Musings On Iraq In The News

I contributed to this article on Iran sending missiles to Iraq and what the U.S. can do about it "Amid Reports That Iran Is Moving Short-Range Missiles Into Iraq to Hit U.S. Forces, How Can Washington React?" for the Carnegie Middle East Center. Was also mentioned by Aaron Zelin in "After Losses, Islamic State Plots Comeback" for the Wilson Center.

Here is a link to all of Musings On Iraq's citations.

This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 15

1932 League of Nations Mandate Comm rejected Assyrian petition for autonomy Said Iraqi

govt would settle Assyrians within country or outside of it

(Musings On Iraq book review of The Tragedy of the Assyrian Minority in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review State and Society in Iraq)

1940 Foreign Minister Said wrote memo to PM Gaylani and Regent that Iraq had to back England

during WW2

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

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

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

1957 Abdul-Wahab Mirjan became premier of Iraq Cabinet included 3 Kurdish ministers

1981 Iraq said it was ready to end war if Iran recognized borders Iran rejected offer

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1990 Saddam told officials that US started war against Iraq in 1986 when it sold weapons to Iran in

Iran-Contra Affair

1998 US told chief UN inspector Butler to remove his team from Iraq before imminent US strike

1998 UN inspector chief report to Security Council said Iraq not cooperating again Was released to

press before UN members got their copies

(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

2003 Report Al Qaeda was going to divert fighters and funds from Afghanistan to Iraq

2005 Iraq held elections for a permanent parliament Some insurgent groups provided security to

make sure Sunnis could vote

2005 Secular candidate in Basra said afraid Shiite religious parties would use their militias and police

to carry out fraud during election

2005 Police in Najaf drove through city calling on people to vote for the United Iraqi Alliance

2006 Bush told PM Maliki to accept Surge as way to bring down violence Maliki said he would

announce it next day Didn't

2006 US intel said PM Maliki against Surge Said he didn't like US forces and didn’t want more of them

in Iraq

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq interview with New America Foundation’s Ollivant On Reassessing the Surge)

2006 Report US cmdr in Diyala said ISF making security situation worse in province Police accused

of corruption Army made mass arrests Were both almost all Shiite Commander said ISF driving tribes and politicians into hands of insurgents for protection

2007 Report more than 6 mass graves found in last two months Half of them in Baghdad Thought to be

victims of militias

2011 U.S. announced withdrawal of its forces from Iraq

2011 ISF deployed outside homes of VP Hashemi Fin Min Rafi Issawi and Dep PM Mutlaq in Green

Zone on orders of PM Maliki

(Musings On Iraq article on PM Maliki targeting Fin Min Issawi)

2011 PM Maliki suggested Dep PM Mutlaq be barred from entering parliament at meeting of

National Alliance Idea rejected by list

(Musings On Iraq article on Maliki’s moves against Mutlaq and Iraqiya)

2011 Militiamen sent by PM Maliki stormed Diyala council building and set up roadblocks

throughout province to intimidate local govt over move to make province federal region Head of Diyala council had his house set on fire and one of his bodyguards killed

(Musings On Iraq article on militia moves in Diyala)

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

2013 Sheikh Saadi spiritual leader of Anbar protests had his house shot at in Ramadi

(Musings On Iraq article on Anbar violence)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 14

1927 Agreement made over new Anglo-Iraq Treaty Wasn’t signed due to Iraqi complaints

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

1983 State Dept memo said that major setback for Iraq would be strategic defeat for West

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1998 WashPost report US went over multiple drafts with head UN inspector Butler before he

submitted report to Security Council

(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

2001 Sheikh on Iraqi state TV read poem to Saddam praising 9/11 attack

2001 DIA report Iraq had 100 tons of WMD agents and munitions Could produce WMD Didn’t

know if happening but could be on small scale

2002 Iraqi opposition meeting in London Came up with 65 member committee but marked by

general disunity

2002 CENTCOM briefed Joint Chiefs on postwar Iraq Warned that US could win the war and lose the peace

Warned there would be no Iraqi govt after invasion so there would be chaos in country Said that US was only planning for war and not postwar Iraq Said Iraq’s economy was a wreck, and that US should not dismiss military or carry out extensive deBaathification because could fracture Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article on Part I Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Hard Lessons Planning for Postwar Iraq September 2001 to May 2003)

