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.
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)
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)
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 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
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.
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)
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.
1915 Ottoman governor of Baghdad wrote US consulate that British were distributing money to clerics in
Najaf and Karbala
1915 US consulate report UK forces in Basra under constant harassment by tribes
1913 US consul in Baghdad wrote if British took Mesopotamia there would be little resistance because
public so apathetic
Today Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie are infamous. Miller cozied up to the Bush administration and Ahmed Chalabi before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and helped spread their propaganda about weapons of mass destruction to justify the war. Mylroie supported Iraq and then felt betrayed by the invasion of Kuwait and turned into a conspiracy theorist blaming the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 on Baghdad. Saddam Hussein And The Crisis in The Gulf was written before all that and is surprisingly good. It stands as a decent background to Saddam and the Gulf War. Not only that but it was very cynical about the cause of the conflict.
1943 Iraq declared war on Axis
(Musings On Iraq review Persian Gulf Command, A History of the Second World War In Iran and Iraq)
1915 Sir Percy Cox reported some Arab sheikhs had given up ties with UK and joined Turks following
calls for jihad
In late December 2024 Iran once again cut off its natural gas exports to Iraq. Baghdad is dependent upon this supply which is delivered completely at the whim of its neighbor.
1928 Abdul Sadoun became PM for 3rd of 4 times Replaced Askari who was forced to resign over
opposition to his conscription plan for army Sadoun compromise between King and England to try to get Anglo-Iraq Treaty passed
(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)
(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Between the Two World Wars, The Militarist Origins of Tyranny)
1843 Baghdad Gov Najib attacked Karbala to take it from gangs that ran town aligned with merchants and
clerics Slaughtered large number of inhabitants
For the second month Iraq’s oil exports and revenues dipped posing more problems for the country’s bloated budget.
866 Papers of Abbasid Caliph Mutasin’s resignation signed
1258 Mongols began siege of Baghdad Would eventually kill the entire population of the city
1917 British failed at 2nd attack upon Ottomans at Khadairi Bend outside Kut
Sara Daniel was a French reporter who went to Iraq at the start of the war. Each chapter in her book Voyage To A Stricken Land, Four Years on the Ground reporting from Iraq: A Woman’s Inside Story covers a specific time period and topic from the invasion to the insurgency to the Iraqi and American troops. She came away from her experience extremely cynical believing that Iraq was falling into a civil war due to the U.S. mishandling the occupation.
1916 British took Shaikh Saad after Ottomans retreated but not before inflicting heavy
British casualties
There is an ongoing debate within Iraq about whether the Pro-Iran Resistance factions should give into U.S. demands and disarm or not. While several groups have come out for and against the idea the real discussion is about what disarmament means and how it could be implemented.
866 Ibn Tahir negotiated deal to split revenues of Baghdad with Samarra and depose Abbasid Caliph
Mutasin in return
1909 Riots in Mosul killed Sheikh Said Sufi leader in Sulaymaniya Led his followers to
revolt cutting off trade in northern Mosul province
Iraq is taking its first steps towards forming a new government. The ruling parties however are still deadlocked over who will be the next president and prime minister.
1909 Riot in Mosul after Kirkuk soldier insulted a woman Organized by elites opposed to
Ottoman reforms 60 killed
1916 British attacked Shaikh Saad in campaign to relieve troops trapped at Kut Turned back
by Ottomans 600 British casualties
1916 Sykes and Picot drafted deal on dividing Ottoman Empire Baghdad and Basra vilayets
would go to UK Mosul to France Would also include 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)
Rutgers University Professor Lloyd Gardner attempted to explain the larger ideas behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq in The Long Road To Baghdad, A History Of U.S. Foreign Policy From The 1970s To The Present. He argues that the war was the result of a change in foreign policy philosophy from the realism of the Cold War to a new idealism based upon asserting American power and spreading democracy. The problem is Gardner gets lost in the details and side stories and loses track of his argument.
1915 Suleiman Bey took over Iraq Command for Ottomans Called on Arab sheikhs to join war against
British and planned on retaking Basra
1914 UK set out from Qurna, Basra north Found Tigris River had been blocked Gunboats
couldn’t follow Forced UK to retreat back to Qurna
(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)
In 2006 the Columbia Journalism Review got three reporters to interview journalists who’d been in Iraq about their experie...
