This Day In Iraqi History - Nov 21 King Faisal asked for full Iraqi independence from UK

 

1914 UK troops entered Basra after Ottomans abandoned city

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

 

1915 Battle of Ctesiphon/Salman Pak began UK ignored reports Turks had been reinforced

British took 1^st Turkish trenches but had to withdraw UK suffered 4,511 casualties 1^st day Was more than total UK losses during 1^st year of war in Mesopotamia Ottomans lost 6,188 casualties

1925 International Court of Justice ruled League of Nations could determine future of Mosul

            province

1926 Jaafar al-Askari became PM for 2^nd time Had to deal with passing Anglo-Iraq Treaty

conscription and Shiite protests

1927 King Faisal asked for full Iraqi independence and ending roll of British High Commissioner in

negotiations over new Anglo-Iraq Treaty

1946 Nuri al-Said became PM 5^th of 9 times Opposition National Democratic Party and Liberal Party

each given ministry Led to splits within Democratic Party Was divide and conquer tactic against opposition

(Musings On Iraq Is Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki More Like Premier Nuri al-Sa’id Than Saddam? An Interview With Historian Phebe Marr)

(Musings On Iraq Revolutionary Times, Gen. Qasim And Iraq’s 1958 Coup, Interview With Western Kentucky’s Prof. Juan Romero)

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

(Musings On Iraq review ‘Independent Iraq’ The Monarchy & British Influence, 1941-1958)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Democratic Moment)

1949 PM Said created Constitutional Union Party Dr Shawkat who was Said supporter created

Reform Party and joined Constitution Party Was part of Said’s plan to create one party state Couldn’t get opposition to agree

1955 1^st meeting of Iraq UK Turkey Iran Pakistan Baghdad Pact Nasser constantly attacked Iraq and

Nuri al-Said for creation of Pact

1956 Police put down demonstration in support of Egypt in Suez Crisis Several students killed

PM Said closed all schools and colleges in Baghdad

1963 Syria said it would send 2^nd army brigade to help fight Barzani revolt if Baghdad asked Arif govt

said no

1963 New govt led by PM Yahya said it wanted peace with Kurds

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

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Kurdish Revolt 1961-1970)

(Musings On Iraq review Journey Among Brave Men, Travels in Kurdistan)

1975 Saddam decided to buy Mirage jets from France Would be 1^st step to modernize Iraqi Air Force

(Musings On Iraq When The World Remembered It Armed The New Hitler Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraqi Mirages, The Dassault Mirage Family In Service With The Iraqi Air Force, 1981-1988)

(Musings On Iraq review Wings of Iraq: Volume 2: The Iraqi Air Force, 1970-1980)

1982 Iraqi navy fired 5 missiles at tankers going to Iran

1983 Iran’s Op Wa al-Fajr 4 ended Took 180 sq mi of land in Iranian and Iraqi Kurdistan Iran lost

5000 dead 15,000 wounded Iraq lost 2800 dead

1986 Iran launched 3^rd attack upon al-Amiq oil terminal in Basra

(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 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)

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 1: The Battle for Khuzestan, September 1980-May 1982)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Iran-Iraq War Volume 3: Iraq’s Triumph)

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

1994 KDP and PUK signed new strategic agreement Didn’t stop disagreements over tariffs and

control of Irbil

1997 UN Special Commission on Iraq weapons inspections met to resolve crisis between Baghdad and

inspectors Russia argued Iraq largely disarmed and that complaints of obstruction were unfounded

1997 UN weapons inspectors returned to Iraq US and UK threatened military strike if Iraq didn’t cooperate

(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)

(Musings On Iraq Charles Duelfer’s Account Of The End Of The 1990s U.N. Inspections)

(Musings On Iraq review Neighbors, Not Friends, Iraq And Iran After The Gulf Wars)

1998 Adviser to UN chief said could never 100% prove WMD disarmament and at some

            point inspections became political and impossible to prove negative

2001 Bush told Def Sec Rumsfeld to update war plans for Iraq Wanted it done secretly Was first

official step in Iraq invasion

(Musings On Iraq Was Iraq An Imminent Threat To The West?)

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

(Musings On Iraq review The Endgame, The Inside Story of the Struggle for Iraq, from

George W. Bush to Barack Obama)

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

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

Tragedy)

(Musings On Iraq review Plan of Attack: The Definitive Account Of The Decision To

Invade Iraq)

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

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

2001 Joint Chiefs dep ops chief Gen Newbold told Gen Renaurt Gen Frank’s chief ops officer that

CENTCOM would be ordered to draw up plans for Iraq soon

2002 NATO summit Bush was talking about war with Iraq and using new UN inspections as

catalyst for action

2003 UN turned over Oil for Food program to CPA

2003 UK intel report Badr Brigade maintained close ties to Iran that armed and funded it

(Musings On Iraq Overview of Iran’s Influence In Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq Badr Organization A View Into Iraq’s Violent Past And Present)

(Musings On Iraq US Army History Of Iraq War Vol 1 – Chapter 7 Muqawama Wa Intiqaam (Resistance And Reprisals), May-August 2003)

2004 Iraq Election Commission announced vote for transitional assembly to draft constitution would

happen 1/30/05 along with provincial vote

2006 Iraq and Syria announced renewal of diplomatic relations which were broken during Iran-Iraq

War

2006 UN reported 3,709 civilians killed in Oct 06 was highest since 2003 invasion

2006 Report US training mission for Iraqi forces full of problems Officers leading teams poorly picked

Many hadn’t seen combat Didn’t understand mission and weren’t prepared Didn’t have standardized guidelines for mission Didn’t get support from US military Didn’t get supplies and enough interpreters Didn’t get full teams

