Why We Stuck With Maliki — And Lost Iraq  Part 2 of 2
By Ali Khedery July 3, 2014 
 
 After organizing Bush’s final trip to Iraq — where he was attacked with a pair of shoes at Maliki’s news conference celebrating the signing of the bilateral agreements — I left Baghdad with Crocker on Feb. 13, 2009.
 
After more than 2,000 days of service, I was ill, depleted physically and mentally, but hopeful that America’s enormous sacrifices might have produced a positive outcome.
 
With the Obama administration vowing to end Bush’s “dumb war,” and the continued distraction of the global economic crisis, Maliki seized an opportunity. He began a systematic campaign to destroy the Iraqi state and replace it with his private office and his political party.
 ...

Why We Stuck With Maliki — And Lost Iraq  Part 1 of 2
By Ali Khedery July 3, 2014
 
Ali Khedery is chairman and chief executive of the Dubai-based Dragoman Partners. From 2003 to 2009, he was the longest continuously serving American official in Iraq, acting as a special assistant to five U.S. ambassadors and as a senior adviser to three heads of U.S. Central Command.

In 2011, as an executive with Exxon Mobil, he negotiated the company’s entry into the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
 
To understand why Iraq is imploding, you must understand Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and why the United States has supported him since 2006.
 ...

​Notes From the Field  By Simon Black
March 29, 2017

 The First Time I Acquired A Second Passport
​
I’ll never forget the day over 17 years ago, when the Fedex envelope finally arrived. 

Inside was my very first second passport. It was an incredible feeling. And one of the things that got me started on this journey. 

Suddenly I realized that I was no longer beholden to one nation. That no single government had exclusive authority over me. I had more options. I had more freedom. 
...

(Thank you George for sending this to Recaps.)

March 29, 2017 Mnt Goat News Brief
 
Hi Everyone,
 
I bring you much news today.   
 
Revealed Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi will head the Iraqi delegation at the Arab summit, which begins next Wednesday in the Jordanian capital, Amman, instead of the President of the Republic Fuad Masum.
 
He said al-Jaafari, who arrived in Amman yesterday in a press statement, that in the quiver Abadi ideas and news must reach the summit, a respect for her to listen to the Executive the man first in the country, adding that the president remains infallible person is respected Iraq’s sovereignty by the Constitution.
 
The spokesman for the Joint Operations Command Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul. Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi security command leading operations against Islamic State in Mosul has said the battle in the west of the city was concluded on the military level.