THE FIELD OF COMBAT: IRAQ ~ A THUMBNAIL HISTORY

Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Iraq was occupied by Great Britain during  World War I.  In 1920, it was declared a League of Nations mandate under United Kingdom administration.  In stages over the next dozen years, Iraq attained its independence as a kingdom in 1932 and remained so until a "republic" was proclaimed in 1958, but in actuality a series of strongmen ruled the country from then until 2003. The last of these dictators and most likely the most brutal and mentally unstable was the murdering psychopath, Saddam Hussein.

Territorial disputes with Iran led to an inconclusive and costly eight-year war (1980-88). In August 1990, Iraq seized Kuwait but was expelled by U.S.-led, UN coalition forces during the Gulf War of January-February 1991 (The First Gulf War).

Following Kuwait's liberation, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) required Iraq to scrap all weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and long-range missiles and to allow UN verification inspections. Continued Iraqi noncompliance with UNSC resolutions over a period of 12 years, coupled with Hussein's belligerent threats against Israel, the United States, and his immediate neighbors resulted in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the ouster of the Saddam Hussein regime (the Second Gulf War).

After a 9-month disappearance, Hussein was captured by U.S. troops.  He was tried by the Iraqi High Tribunal in October 2005, on charges of killing the people of the town of Al-Dujay.  He was eventually found guilty of crimes against humanity, including murder and torture, and on December 30, 2006, he was executed by hanging.

In October 2005, Iraqis approved a constitution in a national referendum and, pursuant to this document, elected a 275-member Council of Representatives (CoR) in December 2005. After the election, Ibrahim al-Jaafri was selected as prime minister; he was replaced by Nuri al-Maliki in May 2006. The CoR approved most cabinet ministers in May 2006, marking the transition to Iraq's first constitutional government in nearly a half century. On 31 January 2009, Iraq held elections for provincial councils in all provinces except for the three provinces comprising the Kurdistan Regional Government and at-Ta'mim (Kirkuk) province.

U.S. forces remained in Iraq under a United Nations Security Council mandate through 2009, and under a bilateral security agreement thereafter, helping to provide security and to train and mentor Iraqi security forces.

Today, Iraq remains unstable, its ethnic fault lines frequently exacerbated by remaining al-Qaeda/ISIS influence coupled with ongoing internecine violence.  A suggestion for solution of this problem was advanced in 2008 by then Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), to partition Iraq along ethnic lines into three territories, one for the Kurds, one for the Sunnis, and one for the Shiites.  These three independent entities could either remain totally independent of each other as separate countries, or form a confederation to continue Iraq as a political entity.  In any event, it is highly doubtful that Iraq will be able to maintain any significant degree of political cohesion once the already drastically reduced U.S. military presence is completely withdrawn.

MY TAKE:  U.S.  troop presence in Iraq has now dwindled almost to the level of an afterthought.  The world continues to be a dangerous place, with some sub-places being more dangerous than others, particularly those designated as “gun-free zones.”  It’s demonstrably safer in “free-fire zones,” where our guys can shoot back at the bad guys at will, now that Obama’s ludicrous rules of engagement have been rescinded.

Hopefully, with another Trump term in the wings, followed by several more Trump-like presidencies, we will have shattered the establishment’s love affair with unwinnable interminable wars, and graduated to fighting only when it really matters to our own national interests.

There still exists a great deal of confusion as to how we came to invade Iraq twice within the same ten-year period.  Nancy Pelosi recently announced that she “knew” there were no weapons of mass destruction  in Iraq before the Second Gulf War, as she had been the ranking member of the House Committee on Intelligence, and had been so briefed by high-ranking officials within the intelligence community.  Essentially what she’s now saying is that George W. Bush, along with upper echelons of his administration, accompanied by upper echelons at the Pentagon, all LIED to get the U. S. into yet another quagmire, and did so by falsifying known intelligence to the American people.  This, like so very much of what Nancy Pelosi says about anything simply doesn’t make any sense.

Prior to the U. S. invasion, it was known by the intelligence community that there were, in fact, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, primarily in the form of chemical and biological agents.  We knew this because we had ample evidence that the bastard Hussein had used these weapons against his own people! 

As we geared up to overrun Saddam yet again, we watched in real time, via satellite, as a 600-truck convoy departed the environs of Baghdad and travelled to Syria, many of the trucks going on into the Bekka Valley in Lebanon.  What were they carrying?  THAT, we couldn’t know, thanks to the remnants of our on-the-ground intelligence capabilities having been destroyed by Slick Willie, but we held off attacking the convoy as we didn’t want to chance blowing all manner and form of WTF all over the Iraqi countryside and killing unknown thousands of innocent civilians.

Where in hell we ever got the lunatic idea that once we pounded the living sh*t out of an adversary we had to go back and rebuild his whole damned country has been totally beyond my comprehension since forever.  He pissed us off.  We destroyed his sh*thole.  Let him dig himself out of the rubble and rebuild his own damned sh*thole.  He’ll appreciate it a lot more. 

Don’t doubt me. 

CHEERS!