(Musings On Iraq book review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy Tragedy)

2002 CENTCOM briefing on postwar Iraq led Joint Chiefs to set up its own postwar planning cell Was not

coordinated with CENTCOM

2003 Bremer announced US had captured Saddam

2004 Bush gave fmr CIA Dir Tenet fmr CPA head Bremer and fmr CENTCOM cmdr Gen Franks

Presidential Medal of Freedom

2005 Bush admitted that US used faulty intelligence on Iraq but said war still justified to remove

Saddam

2005 Kurdistan Islamic Union candidate said KDP was attacking party for withdrawing from

Kurdish list

2005 UK intel report said insurgency entrenched in Sunni communities Longterm attacks going up in Iraq

Sunni Arab nationalism driving force If new Iraqi govt could deal with Sunni alienation could help isolate rejectionist jihadists

2006 Iraq think tank public opinion poll 95% believed security in Iraq worse than 2003 66% said

violence would decline if US forces left 38% were not confident in PM Maliki to improve Iraq Almost 90% said govt did poor job in fulfilling promises

2006 Report US military said Kadhimiya Qadisiya Amiriya Ghaziliya most violent in Baghdad due to

sectarian fighting between militais and insurgents US military said Shiites being evicted from Ghaziliya and Adil Sunnis from Adhamiya and Fadhil National Security Adv Rubaie accused Islamic Party and Muslim Scholars Association of working with 1920 Revolution Brigade

(Musings On Iraq book review Voices From Iraq, A People’s History, 2003-2009)

(Musings On Iraq Columbia University Charts Sectarian Cleansing Of Baghdad)

2006 Frederick Kagan of American Enterprise Inst issued another paper arguing for troop surge in

Iraq to focus upon security Iraqi civilians in Baghdad Wuld help author surge plan for Bush

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

2007 UN Survey of Iraqi refugees in Syria 78% came from Baghdad 35% fled Jul-Oct 07 during Surge

30% fled in 06 More than 50% said threatened or survived bombs 54% had dead or missing relatives Most were highly educated and said they would not leave Syria

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

2008 Bush and Maliki signed Status of Forces Agreement 

2008 During signing ceremony for SOFA in Baghdad reporter threw his shoes at Bush and Maliki

2009 Fmr head UN weapons inspector Hans Blix replied to Tony Blair interview where he said he

would have invaded Iraq without WMD because Saddam was a threat Blix said UK was more interesting in invading Iraq than disarming it

(Musings On Iraq Hangs Blix Replies To Tony Blair)

View the Iraq History Timelines

Review Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War

Review Prados, John, Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War, New York: The New Press, 2004

Like many books released immediately in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq Hoodwinked, The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War focuses upon the case the Bush administration made to justify war rather than why it happened. The 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s address to the United Nations and other speeches and documents are all analyzed to explain the public campaign the White House launched in the run up to the conflict. The problems with U.S. intelligence and the arguments for war are emphasized. Despite lots of information on those topics coming out after the book was published, Hoodwinked is still a good starting point to understand how the White House sold the invasion.

This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 13

1916 New British offensive launched up Tigris River to retake Kut from Ottomans

1920 Churchill argued at cabinet meeting that British should withdraw to Basra

            province to save money in Mesopotamia

(Musings On Iraq article on Churchill’s views on Mesopotamia/Iraq)

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

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

1994 KDP and PUK went back to war ending shortlived ceasefire over argument over tax collection

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

1998 Head UN inspector Butler went over draft of his report to UN to White House so that it could

be revised Clinton wanted report harsher on Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article UN Inspectors Were Right Iraq Was Not A Threat)

(Musings On Iraq article Iraq’s Rejection of UN Inspectors Led To Mistrust Over WMD and 2003 Invasion)

1998 Clinton went over strike plans for Operation Desert Fox with Natl Sec Adv Berger

(Musings On Iraq article on Op Desert Fox)

