This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 31

1941 PM Gaylani stepped down fearing civil war due to his reaching out to Axis that had

split govt and angered British  

1941 UK Foreign Office decided to give money to Regent to help him return to power

(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)

1983 Iran officially rejected ceasefire talks by Iraq Khomeini was open to talks but Rafsanjani and

Khamenei rejected offer

1987 Iran Op Karbala 5 made last attack upon Iraqi defensive lines in Basra and stopped

(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)

1991 US and Saudis pushed Iraqi forces out of Saudi city of Khafji after 2 days of fighting

1993 Iraqi forces attacked Irbil

1999 Soviet paper claimed hundreds of Afghan Arabs were being trained in terrorism in south Iraq to

fight US

2003 Blair’s advisers told him had to prioritize pushing Bush on postwar planning for Iraq but Blair

failed to do so

2003 Bush and Blair said that invasion would start Mar 10 2003

2003 Blair told Bush he needed a 2^nd UN resolution for use of force against Iraq for domestic politics

Bush agreed

2003 Bush and Blair said a 2^nd U.N. resolution would be good against Iraq but not necessary to go to

war

2003 Bush said fighting between Iraqi factions would be unlikely after invasion

2003 Bush and Blair talked about provoking Iraq to help justify war including getting US spy plane

fired upon

2004 Gen Taguba started investigation of abuses at Abu Ghraib prison

2004 Car Bomb at Mosul police station killed 9 wounded 45

2005 Assyrians in Ninewa’s Bashiqa and Bartella told couldn’t vote after promised they could when

ballots ran out on Jan 30

2005 Assyrians demonstrated in Ninewa Plains over not being allowed to vote Broken up by Kurdish

security forces

2006 US Emb-military report situation in 6 of Iraq’s 18 provinces serious 1 critical Said militias

infiltrating security forces in Basra Lots of gangs smuggling assassinations

2007 PM Maliki told CNN Iraq only needed a few more U.S. troops not Surge Bush called for

2007 Fmr Rep Hamilton and Fmr Attn Gen Meese testified to Congress that US hired contractors to

train Iraqi police that weren’t competent and didn’t have personnel for job Said Justice Dept should have led effort and police should have taken over training not military

2007 Special Insp Gen for Iraq Recon report said some Iraqi ministries spent as little as 15% of their

budgets because couldn’t find companies to work in dangerous areas lack of skilled contracting officers ant-corruption rules hindered spending Said electricity production in 4^th qtr of 2006 was below pre-war levels State Dept so embarrassed eliminated pre-war power production from a report to try to hide dip in output

(Musings On Iraq interview with Prof Savage on US reconstruction effort in Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq book review Reconstructing Iraq’s Budgetary Institutions)

2009 Provincial elections held Saw heavy Sunni turnout

(Musings On Iraq article on 2009 provincial elections)

(Musings On Iraq article on details on Iraq’s voting system) 

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