Review Adeed Dawisha, Iraq, A Political History from Independence to Occupation, Princeton University Press, 2009

Dawisha, Adeed, Iraq, A Political History from Independence to Occupation, Princeton University Press, 2009

 

Adeed Dawisha’s Iraq, A Political History from Independence to Occupation attempts to trace the history of the formation of the Iraqi state and its political system. He begins with the British Mandate when Iraq was created up until the middle of the U.S. occupation. His main theme is that Iraqi democracy has always been flawed.

US Army In The Iraq War Volume 2 Chapter 12 A New Iraq Policy For The United States

The twelfth chapter of the U.S. Army’s 2^nd Volume on the Iraq War is about the 2011 U.S. withdrawal and its impacts upon Iraq. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki continued his concentration of power and was using the security forces to go after his opponents, the Islamic State of Iraq began its comeback while the Americans willingly gave away its influence with Baghdad.

US Army In The Iraq War Volume 2 Ch 5 “The Surge Of Operations”

Chapter 5 of the second volume of the U.S. army’s history of the Iraq War focuses upon the summer of 2007. The Americans expanded their operations from Baghdad into neighboring Diyala while there were still differences over the new strategy. Part of that effort to turn tribes and insurgents against the Islamic State of Iraq ran into continued opposition from Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. On the other hand, Iranian backed militias were fighting each other for control of southern Iraq.

US Army In The Iraq War Volume 2 Ch 3 “The New Way Forward, February 2007-April 2007”

The third chapter of the U.S. army’s history of the Iraq War covers the start of the Surge in February 2007. There were two main issues. First, there were still differences over the new strategy. Second, the Americans looked to the Iraqi government to be a partner but it was an actor in the civil war trying to establish Shiite supremacy over Baghdad.

US Army In The Iraq War Volume 2 Ch 2 “The Eve Of The Surge, December 2006-February 2007”

Chapter 2 of the U.S. Army’s second volume on the Iraq War covers the period after President Bush decided to surge troops into Iraq but before it was actually implemented. It showed more dysfunction within the U.S. government, while inside Iraq the warring factions were preparing for a final confrontation.

Review Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia

Saleh, Zainab, Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia, Stanford University Press: 2021

 

Return To Ruin, Iraqi Narratives of Exile and Nostalgia by Zainab Saleh is the story of Iraqi expatriates living in London. Saleh interviewed five Iraqi exiles from different backgrounds and experiences about their families, life in Iraq and how they ended up in England. She included her own story about exile as well. Their stories are by far the best part as Iraqi voices are rarely heard in Western books about Iraq. On the other hand this was based upon a thesis. That meant Saleh’s college advisor told her to link her interviews to a larger theory. She chose one about British and American imperialism that didn’t stand up.

Review U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq

Eisenstadt, Michael and Mathewson, Eric, Editors, U.S. Policy In Post-Saddam Iraq, Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2003

 

Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Washington Institute for Near East Policy realized the United States could learn a lot from the British time in the country starting in World War I. The Institute collected together a group of Iraq experts and had them write about the United Kingdom’s experience and then make suggestions for the Bush administration. The authors provided a good history and there were plenty of lessons for the U.S. to learn. As we all know the White House thought it had all the answers and carried out a costly and highly flawed occupation as a result.

1/3 Of Iraqi Voters Excluded From 2023 Elections Largely Due To Sectarian Cleansing

(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

Al Mada reported that up to one-third of registered voters won’t be able to take part in Iraq’s December 2023 elections. That’s because the Election Commission refused to update its voter data. Since the Commission is controlled by the ruling parties this was likely done to reduce the number of ballots cast in the hopes that would ensure their victory.

Review A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War

Abdul-Ahad, Ghaith, A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023

 

A Stranger in Your Own City, Travels in the Middle East’s Long War by journalist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an engaging story about him growing up in Baghdad and then experiencing the aftermath of the U.S. invasion. It’s a tale of a nation beset by problems from the 1990s sanctions that impoverished most to the exiles that created a new ethnosectarian political system that was then used it to justify violence. The new elite ended up killing its youth in the street for protesting against corruption. It’s an important addition to the cannon because it not only includes his own recollections of this period but also many Iraqi civilians, soldiers and officials when most books are by and about Westerners.

Review The Shia Revival, How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future

Nasr, Vali, The Shia Revival, How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future, New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006

 

The Shia Revival, How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future was written by Vali Nasr in response to King Abdullah of Jordan claiming that a Shiite crescent was forming from Iran to Lebanon. The king feared that Shiites were gaining across the Middle East and working at the behest of Tehran. Nasr attempted to counter that by arguing that Shiites were mostly interested in gaining their political and religious rights. The book serves as a good introduction to some of these issues, but it also has its own problems.

Review The Shi’is Of Iraq

Nakash, Yitzhak, The Shi’is Of Iraq, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2003

 

The Shi’is Of Iraq by Yitzhak Nakash has a wealth of information about the development of the Shiite community in Iraq. It discusses how and why the Arab tribes were converted in the 1800s and how the lack of a strong leadership hurt the community once the Iraqi state was established in 1920. The author’s goal was to highlight the uniqueness of Iraq’s Shiites since most studies of the sect only focus upon Iran which had a much different experience. That’s not to mention that until the Iraq War Shiites were largely ignored and unknown in the West so this was a needed addition to the cannon.

