Review Oles Smolansky with Bettie Smolansky, The USSR And Iraq, The Soviet Quest For Influence, Duke University Press, 1991

  

Until the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 Moscow was Iraq’s biggest supporter. Those ties were developed under the Bakr government and the Soviet Union in the late-1960s. Oles and Bettie Smolanky’s The USSR And Iraq, The Soviet Quest For Influence studies this relationship from the 1950s to the end of the Iran-Iraq War. They refute the common Cold War belief that the Soviets created clientist states like Iraq. Instead the two had common interests that created an alliance between them. The Smolankys argue that Baghdad was able to follow its own national interests without threatening that relationship.

Review Anthony Cordesman, and Ahmed Hashim, Iraq Sanctions and Beyond, Westview Press, 1997

  

Anthony Cordesman has been one of the longest tenured Iraq analysts in the United Sates. His Iraq Sanctions and Beyond with Ahmed Hashim is a perfect example of his thorough and detailed work. Written at the end of the 1990s it attempted to break down the major political, economic and military aspects of Iraq as a backgrounder to American policy makers. The two authors represented the conventional wisdom during this period that Saddam Hussein remained a threat to the Middle East but that the policy of containment and especially sanctions was faltering requiring adjustments.

Review Mahdi Obeidi and Kurt Pitzer, The Bomb In My Garden, The Secrets Of Saddam’s Nuclear Mastermind, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004

  

In The Bomb In My Garden Dr Mahdi Obeidi tells the story of how Iraq tried to produce a nuclear bomb in the early 1990s. He was in charge of building centrifuges to enrich uranium. He goes through Iraq’s nuclear ambitions, how they covertly worked to gain the know-how and technology, how United Nations inspectors dismantled the program and then how the U.S. bungled its search for WMD after the 2003 invasion.

Review Tim Trevan, Saddam’s Secrets: The Hunt For Iraq’s Hidden Weapons, Harper Collins, 1999

  

Tim Trevan was a British expert in weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In 1992 he joined the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) weapons inspectors in Iraq. His Saddam’s Secrets is one of the better books on the subject. He goes into great detail about all of the jobs the inspectors carried out but focuses upon the biological weapons program which Iraq tried to hide. It’s the coverage of each inspection team that went to Iraq that reveals how Baghdad lied about its program until UNSCOM ended in 1998.

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.

Review Yasmin Husein Al-Jawaheri, Women in Iraq, The Gender Impact of International Sanctions, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008

Al-Jawaheri, Yasmin Husein, Women in Iraq, The Gender Impact of International Sanctions, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008

 

Women’s issues is an understudied topic in Iraq. In Women in Iraq, The Gender Impact of International Sanctions Yasmin Husein al-Jawaheri dives into how United Nations sanctions in the 1990s impacted women in the workplace, educationally and within society and the family. Part of the work was research into government and international studies and the other was surveying and interviewing 227 Iraqi women from three parts of Baghdad. She found that sanctions had a profound effect upon women driving them not only from jobs but public space as the government stepped back from protecting their rights.

Review Ala Bashir, The Insider, Trapped In Saddam’s Brutal Regime, Abacus, 2005

 

Bashir, Ala, The Insider, Trapped In Saddam’s Brutal Regime, Abacus, 2005

 

Ala Bashir was a leading plastic surgeon in Iraq. The Insider, Trapped In Saddam’s Brutal Regime is his autobiography telling his life from the time of the monarchy until the 2003 invasion. Most of it is about how he survived under Saddam Hussein.

Review Georges Sada with Jim Nelson Black, Saddam’s Secrets, How An Iraqi General Defied And Survived Saddam Hussein, Thomas Nelson, 2006

Sada, Georges with Black, Jim Nelson, Saddam’s Secrets, How An Iraqi General Defied And Survived Saddam Hussein, Thomas Nelson, 2006

 

Georges Sada was an Assyrian Christian who rose to the top echelons of the Iraqi Air Force under Saddam Hussein. After the 2003 invasion he became an advisor to the Iraqi government. He co-wrote Saddam’s Secrets, How An Iraqi General Defied And Survived Saddam Hussein to tell his story. Unfortunately he tried to include two sensational stories to sell books in the West and one about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) is pure fiction.

