This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 10 Abbasids surrendered Baghdad to Mongols who then massacred population

 

1258 Abbasid Caliph Mustasim surrendered Baghdad to Mongols Residents taken to camps where they

were executed Christians and Jews spared Mongol leader Hulagu said he killed 200,000 City eventually burned

Where Is US Policy On Iraq Headed?

  

U.S. policy towards Iraq under the second Trump administration seems straight forward but it’s not. The main focus is to reduce Iran’s influence in Baghdad. Following that policy has been chaotic however as the U.S. government does not speak with one voice due to the lack of Trump’s leadership.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 9 General Qasim executed in 1963 coup

 

1915 UK fought skirmishes with Sehikh Ajaimi’s men from Montafiq Confederation in Basra

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 8 Baathist-military coup overthrew Gen Qasim

 

1922 UK Sec of War Evans wrote cabinet Iraqi army weak British military presence small

Iraq vulnerable to Turkey tribal unrest so UK should withdraw from Mosul

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 7 Report Trump said PM Abadi and Iraqis he met at White House were greatest group of thieves he’d ever met

 

1916 British withdrew from Butaniya and attacked by tribesmen British suffered 373 casualties Arabs

            1,000

Review Samuel Helfont, The Iraq Wars, A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2025

  

Samuel Helfont released his third book on Iraq entitled The Iraq Wars, A Very Short Introduction. It is a brief review of U.S.-Iraq relations from the 1990s to the 2014 war versus the Islamic State. He provides some new and interesting insights on how Iraq became a focus of American foreign policy.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 6 Bakr govt put down protests led by Dawa killing 16 Arrested 2000 including Ayatollah al-Hakim

 

1919 Gertrude Bell met with Naqib of Baghdad who said he wanted British rule in Iraq under Sir Percy Cox

Warned that Shiites should not be trusted Said didn’t want any of the Sharifan family to rule because were not from Iraq

(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)

(Musings On Iraq review The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volumes I and II)

(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)

(Musings On Iraq review A Quest in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 5 Sec State Powell gave UN speech claiming Iraq had WMD and ties to Al Qaeda

 

1914 Lord Hardinge visited Basra Assured locals that British would protect their interests Met by anti-UK

            protests in Qurna and Shaiba

Iraq Playing Chicken Over Maliki Nomination For Prime Minister

  

Iraq is currently trying to form a new government and is playing a high stakes game of chicken with the United States at the same time.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 4 Sykes-Picot Agreement approved Baghdad and Basra would’ve gone to UK Mosul to France Sharif Hussein would’ve gotten his own state

 

1916 Sykes-Picot agreement approved by UK Foreign Office Gave Baghdad and Basra vilayets to UK

            Mosul to France Included independent Arab state for Sharif Hussein

(Musings On Iraq review Empires of the Sand, The Struggle For Mastery In The Middle East 1789-1923)

(Musings On Iraq review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 3 Blair govt issued report on Iraq’s deception campaign to hide its WMD Turned out it was plagiarized from a college student’s paper

 

1915 India Viceroy Lord Hardinge said UK should take Basra to control Persian Gulf and

make it second Egypt

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 2 PM Sadr said new Anglo-Iraq Treaty would not be ratified due to opposition Came after 1000s protested against it

 

1920 General Haldane made commander in Iraq Told to draw down troops to save money for London

(Musings On Iraq review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 1 Reagan envoy Rumsfeld met Saddam 2nd time to improve US-Iraq relations during Iran-Iraq War

 

1917 British attacked Hai River salient 2^nd time outside Kut Failed again

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 31 Badr and Asaib Ahl Al-Haq blamed for retaliatory attacks in Diyala after bombing Killed civilians destroyed Sunni mosques and shops Told Sunnis they had to leave

 

1937 Jewish Agency sent 2 emissaries to Iraq Met with leading officials who criticized pan-Arabism

Review Candy Cooper, Reporting From Iraq, On the Ground in Fallujah, Scholastic, 2020

  

Reporting From Iraq, On The Ground in Fallujah is a young adult book about Ann Garrels and her time reporting on Iraq from 2003-2004. Despite being a very short read it actually covers some major points about journalism in Iraq during this period.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 30 Iraq held elections for parliament to write new post-Saddam constitution

 

 1927 1^st student strike in Iraq over Lebanese teacher writing book which attacked Shiites

Teacher fired and book banned Students called for freedom of speech and teacher be reinstated Broken up by fire dept and police Al-Ahali leaders arrested

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Democratic Moment)

(Musings On Iraq review The Modern History of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Red Star Over Iraq, Iraqi Communism Before Saddam)

(Musings On Iraq A History Of The Iraqi Communist Party Interview With Univ of East Anglia’s Johan Franzen)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 29 Ex-Iraq Survey Group head Kay told Bush Saddam wanted Iraqis to believe Iraq still had WMD to prevent revolts by Kurds and Shiites

