Special Group in Baghdad killed 63 wounded 70 US forces

claimed bombing meant to stop return of displaced Sunnis and provoke sectarian fighting

(Musings On Iraq Desperation Move By The Sadrists?)

2008 Report Start of June standoff between Peshmerga and oil workers Khurmala Dome oil field

KRG claimed field belonged to it Baghdad gave Peshmerga 24 hrs to leave and did

2008 UN report displaced increased by 800,000 from 2007-08 45,000 refugees returned to Iraq

from 2007-08

(Musings On Iraq review Children of War, Voices Of Iraqi Refugees)

2009 US held talks with Syria to try to stop foreign fighters traveling through country to Iraq

2011 ISI took responsibility for killing deputy head of deBaathification Comm Lami

2011 Anbar councilman said Syria still supported insurgency

2011 PM Maliki organized second march for his government in Baghdad and Karbala to counter

protests

2011 Protests held in Baghdad and Dhi Qar against corruption Baghdad protesters attacked by PM

Maliki supporters 2^nd time

2012 Sadr said he would not accept a 3^rd term for PM Maliki

2012 PUK’s MP Othman said that KDP wanted PM Maliki out while PUK didn’t

2013 Kataib Hezbollah attacked Mujahedeen e-Khalq camp with rockets

(Musings On Iraq Instrument Of Iran’s Power In Iraq And Syria Kataib Hezbollah)

2013 Badr said one of its men died fighting in Syria before its presence officially announced

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

2013 Exxon signed 3^rd contract with KRG to explore for oil in Sulaymaniya

2013 Sadrists maintained control of Maysan governorship in new govt

2013 State of Law-ISCI-Sadr alliance formed new govt in Qadisiyah ISCI got governorship 

2014 Security operation to clear Qaim, Anbar began

2014 Tuz Kharmato declared freed of insurgents

2014 Rawa Ana Saqlawiya Amiriya Fallujah Ramadi Khalidiya in Anbar all declared freed half of them

weren’t

(Musings On Iraq Security In Iraq’s Anbar Shows Battle Against Insurgents Will Be Long And Often Futile)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Western Front Is Anbar Next To Fall?)

2014 Insurgents attacked 3 neighborhoods in Baquba, Diyala along with Hit and Garma in Anbar

2014 Prisoner that was wounded when Hashd executed 43 prisoners in Baquba was taken from hospital

by police and killed

2014 PM Maliki dismissed Gen Gharawi head of Ninewa Ops Command for fall of Mosul

2014 Hezbollah’s Nasrallah said that Shiite shrines in Iraq needed to be protected from insurgents Said

that Hezbollah would send men to fight in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq Interview Iran And Its Shiite Militias Mobilize In Iraq Interview With Phillip Smyth)

2015 Sadr blamed ex-PM Maliki’s authoritarianism for return of insurgency

2016 PM Abadi prematurely announced liberation of Fallujah

2017 KRG Pres Barzani held meeting and announced that Kurdish independence referendum would

happen 9/25/17

(Musings On Iraq review The Great Betrayal, How America Abandoned The Kurds And Lost The Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq review Quicksilver War, Syria, Iraq and the Spiral of Conflict)

2019 Rocket fired at Taji Base Baghdad by pro-Iran group due to US-Iran tensions

2020 PM Kazemi said that ISF had to find those responsible for rocket attacks in Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s PM Gives Warning to Kataib Hezbollah To Stop Rocket Attacks In Baghdad)

2020 Interior Min claimed it arrested some involved in rocket attacks in Baghdad Nothing

came of it

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Security In Iraq Jun 8-14, 2021

The Islamic State has gone back into hibernation after a very unimpressive Ramadan offensive. Pro-Iran groups however are continuing with their campaign against U.S. targets in Iraq.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 16

 

1920 UK govt decided to cancel proposed UK run provisional govt in Iraq for an Arab govt under

British influence

1941 Another British brigade landed in Basra to help secure Iraq after Anglo-Iraq War

(Musings On Iraq review Rashid Ali al-Gailani, The Nationalist Movement in Iraq 1939-1941)

