Known Unknowns: Iraqi WMD, 13 Years Later
“…it seems to me the president, given the facts he had from the intelligence community, made the right decision. In retrospect, they didn’t find large caches of chemical or biological weapons.” —...
View ArticleThe Long Road to Mosul
As the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gains momentum in Iraq, the focus has returned to Mosul, a key ISIL stronghold. Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi has...
View ArticleHacking Defense and Iraq’s Controversial Security Groups
We have a two-parter for you in this episode. First, WOTR’s Ryan Evans spoke with Steve Blank of Silicon Valley fame about his new course, “Hacking Defense.” The class just launched at Stanford, but...
View ArticleThe Moral Hazard of the Fight Against the Islamic State in Iraq
In a recent War on the Rocks podcast, Ryan Evans interviews Basam Ridha al-Hussaini, a special representative of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, about the state of affairs in Iraq and, in...
View ArticleA Visit to the Frontlines of the Battle Against ISIL
Editor’s note: The authors are both former Marine Corps officers whose combined service includes experience in wars ranging from Vietnam to Afghanistan. In March 2016, the authors visited the front...
View ArticleTaking the Fight to “ISILstan”: Displacing and Replacing ISIL in Eastern...
More so than at any time in recent history, last month demonstrated the dichotomous nature of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) current situation. On the one hand, the horrific attacks...
View ArticleIs Muqtada al-Sadr Good for Iraq?
The latest storming of the Iraqi parliament is one of the most significant political events in Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s regime was overthrown in 2003. This process, which culminated in the weekend’s...
View ArticlePartitioning Iraq: Make a Detailed Case, or Cease and Desist
Iraq is once again in political turmoil, and once again we are hearing calls to partition the country into three ethno-sectarian cantonments: Shi’a, Sunni, and Kurd. The partition trope resurfaces...
View ArticleThe Wars After the War for Sinjar: How Washington Can Avert a New Civil War
While the frontline with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) lies only 4.5 kilometers south of Sinjar, a potentially more dangerous threat looms much closer to home. Parts of northern...
View ArticleAmerica in the Looking Glass: All Questions and No Answers in Iraq and...
Kael Weston, The Mirror Test, America at War in Iraq and Afghanistan (Alfred Knopf, 2016). It is time to look into the mirror. Fifteen years into America’s ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and...
View ArticleThe Best Book About the Iraq War Isn’t About the Iraq War
Matti Friedman, Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story (Algonquin Books, 2016). Iraq veterans finally have their book; a manuscript that really deals with the whole of the Iraq experience. After over a...
View ArticleChilcot and a Very British History of Dubious Military Decisions
The publication of the long-awaited report by Sir John Chilcot and his committee on Britain’s involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq proved more surprising and damning than expected. Many of the...
View ArticleChilcot and Opening Old Wounds on WMD Intel
I certainly did not say that I would be proved wrong [about the threat from Iraq’s WMD]. On the contrary, I said with every fibre of instinct and conviction that I believe that we are right -Prime...
View ArticleWhen the Islamic State is Gone, What Comes Next?
To be sure, progress has been slow and halting. But in the past weeks, U.S. commanders in both Iraq and Afghanistan have discussed gains in their respective theaters. In Iraq particularly, U.S. forces...
View ArticleWashington’s Sunni Myth and the Civil Wars in Syria and Iraq
Editor’s Note: This author is writing under a pen name. I know the author’s identity and while his arguments are surely controversial, I am confident in his sourcing and subject matter expertise. I...
View ArticleWashington’s Sunni Myth and the Middle East Undone
Editor’s Note: This is the second of two articles on this topic, the first of which was published last week. There has been some controversy over my decision to allow this author to write under a pen...
View ArticlePost-Sistani Iraq, Iran, and the Future of Shia Islam
During a recent trip to my hometown of Najaf in southern Iraq, I stumbled across a book titled My Leader Khamenei in the personal library of a cleric studying in the Islamic seminary known as the...
View ArticleTurkey’s Kurdish Red Line in Syria and the Fight Against ISIL
Turkey’s military intervention in northern Syria (Operation Euphrates Shield) has raised both hopes and concerns about defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). While some regard it...
View ArticleAfter the Battle for Mosul, Get Ready for the Islamic State to Go Underground
Recent on-the-ground reports from Northern Iraq, as well as statements from senior U.S. and Iraqi commanders, clearly telegraph the next phase of the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State: the...
View ArticlePolitics, Population, and Hydrocarbons: Preparing for Mosul’s Aftermath
“At once ride for Mosul. The Kurds are devouring one another like wolves. This must be stopped” -Written order by Tahsin Pasha, Ottoman Principal Palace Secretary to Ebubekir Hazim Bey, the newly...
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