Security In Iraq Oct 22-28, 2021

The last week of October saw an explosion of tension in central Diyala as the Islamic State attacked a village and then the inhabitants carried out a retaliatory strike upon a neighboring town. The government was afraid this would set off sectarian attacks and tensions remain high there.

Review The Reckoning, Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein

Mackey, Sandra, The Reckoning, Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein, New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002

 

The Reckoning, Iraq and the Legacy of Saddam Hussein by Sandra Mackey is a history of the country from ancient times to right before the U.S. invasion. Mackey’s thesis is that Iraq has always sought a national identity but failed to create one. That has left it constantly divided along ethnic (Arab and Kurd) and sectarian (Sunni and Shiite) lines. The problem with her thesis was that she took the ethnosectarianism of the 1990s and 2000s and projected that back into the past.

Review The Shi’ite Movement in Iraq

Jabar, Faleh, The Shi’ite Movement in Iraq, London: SAQI, 2003

 

Faleh Jabar was one of the top Iraqi scholars on his home country. He was inspired to write The Shi’ite Movement in Iraq because of the dearth of research on Shiite activism outside of Iran. His main influence was Hanna Batatu’s intense research that led to his The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq. The Shi’ite Movement in Iraq laid out the background that led to the emergence of Shiite reform and revolutionary groups, their leadership, their philosophy, and how they changed over time from the 1950s to the 1990s. Jabar’s thesis was that these parties were beset by divisions, mistakes, and defeats.

Review Sectarianism In Iraq, Antagonistic Visions of Unity

Haddad, Fanar, Sectarianism In Iraq, Antagonistic Visions of Unity, New York: Columbia University Press, 2011

 

Sectarianism became the main way to explain Iraq after 2003. The new political system was based upon quotas for the different communities and then the civil war broke out. Many Westerners thought Iraq wasn’t a real country and should be broken apart because they believed the divide between Sunnis and Shiites was so deep the country could never come together. Fanar Haddad a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics wrote probably the best book on the topic Sectarianism In Iraq, Antagonistic Visions of Unity. The author begins by laying out his theory, gives some historical background, and then applies his ideas to the 1990s-2000s. Haddad tried to explain how sectarianism varies with time and place, is based upon competition over the state and society rather than theology, and the current situation was the result of the Iraqi state weakening during the 1990s and the aftermath of the 2003 invasion.

Review Religion and Nationalism in Iraq, A Comparative Perspective

Little, David and Swearer, Donald, Editors, Religion and Nationalism in Iraq, A Comparative Perspective, Harvard University Press, 2006

Religion and Nationalism in Iraq, A Comparative Perspective was the result of a 2005 conference held at the Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religion. It brought together a series of historians and academics who presented papers on Iraq, Sudan, Sri Lanka and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The idea was to highlight the ethnosectarian conflicts in each country and try to find any similarities. Ironically at the end they found there were far more different which questioned whether the entire exercise was worthwhile.

Review Iraq’s Dysfunctional Democracy

Ghanim, David, Iraq’s Dysfunctional Democracy, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, 2011

In Iraq’s Dysfunctional Democracy author David Ghanim questions whether the post-Saddam Hussein Iraq was moving towards a real representative government. He didn’t believe in imposing democracy upon other countries using force like the United Sates did in 2003, and saw few signs afterward that the new ruling parties were interested in anything other than staying in power and enriching themselves by stealing from the state. Ghanim has a long list of why he is disillusioned from the use of victimization by the elite, the politicization of deBaathification, the lack of rule of law, questionable elections, a weak state, and corruption. The book reads like one long argument or a diatribe, and the author is very convincing on many of his points.

Review Imagining The Nation, Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq

Al-Qarawee, Harith, Imagining The Nation, Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq, Lanchashire: Rossendale Books, 2012

Imagining The Nation, Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq is an academic book by Harith Al-Qarawee who now goes by Harith Hasan, about how Iraq’s Arab population has struggled to form a national identity from the foundation of the country to the present. The book is organized like a thesis with an introduction where the main argument is laid out, followed by a review of the literature on the topic, and then two broad sections. The first covers the Ottomans to Saddam Hussein, and the second is about Iraq post-2003. The book was largely shaped in response to Western commentators that argued Iraq has been beset by sectarian divisions since its origins. Hasan believes that is mistaking current political struggles as historical ones. The thesis is that Iraq’s identities have been shaped by socio-political conflicts over power and resources, which have changed over time.

Review The Future of Iraq, Dictatorship, Democracy, or Division?

Anderson, Liam and Stansfield, Gareth, The Future of Iraq, Dictatorship, Democracy, or Division? New York, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004

The Future of Iraq, Dictatorship, Democracy, or Division? by Liam Anderson and Gareth Stansfield is part history, part prescription for what the U.S. could do in Iraq. The history part is decent, but suffers from the western obsession with ethnosectarian divisions in Iraq arguing that has always kept the country from being unified. The second part predicted many of the problems the Americans faced during the occupation, but then becomes dated as it talks about democratization since it was originally written in 2003.

New Iraq Poll: People Focused Upon Govt And Not Happy

With the war against the Islamic State over and violence at its lowest level since the 2003 invasion, most Iraqis are turning their attention to the Iraqi government and are not happy with what they see. A poll released in July 2019 by the National Democratic Institute (NDI) conducted in the spring found that most Iraqis think their country is going in the wrong direction because of their concerns about Baghdad.

(NDI)