(Musings On Iraq review Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq 1941, The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq And Syria 1941, The Politics and Strategy of the Second World War)

(Musings On Iraq review Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against A Fascist State In Iraq and the Levant, 1941)

1975 Iraq protested Algiers Treaty by placing pontoon bridge across Shatt al-Arab and sending troops

into Iran’s Khuzistan province Iran expelled Iraqis killing 88 of its soldiers

1979 Pres Assad arrived in Baghdad for more talks on unifying Iraq and Syria

            Came up with United Arab Republic but disagreed on details

1979 Assad became mad at Iraqi demands and left Iraq ending talks of unification Saddam

            was key in undermining talks Was afraid of lesser position within unified govt

1981 Iraq and Iran held 1^st prisoner swap set up by Red Cross during Iran-Iraq War

1986 Planning cell created in Baghdad to prepare for retaking Faw Peninsula Basra from Iranians

(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 3: Iraq’s Triumph)

(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)

1991 Barzani said deal made with Baghdad over Kurdish autonomy Talabani said not to

            trust Saddam

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq review Kurds of Iraq, Tragedy and Hope)

1992 Most of the Iraqi opposition met in Vienna Led to creation of Iraqi National Congress as umbrella

organization Used quotas 1^st time to break up representatives by ideology and ethnosectarian identity Paid for by CIA

(Musings On Iraq Origins Of Iraq’s Ethnosectarian Quota System)

(Musings On Iraq review Sectarianism In Iraq)

2003 Bush said critics were trying to rewrite history on Iraq threat in response to criticism of pre-war

intel on Iraq’s WMD

(Musings On Iraq Iraq One Of The Worst Intelligence Failures In US History)

2003 Gen Abizaid CENTCOM commander said that US was facing classic insurgency in

            Iraq White House had been denying that

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Sunni Insurgency)

2003 Bremer said Development Fund for Iraq money could be used by military for local

            reconstruction projects

2003 Bremer said failure to capture Saddam was helping resistance and making Iraqis

            scared to help Coalition

2003 Head UN Inspector Blix said empty 122mm WMD artillery shells were from

            1980s after US said they could be part of stocks

(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)

2003 Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance 1^st US administration for

            Iraq officially closed

2004 Gen Accounting Office report Pentagon didn’t have good planning or oversight

            of reconstruction projects in Iraq leading to cost overruns

2004 CIA adv told 9/11 Comm 1998 indictment that charged Iraq and Al Qaeda agreed

            to cooperate in Sudan proved false

2004 CIA adv told 9/11 Comm that Al Qaeda was suspicious of Saddam’s secular govt

2004 CIA adv told 9/11 Comm in 90s Iraq and Al Qaeda tried to work out non-

            interference pact and talked about cooperation

2004 CIA adv told 9/11 Comm in 1999 report said if Saddam wanted to attack US he

            would probably use Al Qaeda

2004 9/11 Comm said no operational relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda

            Had contacts but no cooperation

2004 9/11 Comm said 1994 bin Laden asked for Iraq’s help with operations but never

            got response

2004 9/11 Comm said Iraq and Al Qaeda talked about cooperation in Sudan in 1996 but

            nothing came of it

2004 9/11 Comm didn’t believe story that 9/11 hijacker Atta met with Iraqi intel officer in Prague Story

was false

2004 Sec State Powell said administration stuck by claim of Iraq-Al Qaeda relationship

2004 White House said 9/11 Comm didn’t contradict admin claims because it never

            said Iraq behind 9/11 Cheney said there was a connection

2004 White House said Zarqawi being in Iraq before 03 invasion proved Saddam gave

            safe haven to Al Qaeda members

(Musings On Iraq review Insurgent Iraq, Al Zarqawi and the New Generation)

(Musings On Iraq review What Happened, Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)

2005 Report Tehran cracking down on Zarqawi’s network in Iran

2005 US diplomat in Mosul documented abuses of Inter Min Wolf Brigade including

            torture beatings not releasing prisoners

(Musings On Iraq review The Occupation, War And Resistance In Iraq)