(Musings On Iraq review The U.S. Army In The Iraq War: Volume 1, Invasion, Insurgency, Civil

War, 2003-2006)

2007 Gen Petraeus said number of foreign fighters coming to Iraq down by about 1/3 in part due to

greater interdiction by Syria

2008 Presidential Council said Tribal Support Councils should be integrated into provincial govts

Were created as part of patronage network by PM Maliki before 09 election

(Musings On Iraq Argument For Maliki Being Iraq’s Next Strongman)

(Musings On Iraq Disputes Over Tribal Support Councils)

2008 Report Rumors of move to replace PM Maliki with either VP Abdul Mahri fmr PM Jaafari or

Dawa’s Adeeb Oil Min Shahristani also under fire Kurds thought Maliki became too powerful Hakim also mad at Maliki

2009 Report US funded $270 mil water plant in Nasiriya only worked at limited capacity because too

sophisticated for Iraqi workers $4 mil maternity hospital in Hillah didn’t have staff or enough supplies Iraqis never trained on equipment US installed $98 mil wastewater treatment plant in Fallujah only reached 1/3 of homes because govt didn’t deliver fuel $7.9 mil hospital in Baghdad didn’t have staff or supplies so it was closed $165 mil Basra Children’s Hospital was $115 mil over budget

(Musings On Iraq More On Wasted Reconstruction Projects In Iraq) 

(Musings On Iraq review Hard Lessons, The Iraq Reconstruction Experience)

2009 Report Oxfam found 90% of Iraq’s 180 hospitals didn’t have basic supplies

2010 Report IMF denied loan to Iraq to cover budget deficit IMF wanted major economic reforms

over Iraq’s spending govt workers supporting private sector

2010 Report PM Maliki supposed to release Sadrist prisoners to support 2^nd term

2012 Report Oct PM Maliki went to Russia and signed arms deal Sadrists claimed deal corrupt 4

Maliki officials allegedly got kickbacks Maliki adviser said that deal was cancelled Defense Min then said it was still on Russian media said commissions in arms deals were normal Said Iraqis might have gotten $500 mil in payoffs

(Musings On Iraq Corruption In Iraq An Interview With Stuart Bowen Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction)

(Musings On Iraq Iraq’s Trouble Fighting Corruption Interview With Vincent Foulk Former US Anti-Graft Official)

2013 Mukhtar Army breakaway faction of Kataib Hezbollah fired mortars into northern Saudi Arabia

Leader Battat said was warning to Saudis Condemned their religious decrees against Shiites Said Riyad had to stop interfering in Iraq

2014 Turkey said it would train Peshmerga 150 already in Turkey Were supposed to be deployed to

Syria

2017 PM Abadi said IS had been militarily defeated in Iraq

2018 Report Got copy of documents showing PM Abadi rented govt land in Green Zone and 2

areas of Baghdad for below market rate Fmr govt workers for VPs office rented 850 sq ft house for $26 Son of fmr VP rented 400 sq house for less than $50

2018 Report 06-17 Electricity Min got $29 bil Produced 16,010 mw Had capacity of 33,595

mw Signed contracts to buy natural gas before they were analyzed Bought turbines that used natural gas which ministry didn’t have Used substitutes for turbines that cost huge amount of money wore down plants increased maintenance and reduced lifespan of turbines

2018 Report Some Hashd groups gone into oil and real estate business in Ninewa Took over

property belonging to Antiquities Authority Oil and Defense Mins in Mosul Source said Shiite parties were splitting up land in Ninewa In Mosul mostly Christian property being taken Hashd oil smuggling from Ninewa into Syria Some Hashd told people to destroy homes of IS sympathizers

(Musings On Iraq Expansion of the Hashd al-Shaabi’s influence In Iraq, Interview With Clingendael’s Erwin van Veen)

2019 Kataib Hezbollah said Def Min bought tear gas used vs protesters after Def Min

Shammari claimed that 3^rd party shooting demonstrators

(Musings On Iraq Hashd Retaliate Against Iraq’s Defense Minister For Comments On Protests)

2019 Report Natl Sec Adv Fayad Badr head Amiri PM Abdul Mahdi’s chief of staff

Hashemi met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei in Tehran Said protests would be put down with force and PM Abdul Mahdi supported it

(Musings On Iraq UN Report On Violence Against Iraqi Protesters)

(Musings On Iraq United Nations Faults Iraq For Failing To Protect Protesters)

2019 Fmr head of Integrity Comm said $350-$400 bil missing due to corruption Said 6000

projects with completion rate of only 1-5% Another 12,000 projects with only 500 were started

2019 3 protesters killed in Baghdad ISF fired live ammo into crowd killing one 2 more killed

by tear gas cannisters Baghdad Ops command denied any deaths Clashes between police and protesters in Karbala Protests in Basra Dhi Qar Karbala

2019 Media Comm ordered closing of 10 TV stations for covering protests and warned 5

others of violating their licenses Warned some radio stations as well

2021 University students in Sulaymaniya Halabja Kalar Ranya started protests demanding KRG

resume monthly stipends

2023 Report Almost 1 mil students in Sulaymaniya out of school for 2 mo due to teachers’

strike over KRG not paying them 2016 teachers went on strike for same reason KRG dependent upon budget payments from Baghdad Got money but only enough to pay for current salaries not past ones

2023 Pro-Iran groups fired ballistic missile at Al-Asad Airbase in Anbar wounded 8 US

personnel Biden admin struck several Hashd targets in retaliation 8 killed 4 wounded

(Musings On Iraq Security In Iraq Nov 15-21, 2023)

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