Review Richard Engel, A Fist In The Hornet’s Nest, On The Ground In Baghdad Before, During & After The War, Hyperion, 2004

Engel, Richard, A Fist In The Hornet’s Nest, On The Ground In Baghdad Before, During & After The War, Hyperion, 2004

 

Richard Engel was an American journalist who decided to go to Iraq before the 2003 invasion and try to get a job with a U.S. media outlet. A Fist In The Hornet’s Nest, On The Ground In Baghdad Before, During & After The War is a collection of his experiences in the Iraqi capital during those tumultuous months. While it’s emphasis is obviously on what it was like being a journalist at that time it includes enough stories about everyday Iraqis to make it a well-rounded story.

Review Jean Sasson, Mayada, Daughter Of Iraq, One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein, New American Library, 2004

Sasson, Jean, Mayada, Daughter Of Iraq, One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein, New American Library, 2004

 

Ahmed Chalabi and his allies promoted his book Republic of Fear as an expose of the horrors of life in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The book is actually about how Chalabi mistakenly thought Saddam was a committed Baathist and his policies were what ruined Iraq. It symbolized how out of touch Chalabi was from Iraq which he left when he was very young. A much better book on the Baathist police state is Mayada, Daughter of Iraq, One Woman’s Survival Under Saddam Hussein. It tells the story of a woman of privilege who was arrested by the secret police for a crime she didn’t commit. She explained the evils of Saddam and his family along with the lives of the other innocents she was imprisoned with.

Review Lisa Blaydes, State Of Repression, Iraq Under Saddam Hussein, Princeton University Press, 2018

Blaydes, Lisa, State Of Repression, Iraq Under Saddam Hussein, Princeton University Press, 2018

 

Lisa Blaydes’ State Of Repression, Iraq Under Saddam Hussein takes new approaches to analyzing the rule of the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein. Like recent books it argues that the Baath and Saddam ruled through a combination of carrots and sticks. What the author focuses upon is how those two approaches formed political identities in the country. She argues that those parts of Iraqi society that were easily penetrated by the state faced more nuanced acts of repression while those that were more difficult suffered collective punishment which led to new political communities being formed.

Review Anne Garrels, Naked in Baghdad, The Iraq War as seen by NPR’s correspondent, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

Garrels, Anne, Naked in Baghdad, The Iraq War as seen by NPR’s correspondent, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003

 

Anne Garrels was a reporter for National Public Radio who went to Baghdad in 2002 to witness the U.S. invasion and how it impacted Iraqis. Naked in Baghdad, The Iraq War as seen by NPR’s correspondent is a series of journal entries about her day to day activities joined by emails that her husband sent out to update her friends and family about what was happening. Garrels was able to capture the feelings of everyday Iraqis and a little slice of life in the Iraqi capital during this tumultuous time.

Review Williamson Murray Kevin Woods, The Iran-Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History, Cambridge University Press, 2014

Murray, Williamson, Woods, Kevin, The Iran-Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History, Cambridge University Press, 2014

 

The Iran-Iraq War, A Military and Strategic History was the third in the Iraqi Perspectives Project that used captured Baathist documents to try to explain major events in recent Iraqi history. The book portrays the Iran-Iraq War as one between two leaders with expansionist visions who had no idea about military affairs. The result was an eight year bloody war of attrition that ended in a tie. That was only possible because Iraq was able to acquire far more weapons on the international market than the numerically superior Iran that had burned its bridges with most of the world. The Iraqi military also improved at the tactical level and relied upon its armor and artillery against lightly armed Iranian infantry.