2005 Report US declared Tal Afar cleared of insurgents in Oct 04 but had to return in

            May 05

2006 Mujahedeen Shura Council kidnapped 2 US soldiers in Baghdad in revenge for

            US troops raping Iraqi girl and killing her and her family

2006 Kidnapping of 2 US soldiers derailed Iraq’s Operation Together Forward to

            secure Baghdad

2006 Bush told Iraq Study Group PM Maliki was going to solve problems in Iraq and

            Gen Casey had situation under control

(Musings On Iraq Did the US Ever Have A Strategy To Win In Iraq Before the Surge?)

2006 Battle of Ramadi began with setting up 2 combat outposts in southern section of

            city

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Carter Malkasian on Anbar Awakening)

(Musings On Iraq review Confronting Al Qaeda, The Sunni Awakening and American Strategy In Al Anbar)

(Musings On Iraq review The Marines Take Anbar, The Four-Year Fight Against Al Qaeda)

(Musings On Iraq review Illusions of Victory, The Anbar Awakening And The Rise Of The Islamic State)

(Musings On Iraq review The Sheriff of Ramadi, Navy SEALS and the Winning of Anbar)

2007 Op Phantom Thunder which was overreaching name of a series of operations began to clear

Baghdad Belts US deployed 4 brigades for op going along Tigris River near Arab Jabour in south known for producing car bombs and had not had US forces in 3 years US cleared Salman Pak and tried to stop insurgents from moving to Baquba in Diyala US forces in Taji in north tried to stop insurgents fleeing Baghdad to Salahaddin Also operations in Adhamiya Rasheed Mansour neighborhoods of Baghdad

2008 PM Maliki gave ultimatum to militiamen to hand over weapons in Amarah, Maysan

            aimed at Mahdi Army

2008 Report 2008 “Year of Transfer” US turned over projects to Iraqis Baghdad had

            problem maintaining them

2008 New $277 mil water treatment plant opened in Nasiriya Dhi Qar but at only 20%

            capacity because couldn’t get enough power

2009 43 police arrested for abuse in prisons Done to placate Sadrists

            complaining about abuse of their followers

2010 Turkey sent troops into Kurdistan and bombed areas chasing PKK fighters

            after attack on Turkish army base

2010 State of Law and National Alliance in talks to try to limit powers of next

            PM in negotiations to form new govt

2010 PM Maliki met with Kurdish list claiming he would implement Article 140 on

            Kirkuk and disputed areas to get their support for 2^nd term

2011 PM Maliki gave TV speech saying militias had infiltrated Interior Ministry and

            carried out assassinations

2011 PM Maliki said Baghdad protests were illegal and threatened security

2011 PM Maliki said ISF would not be ready to secure Iraq after US forces withdrew at end of year

2012 2 car bombs hit Shiite pilgrims heading for Kadhimiya, Baghdad 32 killed

            67 injured

(Musings On Iraq review The ISIS Reader, Milestone Texts of the Islamic State Movement)

2012 Sadr said that removing PM Maliki was God’s will but he was already backing off

            no confidence vote due to Iranian pressure

2012 Sadrists and State of Law in talks to try to end no confidence move against PM Maliki

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

2012 Kurdish list said their goal was still to remove PM Maliki

2013 Security op in Anbar to prepare for elections criticized for arbitrary arrests and

            raids

2013 Car bombs in Najaf and Wasit, IED in Basra

2013 KDP and PUK agreed to delay KRG presidential elections supposed to happen Sep

            2013 until issues of Pres Barzani’s term resolved

2013 Sadr-ISCI alliance won governor and head of council in new Wasit govt

2013 State of Law-Solidarity alliance won governor and head of council in Dhi Qar

2014 All work at Baiji refinery shut down because of insurgency

(Musings On Iraq How Northern Iraq Fell To The Insurgency)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Northern Front Stalemate In Salahaddin)

