This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 16

 

1917 British defeated Ottoman forces at Dahra Bend

1922 Gertrude Bell complained to her father that King Faisal had surrounded himself with nationalists

that demanded Iraq’s complete independence from England

(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)

1944 Parliamentary Party formed mostly of large land holding sheikhs Supported whatever govt Regent

backed

1979 Saddam said unifying Iraq and Syria was part of the Arab revolution

1979 Saddam said Iraq would respect choice of the Iranian people with their revolution

1984 Iran cut Basra-Baghdad highway between Maysan and Wasit

1986 Iraqi intelligence fell for Iranian deception and claimed attack upon Faw in Basra not main Iranian

attack Meant Iraq didn’t send reinforcements

1986 Iraq made another attempt to retake Faw Peninsula in Basra Only advanced 2 km Iraqis lost 7,000

casualties and 1,500 prisoners taken Iranians lost 8,000 casualties in Op Wa al-Fajr 8 that took Faw Peninsula

(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 review Iran-Iraq War Volume 2: Iran Strikes back, June 1982-December 1986)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Longest War, The Iran-Iraq Military Conflict)

1989 Iraq formed Arab Cooperation Council with Egypt Jordan Yemen to counter Gulf Cooperation

Council

1991 US troops destroyed Iraqi radar facility while Apache helicopters conducted raid in depth behind

Iraqi lines in Iraq

1992 Defense Secretary Cheney said that if US had overthrown Saddam would have to decide what kind

of govt to establish Would have been hard to capture Saddam Would have to decide how many casualties willing to take How many troops would have to stay in Iraq to keep govt going

(Musings On Iraq review The United States And Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents)

2001 Bush told speechwriter David Frum that he was going to get rid of Saddam  

2001 UK Attorney Gen Lord Williams approved air attacks out of no fly zones in Iraq for self defense

2001 US and UK planes bombed 20 radar and command and control centers in Iraq outside of No Fly

Zone Claimed Iraq had upgraded its air defenses Then said bombed Iraq to stop it from upgrading its defenses

2002 Bush signed secret NSC directive calling for covert action against Iraq by CIA Had budget of $189

mil for 2 years Plan included supporting Iraqi opposition Sabotage missions inside Iraq Working with other countries Information campaign vs Iraq attacking Iraqi revenue sources and disrupting its smuggling operations

(Musings On Iraq review Wanting War: Why the Bush Administration Invaded Iraq)

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

Tragedy)

(Musings On Iraq Review Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, And The Selling Of The Iraq War)

(Musings On Iraq review The Bush Administrations and Saddam Hussein, Deciding on Conflict)

2003 Rice claimed Iraq was deceiving UN weapons inspectors

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

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

2004 Report Iraqi and US sources said Iraqi forces would not be able to provide security after

sovereignty transferred to Iraq

2004 CIA said it still believed Iraqi defector CURVEBALL was credible source for intel that Iraq had

mobile WMD labs Turned out to be false source

(Musings On Iraq How Iraqi Defector CURVEBALL Became Basis For US Claim That Iraq Had WMD)

(Musings On Iraq Look Who The LA Times Dug Up – CURVEBALL)

(Musings On Iraq Story of CURVEBALL And Iraq’s Mobile Biological Weapons Labs)

2006 Sec State Rice told Senate oil production and electricity below postwar levels in Iraq Said initial

problems with rebuilding Iraqi security forces fixed and as Iraqi forces stood up US forces would do less

2006 Sec Def Rumsfeld told House US was not in Iraq to do nation building that was up to Iraqis to do

2008 PM Maliki said Al Qaeda in Iraq had mostly been driven from Baghdad

2010 ISI set off 4 suicide car bombs targeting hotels in Baghdad where foreign press stayed

(Musings On Iraq review Suicide Bombers In Iraq, The Strategy and Ideology of Martyrdom)

2010 US Cmdr in Iraq Gen Odierno accused Ahmed Chalabi and Ali al-Lami leaders of

Accountability and Justice Comm of working for Iranian Revolutionary Guards

2011 PM Maliki visited Kuwait after Kuwait premier visited Iraq in 1^st high level meet between 2

countries since 1990

2016 Allawi said no reason to remove cabinet until Abadi presented a strategic plan

(Musings On Iraq interview with Reidar Visser on PM Abadi’s reform program)

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