Review the mother of all battles, Saddam Hussein’s Strategic Plan For The Persian Gulf War

Woods, Kevin, the mother of all battles, Saddam Hussein’s Strategic Plan For The Persian Gulf War, Naval Institute Press, 2008

 

the mother of all battles, Saddam Hussein’s Strategic Plan For The Persian Gulf War was the first book in the Iraqi Perspectives Project. Using captured Baath documents Kevin Woods attempted to give the Iraqi side of the Gulf War. He showed how Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi leadership had a completely different mindset than their Western opponents. This explains how Saddam believed that he won the Gulf War.

Review Saddam Hussein The Politics Of Revenge

Aburish, Said, Saddam Hussein The Politics Of Revenge, Bloomsbury, 2000

 

Said Aburish’s Saddam Hussein The Politics Of Revenge is full of ups and downs. He makes some astute observations about Saddam’s assumption of power and the U.S. and U.K. policy of regime change in the 1990s. On the other hand, he was a Baathist sympathizer up to the 1980s having worked for the Iraqi government. Second, Aburish’s writing is full of Saddam gossip about his excesses. Most importantly almost all major issues are explained via Western conspiracies which robs Iraqis of any agency and responsibility throughout history. The problems with his writing end up undermining any good points the author might have made.

Review Britain’s 2 Wars With Iraq 1941 1991

El-Solh, Raghid, Britain’s 2 Wars With Iraq 1941 1991, Garnet Publishing Limited, 1996

 

Raghid El-Solh’s Britain’s 2 Wars With Iraq 1941 1991 is a tale of two halves. It covers the Anglo-Iraq War which was part of the larger World War 2 conflict as well as the Gulf War. The author argues that England has historically attempted to maintain the status quo in the Middle East which came into conflict with various Iraqi leaders. The coverage of first war is quite good while the section on the Gulf War reads like Saddam era propaganda.

Review The Prisoner in His Palace, Saddam Hussein, His American Guards and What History Leaves Unsaid

Bardenwerper, Will, The Prisoner in His Palace, Saddam Hussein, His American Guards and What History Leaves Unsaid, Scribner, 2017

 

When you first open The Prisoner in His Palace, Saddam Hussein, His American Guards and What History Leaves Unsaid by Will Bardenwerper it appears that it is just about the 12 American Military Police (MPs) that guarded Saddam Hussein. That did not seem like it would be that interesting. It turns out the book covers Saddam’s trial and execution and the people around him like a U.S. medic, the FBI agents that interrogated him, the former Qatari Justice Minister that represented him and others.

Review Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program 1981-1991

Selbi, Dhafir, Al-Chalabi, Zuhair, Co-authored and edited by Dr. Khadduri, Imad, Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program 1981-1991, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011

 

Unrevealed Milestones in the Iraqi National Nuclear Program 1981-1991 was written by three Iraqi scientists who worked on the country’s nuclear program. They were partly inspired by two other scientists who wrote books which the authors believed were full of misinformation aimed at supporting the U.S. claims about WMD. Their intent was to tell their truth of what Iraq did and didn’t do which of course was a huge topic of controversy before and after the 2003 invasion.

Review Saddam’s War

Bulloch, John and Morris, Harvey, Saddam’s War, Faber and Faber, 1991

 

Saddam’s War is a very short and thorough overview of the causes of the Gulf War. It was written by John Bulloch and Harvey Morris who worked for the Independent newspaper in London as a journalist and an editor. It provides a good introduction for anyone interested in the conflict.

Review The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq

Coll, Steve, The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq, Penguin Press, 2024

 

Twenty years after the Iraq invasion a comprehensive book including both the US and Iraqi perspectives on what led to the conflict has finally been published. That’s thanks to Steve Coll and his The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein, The C.I.A., And The Origins Of America’s Invasion Of Iraq. The author traces U.S.-Iraq relations from the Iran-Iraq War to the 2000s to show how the two countries constantly misread each other leading to false assumptions and the eventual overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.