 

1917 British captured Ottoman fort at Khadairi Bend in campaign to recapture Kut

Iran Has Stopped Supplying Electricity and Natural Gas To Iraq

  

On January 27 it was announced that Iran had stopped electricity exports to Iraq. It claimed this was due to international pressure and regional politics. This comes on top of a halt in natural gas exports by Iran severely cutting power supply in Iraq.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 28 UK claimed Mosul province which it took after WWI ended

 

1918 Cpt Marshall made UK governor of Najaf Cut off all stipends to city to punish it for attacks on UK

            troops Fired entire police force Demanded weapons be turned in

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 27 300-400 killed by police protesting against Anglo-Iraq Treaty

 

1925 League of Nations Commission on Mosul arrived in province to protests Was to determine who

would get Mosul Iraq or Turkey Commission interviewed hundreds of locals and mapped economy land trade routes ethnicities

(Musings On Iraq review The Modern History of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq How The Ottoman Province Of Mosul Became Part Of Iraq)

Is Maliki Going To Be Iraq’s PM Again?

On January 24 the ruling Coordination Framework formally announced Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for prime minister. If Maliki were to successfully become PM again this would be a surprising turn of events for a politicians who used the government to go after his opponents, was thoroughly corrupt, and was responsible for the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State. It once again shows how Iraq’s ruling class is completely bankrupt and only cares about its self-preservation.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 26 Saddam ordered most of Iraqi Air Force to fly to Iran to save it from Gulf War Never got planes back

 

1941 Cabinet decided to force PM Gaylani to resign due to outreach to Axis He refused PM asked Golden

            Square officers to resolve dispute Regent said he would pick PM Told military to stay out of politics

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 25 Sadrists began attacks on protesters after Sadr withdrew his support for them

 

866 Battle of Baghdad ended Mutazz announced as new Abbasid caliph Rival Mustain exiled to Hijaz but

later executed

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 24 Report Iraq bought fake bomb detectors for around $40,000 each Govt investigation claimed they worked when they didn’t

 

 

1969 Former MP Bajari during spy trial claimed opposition leaders were trying to overthrow Pres Bakr’s

govt

Review Edited by Mike Hoyt, John Palatella, and the staff of the Columbia Journalism Review, Reporting Iraq, An Oral History Of The War By The Journalists Who Covered It, Melville Publishing House, 2007

  

In 2006 the Columbia Journalism Review got three reporters to interview journalists who’d been in Iraq about their experiences. A total of 46 people were included which led to this book Columbia Journalism Review, Reporting Iraq, An Oral History Of The War By The Journalists Who Covered It. The book covers 2003-2006 and has short excerpts from the interviews.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 23 Iraq Survey Group head Kay resigned Said didn’t think Iraq had any WMD

 

1920 British cabinet decided Iraqi oil would be developed by a public company Foreign Secretary Curzon

overturned decision

(Musings On Iraq review The Modern History of Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 22 Iraq set fire to 700 Kuwaiti oil wells during Gulf War

 

1921 Gertrude Bell wrote that British officers in Mosul province thought they could convince Kurds to

vote for Faisal as king in referendum They didn’t

(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)

(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)

(Musings On Iraq review A Quest in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 21 Trump said if US had taken Iraq’s oil IS might not have been created Said US still had chance to take Iraq’s oil

 

1916 Battle of Hanna Defile British attacked Ottomans but failed 2,741 British casualties

Was defeat in British effort to relieve siege at Kut

Musings On Iraq In The News

  

Musings On Iraq is cited in Death, Dominance, and State-Building, The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention by MIT Professor Roger Petersen. It was published by Oxford University Press in 2024. 

 

View all of Musings On Iraq's Citations here  

Death Sentences Reversed In Activist Sajjad Al-Iraqi’s Case

  

In 2020 Sajjad al-Iraqi a young protester in Nasiriya was kidnapped. In 2023 two people were sentenced to death in absentia for his murder. Just recently those charges were dropped likely in a political move.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 20 Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance created to run Iraq 2 months before war

 

1915 UK troops and ships attacked Turks and Arabs in Ruta Creek, Basra Turned back Did wound Ottoman

commander in Basra who was sent to Baghdad

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

Iraq Resistance Factions Helped Put Down Iranian Protests

  

It appears that protests in Iran have once again been suppressed by the government. Members of the Iraqi Resistance helped sending several hundred men to assist Tehran.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 19 Mulla Mustafa Barzani met with Iraqi and Iranian Kurds in USSR to discuss pan-Kurdish movement

 

1915 Ottoman governor of Baghdad wrote US consulate that British were distributing money to clerics in

Najaf and Karbala

This Day In Iraqi History - Jan 18 UN inspectors said no WMD found at sites listed by US

 

1915 US consulate report UK forces in Basra under constant harassment by tribes