Blog Roll: Iraq

Sep 30, 2026 After Two Decades, U.S. Forces Leave Iraq to an Uncertain Future Some Iraqis are celebrating the end of an American military presence that unleashed waves of bloodshed. Others fear what happens next (the Region might be destabilized).

Posts:

• Blog Roll: Iran The next US Misadventure.
• The Long Iranian Economic Bubble In the World-System, everything is related to everything else.
• The Iranian Revolution (Background)
• Stabilizing the Iranian Economy A Model for Iraq?
• Unstable Cycles in the Iranian Economy (more background)
• A Steady State Economy for Israel (more background)
• US Hegemonic Collapse The 2026 US-Iran War in the context of Hegemonic Decline.
• The Mesopotamia Model The history of Mesopotamia extends back to the Lower Paleolithic period, with significant developments continuing through the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, after which the region became known as Iraq. I have a state space model of Mesopotamia (MESO Model, 10,000BCE - 0BCE with Malthusian Dynamics).

Notes

• The Gulf War an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States in response to Saddam Hussein invading neighboring Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The coalition's efforts were in two phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, from the bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January until the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February.
• Economy of Iraq a developing, upper-middle income economy, dominated by the oil sector. The IFAD has classified Iraq as an oil-rich upper middle income country. In 2025, the economy is estimated to be at $690 billion (GDP PPP), ranking it as the 5th largest in the Arab world, 7th in the Middle East and North Africa and 51st largest economy in the world.
• History of Iraq a country located in West Asia, largely coincides with the ancient region of Mesopotamia, often referred to as the cradle of civilization. The history of Mesopotamia extends back to the Lower Paleolithic period, with significant developments continuing through the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, after which the region became known as Iraq. Within its borders lies the ancient land of Sumer, which emerged between 6000 and 5000 BC during the Neolithic Ubaid period. Sumer is recognized as the world's earliest civilization, marking the beginning of urban development, written language, and monumental architecture. Iraq's territory also includes the heartlands of the Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian, Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian empires, which dominated Mesopotamia and much of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
• Politics of Iraq According to the constitution adopted in 2005, the Republic of Iraq is defined as a federal democratic parliamentary republic. Executive power is exercised by the Prime Minister of Iraq who heads the Council of Ministers (i.e. the federal government). The President of Iraq is the head of state with largely ceremonial powers, while legislative and judicial power is vested in the Council of Representatives and Supreme Judicial Council respectively.
• History of Iraq (2011-Present) The departure of US troops from Iraq in 2011 ended the period of occupation that had begun with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. The time since U.S. withdrawal has been marked by a renewed Iraqi insurgency and by a spillover of the Syrian civil war into Iraq. By 2013, the insurgency escalated into a renewed war, the central government of Iraq being opposed by ISIL and various factions, primarily radical Sunni forces during the early phase of the conflict. The war ended in 2017 with an Iraqi government and allied victory, however ISIL continues a low-intensity insurgency in remote parts of the country.
• Islamic State Invasion of Iraq In June 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIL or ISIS), which had controlled a large portion of Northeastern Syria at that time during the Syrian civil war, launched a widespread offensive in Iraq, capturing a large swath of territory extending all the way from the Iraq–Syria border to the outskirts of the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad.
• WMD Conjecture The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the United States-led Iraq Survey Group (ISG) failed to find any of the alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were used as a rationale for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The United States effectively ended the search effort for unconventional weaponry in 2005, and the Iraq Intelligence Commission concluded that the judgements of the U.S. intelligence community regarding the continued existence of weapons of mass destruction and an associated military program were mistaken. 
• Rationale for Iraq War The George W. Bush administration began actively pressing for military intervention in Iraq in late 2001. The primary rationalization for the Iraq War was articulated by a joint resolution of the United States Congress known as the Iraq Resolution. The United States intent was to "disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people".
• G. W. Bush Administration As the 43rd president of the United States, Bush began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office after defeating the Democratic incumbent vice president Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. 
• Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
• Ahmed Chalabi (30 October 1945 – 3 November 2015) was an Iraqi politician and founder of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) who served as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq (37th Prime Minister of Iraq) and a Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq under Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
• al-Qaeda The Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations were based on false claims by the United States federal government alleging that a secretive relationship existed between Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and the pan-Islamist militant organization al-Qaeda between 1992 and 2003. US president George W. Bush used it as a main reason for invading Iraq in 2003.

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