Iraq Caught In Middle of US-Israel-Iran Conflict

  

Baghdad was hoping that it would not be involved in the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict but it has. All sides along with the pro-Iran Resistance have carried out operations within its territory.

This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 2 1991 uprising spread to Nasiriya, Dhi Qar

 

1915 UK attacked Nukhaial Turned back by tribesmen Turned into route

This Day In Iraqi History - Mar 1 Shiite uprising started after Gulf War

 

1917 Gen Maude started campaign to take Baghdad without adequate supplies

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

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 28 Pres Bush announced Kuwait liberated Iraq defeated Saddam claimed he beat the United States in Gulf War

 

1915 Gen Hardinge telegraph said taking Nasiriya and Amara were necessary to secure Basra vilayet

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

Review David McDowall, The Kurds, A Nation Denied, Minority Rights Publications, 1992

  

David McDowall is one of the leading Western writers on Kurds. He released several books including this The Kurds, A Nation Denied. It is a very short review of Kurdish history and their struggle in the Middle East since nation states were created there in the wake of World War I.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 27 Gulf War ended with Iraq expelled from Kuwait

 

1923 UK High Comm Cox wrote London that Faisal complained Anglo-Iraq treaty was only

new phase of mandate instead of ending it

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 26 Saddam announced Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait Said it was a victory because Iraq stood up to the multi-national Coalition

 

1917 3 British gunboats fired upon by 4 Ottoman ships at Nahr-al-Kalek, Wasit 3 Turkish

ships sunk and 4^th captured Turned Ottoman retreat from Kut into a route Losses convinced Turks couldn’t hold Baghdad

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 25 1000s protested in Day of Rage against political system across Iraq 23 killed by police

 

1917 British attacked retreating Ottoman forces from Kut at Husaini bend British suffered

556 casualties

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 24 US led Coalition began expelling Iraq from Kuwait

 

865 Samarra organized army under Abu Ahmad son of assassinated Caliph Mutawwakil and brother of

Abbasid Caliph Mutasim to seize power and put Mutazz upon throne

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 23 1st Anfal Campaign began against PUK in Sulaymaniya

 

1917 British seized Sannaiyat outside Kut after 6 days of fighting British had 1,996 casualties

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 22 Zarqawi bombed Askari shrine in Samarra Militias carried out retaliatory attacks against Sunnis across Iraq

 

1915 UK Surgeon General MacNece wrote Sir Percy Lake Chief of Staff that there were

troubling stories about treatment of wounded in Mesopotamia Caused a scandal and official inquiry that found negligence in providing medical services to troops

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 21 Govt killed 20 protesting assassination of Ayatollah Sadiq al-Sadr 3000 followers would be arrested and 450 executed

 

1258 Mongol leader Hulagu had Abbasid Caliph Mutasim and some family members executed

outside Baghdad

Review Committee Against Repression and For Democratic Rights In Iraq, Saddam’s Iraq Revolution Or Reaction? Zed Books Ltd, 1989

  

Saddam’s Iraq Revolution Or Reaction? was an anthology put together by the Committee Against Repression and For Democratic Rights In Iraq. It is part history and part diatribe against Saddam Hussein. Like any collection the chapters are up and down. The historical sections are good as well as the analysis of the development of the economy. That’s thanks to the inclusion of authors such as historians Marion and Peter Sluglett.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 20 Saddam convinced his sons in law Hussein and Saddam Kamal who were in Jordan after they defected to return to Iraq where they were later killed

 

1923 British called Sheikh Barzinji to Baghdad for revolt He refused Justified UK military

expedition against him

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 19 King Ghazi ordered invasion of Kuwait PM Said stopped it

    

1934 King Ghazi accepted PM Midfai’s resignation after disagreements within cabinet made continuation

of govt impossible

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 18 Ayatollah Sadiq al-Sadr assassinated by Saddam

 

1921 Colonial Sec Churchill drafted outline of agenda for Cairo Conference Included Faisal being

made king of Iraq

(Musings On Iraq review Cairo 1921, Ten Days That Made the Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq review Desert Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia)

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

(Musings On Iraq review Foundations of British Policy In The Arab World: The Cairo Conference of 1921)

Iraq Unable To Pay Its Obligations As Financial Crisis Grows

 

 

For months there have been warnings of an impending financial crisis for the Iraqi government. That finally started to hit in February 2006 as Baghdad wasn’t able to pay all of its workers their full wages.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 17 PM Maliki claimed most of the 511 candidates banned from 2010 election were fmr Saddam era intel officers who were trying to infiltrate the govt

 

1915 UK forced to retreat from Muzaira, Basra due to bad weather and flooding

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 16 Report 1972 Nixon and Shah agreed to arm and fund Barzani’s revolt vs Bakr govt but didn’t want him to win just drain Iraq

 

1916 Imperial General Staff in London took over Mesopotamian campaign from India Office

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 15 US led Coalition began ground operations to expel Iraq from Kuwait

 

1917 British launched 3^rd attack and captured Ottoman positions in Dahra bend outside Kut

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 14 PM Said hanged chairman of Communist Party Fahd to put down protests

 

1949 Communist Chairman Yusuf hanged by PM Said in public square in Baghdad to try to squash

opposition protests

(Musings On Iraq review A History of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Independent Iraq 1932-1958, A Study in Iraqi Politics)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Democratic Moment)

(Musings On Iraq review The Modern History of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review The Other Iraq, Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review A People’s History Of Iraq, The Iraqi Communist Party, Workers’ Movements, and the Left 1924-2004)

(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)

(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)

Review Roger Petersen, Death, Dominance, and State-Building, The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention, Oxford University Press, 2024

  

Death, Dominance, and State-Building, The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention is a very detailed argument by MIT Professor Roger Petersen that America’s counterinsurgency and nation building strategies failed in Iraq. His point is that the U.S. was able to temporarily bring down violence during the Surge but failed to maintain the peace nor build a functioning Iraqi state.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 13 Iran scored 2nd major victory on Iraqi territory during Iran-Iraq War seizing Faw peninsula in Basra

 

1940 PM Said proposed to High Defense Council declaring war on Germany Send 2 Iraqi divisions to

Libya or Balkans Was rejected

Iraq Oil Exports Continue Slow Decline But Revenues Up In January

  

Iraq’s oil exports have been going down for the last three months. Despite that prices continue to fluctuate and the country earned more in January than December.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 12 Cleric Hakim issued fatwa against joining Communists Clergy afraid youth becoming secular and joining Communists

 

1915 Lord Hardinge wrote India Office Said taking Baghdad was likely ultimate objective of

British occupation of Mesopotamia

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

Iraq Improves Score On Corruption Index But Little Has Changed

  

Transparency International (TI) just released its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2025 and Iraq improved its score and standing. That was done for superficial reasons.

This Day In Iraqi History - Feb 11 Executive Comm of Shias manifesto said monarchy discriminated against Shiites Called on UK to remove King Faisal and empower Shiites

 

1917 British renewed attack upon Dahra bend outside Kut

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