2014 US and Iranian diplomats met to discuss Iraq and ISIS

2014 275 U.S. troops sent to Iraq to help with war vs ISIS

2014 ISIS issued orders to start destroying churches in Mosul

2014 12 insurgents killed in fighting between Naqshibandi and ISIS for control of Mosul

(Musings On Iraq Precarious Relationship Between The Islamic State of Iraq And The Baathist Naqshibandi)

2014 Insurgent Military Council in charge of Mosul criticized ISIS for trying to establish control

over city

2014 ISIS seized Hawija, Kirkuk

2014 Badr killed 51 prisoners in Tal Afar prison

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

(Musings On Iraq Interview Iran And Its Shiite Militias Mobilize In Iraq Interview With Phillip Smyth)

2014 Hashd killed 50 prisoners at Baquba police station

2014 KRG asked for 25% of Iraqi budget claiming its population had grown

2014 PM Maliki loyalist MP Fatlawi blamed Kurds for helping insurgents take Mosul

(Musings On Iraq review The Rise of Islamic State, ISIS and the New Sunni Revolution)

2014 Liwa Abu Fadhl al-Abbas Iraqi militia in Syria set up branch in Iraq and deployed 1500

fighters to Samarra

(Musings On Iraq Interview Iran And Its Shiite Militias Mobilize In Iraq Interview With Phillip Smyth)

(Musings On Iraq Abu Fadhl Al-Abbas Brigade From Fighting In Syria To Iraq)

2014 KRG Premier Barzani went to Tehran to assure it about its seizure of Kirkuk and disputed

areas

2014 2nd Iranian Rev Guard member killed during war vs IS Officially died in accident in Karbala

Friends claimed he was a martyr in war

(Musings on Iraq Fifth Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force Member Dies In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Iranian Mobilization In Iraq In The Face Of The Insurgent Surge)

(Musings On Iraq interview with Naval Postgraduate School’s Ostovar on history of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard)

(Musings On Iraq review Vanguard of the Imam, Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard)

2019 Rocket fired at Baghdad Military Airport by pro-Iran group due to US-Iran tensions

(Musings On Iraq Tehran And Its Allies Respond Asymmetrically To Trump Admin’s Iran Policy)

2020 Fmr Finance Min Issawi turned himself into authorities Was convicted in absentia of

corruption

View the Iraq History Timelines

United Nations Faults Iraq For Failing To Protect Protesters

There has been no justice for activists that have been attacked and killed during protests U.N. finds (AP)

The United Nations has been recording assaults upon Iraqi demonstrations since they began in October 2019. It released a report in May 2021 on the government’s continued failure to protect people’s right to protest and hold those responsible for attacks responsible. The U.N. feels Baghdad is failing at basic governance.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 15

1920 War Min Churchill wrote UK Cabinet that he was ready to give up Mosul province to save

costs

(Musings On Iraq How The Ottoman Province Of Mosul Became Part Of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied)

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)

1947 Mustafa Barzani revolt against govt put down and he fled to Soviet Union

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

1957 PM Nuri al-Said made cover of Time magazine

(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)

1959 National Democratic Party organized protest in Baghdad against Communists Was attacked

by Communists leading to riot

(Musings On Iraq review The Making of Iraq 1900-1963, Capital, Power and Ideology)

(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)

1965 Iraqi pilot in Texas for training killed Likely by Mossad that was trying to get Iraqis to

defect and fly MiG-21 to Israel

1965 PM Bazzaz said govt would recognize Kurdish nationalism and rights

(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)

1966 KDP defeated govt forces near Hendrin

1966 PM Bazzaz made national speech saying Baghdad ready to recognize Kurdish nationalism and

rights

(Musings On Iraq review of The Kurds, A Modern History)

1968 Amid growing anti-Arif govt activity PM Yahya resigned but was asked to stay on

1985 War of Cities ended as both sides ran low on missiles

1985 From Mar to Jun 1985 43 Iraqi air raids on Tehran Only 12 Iranian SCUDs hit Baghdad in response

Iraq caused little damage in war of cities and failed to push Iran towards peace talks

