This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 7 Report Trump said PM Abadi and Iraqis he met at White House were greatest group of thieves he’d ever met

 

1916 British withdrew from Butaniya and attacked by tribesmen British suffered 373 casualties Arabs

            1,000

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

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)

(Musings On Iraq review The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volumes I and II)

(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)

(Musings On Iraq review A Quest in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq)

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

(Musings On Iraq review Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923)

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

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