2002 UK intel report said US invasion and occupation of Iraq could help motivate Islamists for

next 5 years

2002 Bush said military would have small pox vaccinations Was actually protection against possible

Iraq WMD attack during invasion

2003 US forces captured Saddam outside Tikrit in Adwar

2003 Fmr Iraqi intelligence officer denied he met 9/11 hijacker Atta in Vienna in 2001

2003 RPGs fired at US forces during protest in Fallujah US fired into crowd 3 Iraqis killed

(Musings On Iraq book review The Battle for Fallujah, Occupation, Resistance and Stalemate in the War in Iraq)

2004 PM Allawi blamed CPA disbanding military for rise in violence in Iraq

2004 Allawi govt claimed 9/11 hijacker Atta was trained by Abu Nidal in Baghdad in 2001 Proved false

2005 NSC drafted 10 guidelines for putting together new permanent Iraqi govt Included competent

ministers not connected to Iran or Syria

2005 Border police seized Iranian tanker truck full of fake ballots for Dec election Driver claimed

other trucks had come across from Iran with ballots

(Musings On Iraq article on Iran’s Iraq policy)

2005 US negotiated ceasefire started with insurgents before Dec 15 parliamentary elections

2006 Bush met with Joint Chiefs Said Iraq War not going well Join Chiefs objected to surge idea

saying troops needed for other threats like NKorea Bush told Joint Chiefs he was going to have a troop surge despite their objections

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq interview with New America Foundation’s Ollivant On Reassessing the Surge)

2006 Bush said that he would push PM Maliki to reach out to Sunnis

2006 VP Hashemi in US said he talked to Bush about new Iraq strategy and backed surge idea Said

US wanted to help create new coalition behind PM Maliki

2006 Speaker Mashadani responded to PM Maliki’s plan to have Iraqi forces take over security of

Baghdad Said it would only give militias control of city

2006 Report Saudi King Abdullah told VP Cheney at end of Nov 06 that Saudis would back Sunnis

            vs Shiites if US withdrew

(Musings On Iraq article on Saudi role in insurgency)

2007 Report on returning refugees in Baghdad Sunnis complained govt only helping Shiites Many found

homes destroyed Neighborhoods changed with sectarian cleansing

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

2013 Sheikh Shorka house hit by two bombs in Jazeera in spate of violence against Anbar notables

(Musings On Iraq article on Anbar violence)

View the Iraq History Timelines 

Review Iraq Under Siege, The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War

Review Edited by Arnove, Anthony, Iraq Under Siege, The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War, Cambridge: South End Press, 2002

Iraq Under Siege, The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War was written by western activists who were against the sanctions imposed on Iraq for the invasion of Kuwait. The economic isolation of Iraq was supposed to encourage it to exit its neighbor territory, but then became a means to punish and contain it. As Clinton administration officials said, the sanctions would remain until Saddam Hussein was out of office. While some of the chapters in this anthology deal with the effects of sanctions upon Iraqis, most are leftist essays against American imperialism.

This Day In Iraqi History - Dec 12

1922 Sir Herbert Samuel proposed UK create Arab state of Iraq Hijaz Palestine Trans-Jordan

maybe Najd Samuel believed Arab state would contain pan-Arabism and contain fears of increased Jewish presence in Palestine

1932 Shiite leaders told Yasin Hashemi they would back him for PM if they got majority of cabinet

posts

1973 Govt offered new autonomy plan for Kurds but rejected by Mustafa Barzani and KDP

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

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

1981 Iranian Op Matla al-Fajar attacked Qasr e-Shirin area in center across from Diyala Took Geilan

Zarb and Sar e-Pol e-Zahab

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War Volume 4: The Forgotten Fronts)

1983 Iraq fired missiles at 6 Iranian cities killing 24 and wounding 283

(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 book review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review Iran-Iraq War, The Lion of Babylon, 1980-1988)

(Musings On Iraq book review The Iran-Iraq War)

1983 Dawa members including Abu Muhandis working for Iran set off 5 bombs at US and French

embassies and other targets in Kuwait killing 6 wounding 80 Was retaliation for US and French air attacks in Lebanon

1996 Uday Hussein seriously injured in assassination attempt in Baghdad by Nahdah opposition group

2001 Gen Franks briefed Def Sec Rumsfeld on invasion preparations and estimated costs with start time in

spring 2002

(Musings On Iraq book review of Shaping the Plan for Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Role of Military Intelligence Assessment)

