Monday, June 17, 2019

Musings On Iraq 11 Year Anniversary!


There used to be dozens and dozens of blogs on Iraq. There was even a blog that documented all the other blogs. Most were by Iraqis in both English and Arabic. Then two things happened. First, Iraqis discovered Facebook and they stopped blogging. Second, when the British and then the Americans withdrew from Iraq all the westerners stopped writing as well. I started researching Iraq in early 2002 to try to discover why the United States was about to go to war, but got into the blogging game late in 2008.

Today is the 11 year anniversary of Musings On Iraq. I’m still going strong and adding more things to write about. In February 2011 I did my first interview and since then I’ve done 138 total. In August 2017 I began the Iraq history timeline. Finally in March 2018 I began writing book reviews and now there are 80 of those. My writings and research have brought me into contact with hundreds of people who I have learned so much from. I’ve been able to go to Japan and Austria as well. I’d like to thank everyone that has helped me over the years and all the readers. Hopefully I’ll still be writing 11 years from now.

4 comments:

Gary Vogler, author "Iraq and the Politics of Oil" said...


Thank you for your many years of writing this Blog. It has been a service to many interested in Iraq throughout the world.

You mentioned that you got your start trying to research why we were going to war in Iraq. Did you ever find the answer? Do you care to discuss your thoughts on that subject?

Gary Vogler

Anonymous said...

Your blog is just about the only reliable source of news on Iraq. Many thanks for keeping it going.

Don Cox

Joel Wing said...

Thank you Don. I really appreciate your support.

Joel Wing said...

Hi Gary,

Thank you for all the help over the years.

My short version for why the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 was that 9/11 brought together different sections of the administration that all thought Iraq was unfinished business from the Gulf War. They had different motivations but the one thing they agreed upon was 9/11 offered them the opportunity to remove Saddam and that's what they ended up doing.

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