(Musings On Iraq review Iraqi Mirages, The Dassault Mirage Family In Service With The Iraqi Air Force, 1981-1988)

1988 Iraqi counterattacks pushed Iran Op Beit al-Moqaddas 7 in Basra back to starting point

(Musings On Iraq review Iran-Iraq War Volume 3: Iraq’s Triumph)

(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)

1990 Asst Sec State Kelly told Congress White House against sanctioning Iraq over human

rights abuses

1994 Fighting broke out between PUK and KDP in Sulaymaniya during funeral leaving 12 dead more

than 40 wounded

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurds, A Modern History)

2003 Sadrist march in Basra against British occupation

2003 US scheduled elections for Najaf cancelled because worried Sadrists might win

2003 Report British looked at captured Iraq trailers and found not mobile WMD labs

(Musings On Iraq How Iraqi Defector CURVEBALL Became Basis For US Claims That Iraq Had WMD)

2003 Sr British official said that the CPA was chaotic

(Musings On Iraq Review The Report of the Iraq Inquiry, Executive Summary)

2003 US started Op Desert Scorpion to hunt down insurgents from Baghdad to Kirkuk

2004 Bush said Zarqawi was best evidence that Saddam had connections to Al Qaeda

(Musings On Iraq review Insurgent Iraq, Al Zarqawi and the New Generation)

(Musings On Iraq review What Happened, Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)

2004 Sec State Powell said White House stuck with claims of Iraq-Al Qaeda connections

2005 Report US recorded Peshmerga arresting hundreds of Arabs and Turkmen in

            Kirkuk and putting them in KRG prisons

2006 Marine report murder of Iraqi civilians was covered up by unit and commanders

            didn’t show any interest in investigating

2008 Report Sadr creating new militia units to attack US forces

2009 Gen Odierno said foreign fighters coming to Iraq down and Syria trying to regulate border

2010 1^st session of new parliament held to meet deadline Was supposed to elect new

            speaker but didn’t because of political disputes

2011 KRG opposition parties welcomed Pres Barzani’s reform proposals Never

            followed through with

2011 Sadrists dared PM Maliki to try to form a majority govt

2012 Sadrist MP said movement now not for removing PM Maliki anymore after pressure

            from Iran

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq From War To A New Authoritarianism)

2013 ISIS’ Baghdadi said he would not follow Al Qaeda’s Zawahiri’s decision to break

with Al-Nusra Front in Syria

(Musings On Iraq review The Caliphate At War, Operational Realities and Innovations of the Islamic State)

2013 New Baghdad govt announced State of Law shut out of major positions by Sadrists Supreme

Council Mutahidun State of Law won governorship of Babil

2014 Baghdadi issued audio message saying ISIS was going to create caliphate

2014 ISIS began posting pictures online of Camp Speicher massacre

(Musings On Iraq How Northern Iraq Fell To The Insurgency)

2014 Insurgents attacked power plant that supplied electricity to most of Anbar Driven off

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Western Front Is Anbar Next To Fall?)

2014 Insurgents attacked and turned back at Tal Afar, Ninewa 50 prisoners executed in Tal Afar by govt

forces

2014 ISF fled Qara Tapa, Diyala and peshmerga moved in

2014 Yazidi leader in Sinjar district asked KRG for protection from insurgents

2014 Asaib Ahl Al-Haq leader Khazali blamed ISIS Baathists Kurds regional countries for security

crisis in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq Asaib Ahl Al-Haq From A Breakaway Sadr Militia To Defenders Of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Interview Iran And Its Shiite Militias Mobilize In Iraq Interview With Phillip Smyth)

2015 First displaced families returned to Tikrit after its liberation

2019 Hikma list said it was going into opposition to PM Abdul Mahdi’s govt

2020 PM Kazemi repeated past orders that Hashd not to take part in politics

2020 Report Shiite Endowment and Hashd units were seizing property in Mosul

 View the Iraq History Timelines