17 Year Anniversary Of Musings On Iraq

On 9/11 I saw former CIA Director James Woolsey on CBS say that the United States needed to strike Iraq even if it wasn’t involved in the terrorist attack. This stuck with me. In 2002 the Bush administration began its public campaign to build support for the invasion of Iraq. Together this motivated me to start researching the topic to try to understand why the U.S. was about to go to war. In 2008 this culminated in me starting the Musings On Iraq blog. 17 years later I’m still plugging away publishing something every day. I would like to thank all the people that helped me along the way and all the people that read my work.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 17 London approved Arab govt with UK advisers to run Iraq under British Mandate

1919 British force defeated Sheikh Barzinji near Chamchamal at Bazyan Pass Rebellion put down

(Musings On Iraq Explaining Kurdish Nationalism Interview With Teen Tech Univ Prof Michael Gunter)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 16 Iraq protested border treaty with Iran by sending troops into Khuzistan province Led to 88 Iraqi soldiers being killed

 

1920 UK govt decided to cancel proposed UK run provisional govt in Iraq for an Arab govt under

British influence

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 15 PM Nuri al-Said made cover of Time magazine Was Prime Minister of Iraq 9 times

1920 War Min Churchill wrote UK Cabinet that he was ready to give up Mosul province to save

costs

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

(Musings On Iraq Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied)

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 14 Ayatollah Sistani said his call for Iraqis to defend country meant joining ISF not militias that became Hashd al-Shaabi Was too late

 

1920 UK military governor in Basra reported political agitation from Baghdad trying to raise

support for Iraqi independence in Basra

Review Gertrude Bell, The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volumes I and II, Benediction Books, 2009

Bell, Gertrude, The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volumes I and II, Benediction Books, 2009

 

The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volumes I and II collects together writings Ms Bell made to her family from 1874 until her death in 1926. It was put together and edited by her younger sister. Much of what Bell had to say was mundane such as commenting upon the hot weather in Iraq or asking for clothes to be sent from England. There are some insights into her strong character which set her apart from many of her contemporaries and her ideas about Iraq when it was formed by the British.

This Day In Iraqi History - Jun 13 Ayatollah Sistani called for men to defend Iraq after fall of Mosul to ISIS Led to Hashd al-Shaabi

 

1920 War Min Churchill wrote PM George that British army overextended in Mesopotamia

and asked whether UK should give up Mosul province because of costs

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

(Musings On Iraq Churchill In His Own Words On Mesopotamia/Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Churchill’s Folly, How Winston Churchill Created Modern Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Inventing Iraq: The Failure of Nation Building and a History Denied)

(Musings On Iraq review Supremacy And Oil, Iraq, Turkey, and the Anglo-American World Order, 1918-1930)