(Musings On Iraq book review Leap of Faith, Hubris Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy

Tragedy)

2003 US Special Forces captured Mohammed Musslit who led them to Saddam

2003 CPA adv Diamond told Natl Sec Adv Rice that US should include UN in CPA’s plans to create

            new Iraqi govt Could alleviate Sistani’s demands for elections

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

(Musings On Iraq book review Patriotic Ayatollahs, Nationalism In Post-Saddam Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review Squandered Victory, The American Occupation And the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq)

2003 Pentagon audit found Halliburton overcharged $61 mil for delivering fuel to Iraq

2003 US guards at Abu Ghraib prison took pictures of themselves abusing Iraqi prisoners

2005 DIA report Insurgents recruiting networking training in Iraqi prisons Could be more dangerous

after release

2005 Def Sec Rumsfeld told US Iraq Cmdr Gen Casey and US Iraq Amb Khalizad insurgents networking in

Iraqi jails

2005 Report early 05 Islamist insurgents met with Al Qaeda in Iraq asking for a joint command Al

Qaeda in Iraq said no wanting control

2005 2^nd meeting of Anbar Gov Alwani sheikhs and US Focused upon how to secure province

Decided creating police would be foundation of effort

(Musings On Iraq article on Anbar Gov Alwani)

2005 Anbar security council met with Gen Casey and Def Min Dulaimi Council rejected Al Qaeda in Iraq

agreed to work with Baghdad and US Agreed to recruiting tribesmen into ISF

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

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

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

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

2006 Report US pushing for new ruling coalition that would exclude Sadr Would include Kurds

Accordance Front SIIC PM Maliki was standoffish because Sadr put him in office and was afraid new coalition would replace him as PM

2006 Bush told NSC he was not going to announce Surge until Jan 07 Wanted new Def Sec Gates in

office

2006 American Enterprise Institute released report on war by Frederick Kagan, Kenneth Pollack,

Gen. Keane Called for troop surge

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Mansoor on the Surge)

(Musings On Iraq interview with New America Foundation’s Ollivant On Reassessing the Surge)

2006 Out going US ground forces cmdr Gen Chiarelli said Iraq couldn’t be won militarily Was frustrated

that was only thing US focusing on Said Iraqi police infiltrated more by militias then he thought and would take longer to remove them Said bringing down unemployment in Iraq should have been a US priority

(Musings On Iraq interview with Jerry Burke police and Interior Min adviser on how Badr took over Interior Ministry)

2006 Car bomb in central Iraq targeted day laborers killed 71 and wounded 236

2007 3 car bombs in Amara killed 42 and wounded 125 Sadrist-ISCI rivalry suspected cause

2009 Iraq ended 2^nd auction for international energy companies to invest in oil fields 4 more bids

accepted for total of 7 Oil Min Shahristani claimed Iraq could reach 12 mil/bar/day in capacity in 6 yrs Would reach a quarter of that mark

(Musings On Iraq Will New Oil Deals Provide Jobs For Iraqis?)

(Musings On Iraq 2^nd Round of Bidding On Iraq’s Oil Fields Ends As A Success)

2009 PM Blair said he would still have removed Saddam without WMD and that Saddam was a threat to

world no matter what

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

(Musings On Iraq Hangs Blix Replies To Tony Blair)

2009 PM Maliki questioned by parliament over Baghdad bombings starting in August MPs complained

about lack of coordination by ISF

2011 Nat Sec Adv Fayad announced NATO training mission would end close of 2011 because govt

would not grant trainers immunity

(Musings On Iraq article on ending NATO training mission)

2012 Diyala council voted to hold a referendum on turning province into a region

2013 Iraq signed $1.1 bil deal to buy 24 FA-50 light fighter jets from South Korea

2013 Parliamentarian called on govt to stop blockading Tarmiya Baghdad Said town had been on

lockdown for over a week

2013 Sheikh Dulaimi assassinated north of Ramadi in spate of attacks against Anbar notables

(Musings On Iraq article on Anbar violence)

View the Iraq History Timelines