This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 30

1918 British forces took Shirqat from Ottomans

1918 Armistice of Mudros signed between British and Ottomans 6^th Army surrendered to British

Ended WWI in Mesopotamia

1918 British officials in Baghdad told London to create central council of chiefs of Southern

Kurdistan

1936 Hikmat Sulaiman became premier of Iraq leading to 1^st govt with pan-Arabists out of power

Sulaiman was hoping that new govt would lead to liberal reforms but General Sidqi wanted to maintain status quo General won and most of Sulaiman’s followers left govt

1936 Sulaiman govt banished former PM Hashimi, Rashid al-Gaylani and Nuri al-Said

1980 Saddam predicted Iran-Iraq War would only last 6-12 months

(Musings On Iraq interview with author Anthony Tucker-Jones 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 Meeting of Bush advisers on Kuwait National Security Adviser Scowcroft said US policy at

fork in road Could continue defense or go on offense against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait Joint Chiefs head Gen Powell said Gen Schwarzkopf asked for troops for offensive operations against Iraq in Kuwait Defense Secretary Cheney said offensive action against Iraq should be on the table

1990 Bush decided to double number of US troops in Saudi Arabia

1992 Kurds allowed PKK to retreat further into Kurdistan on condition they stopped military

operations against Turks

1997 Tariq Aziz claimed surveillance planes used by inspectors were working for US intelligence

Threatened to shoot them down CIA was using planes to spy on Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article on how US used UN inspectors to spy on Iraq)

2002 Cheney told head UN Inspector Blix that inspections couldn't last forever and US was ready to

discredit them anyway to disarm Iraq

(Musings On Iraq article on UN weapons inspections)

2003 Cheney said Iraq had WMD

2003 Dep Sec of Def Wolfowitz said because US had missed so much of Iraq’s WMD program in

1991 it might have exaggerated them in 2003

2003 Report White House pushed Pentagon to speed up training of Iraqi forces

2003 US Natl Intel Est on Iraq said Iraqis not foreigners behind most of insurgency and local

grievances including US occupation were fueling violence

2005 Spec Insp Gen for Iraq Recon report said US had no policy for staffing reconstruction of Iraq

Said lack of planning by US plagued rebuilding

2005 Report Italian press believed SISMI intel agency forged docs claiming Iraq-Niger uranium deal

and shared them with US and UK

(Musings On Iraq article on Iraq-Niger uranium story)

2005 Report PUK build dozens of houses in Kirkuk City and moving Kurds in Said to reverse

Saddam’s Arbization program

2006 Militias killed 17 Sunni police near British run training center in Basra

2006 SecState Rice aide told her little chance for US success in Iraq Another said Iraq heading

towards genocidal violence Rice talked about giving up reconciliation in Iraq and just worrying about stability

2012 Election Commission called for provincial elections on 4/20/13 that excluded Kirkuk and KRG

2015 PM Abadi went to Dawa meeting to answer critics of his reforms

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