Back to the full dot-point answer
NSWModern HistoryQuick questions
Section III (Peace and Conflict): Conflict in the Gulf 1980-2011
Quick questions on Iraqi insurgency and sectarian civil war 2003-2008: HSC Modern History Conflict in the Gulf
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the roots of insurgency?Show answer
The Coalition Provisional Authority's two May 2003 orders (de-Baathification on 16 May, dissolution of the army on 23 May) created the human raw material of the insurgency: around 30,000 senior Baath cadres without livelihoods and around 400,000 trained Iraqi soldiers without employment.
What is the insurgent groups (2003-2005)?Show answer
Former regime elements. Disbanded military, intelligence, and Baath Party cadres organised initially around the Saddam Fedayeen networks. Saddam's capture (13 December 2003) reduced this stream but did not end it.
What is falluja, Abu Ghraib, and the escalation of 2004?Show answer
Abu Ghraib (April 2004). Photographs of US military police abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison appeared on 60 Minutes II on 28 April 2004 and in The New Yorker (Seymour Hersh) on 30 April. The images destroyed remaining US moral authority and became major recruiting material.
What is elections and the Maliki government?Show answer
Three elections in 2005: - 30 January 2005: Transitional National Assembly. Sunni boycott. - 15 October 2005: Constitutional referendum. - 15 December 2005: National Assembly.
What is the Zarqawi strategy?Show answer
Zarqawi's "letter to bin Laden" (intercepted by Kurdish intelligence in January 2004) laid out the strategy: provoke the Shia into open warfare with the Sunni population.
What is the al-Askari bombing and the civil war?Show answer
On 22 February 2006 around 06:55 local time, AQI operatives in Iraqi National Guard uniforms detonated explosives in the golden dome of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra. The dome collapsed.
What is the Surge?Show answer
The November 2006 US midterm elections were a Democratic landslide, partly on Iraq. Rumsfeld was replaced by Robert Gates on 8 November 2006. The Iraq Study Group recommended phased withdrawal. Bush rejected the recommendation and announced the opposite: a Surge.
What is the Anbar Awakening and the Sons of Iraq?Show answer
The Sunni tribal turn against AQI began in late 2006 in Anbar. Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha of the Albu Risha tribe founded the Anbar Salvation Council on 14 September 2006. AQI had alienated the tribes through brutality.
What is zarqawi killed; Saddam executed?Show answer
Zarqawi was killed by a US F-16 strike on a safehouse in Hibhib north of Baqubah on 7 June 2006. He was replaced by Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, then Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Islamic State of Iraq, October 2006), then Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (April 2010).
What is violence falls?Show answer
By spring 2008 monthly civilian deaths had fallen 80 per cent from the late-2006 peak. The combination of factors: - The Surge concentrated force in Baghdad neighbourhoods. - The Anbar Awakening removed AQI's base of operations. - The 2006-07 sectarian cleansing had completed.
What is historiography?Show answer
Thomas Ricks (Fiasco, 2006; The Gamble, 2009) is the standard military journalism.
What is former regime elements?Show answer
Disbanded military, intelligence, and Baath Party cadres organised initially around the Saddam Fedayeen networks. Saddam's capture (13 December 2003) reduced this stream but did not end it.
What is sunni nationalist Islamists?Show answer
The Islamic Army in Iraq, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Ansar al-Sunna. Drew on tribal networks.
What is foreign jihadis?Show answer
The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (1966-2006) had run a small group in Afghanistan and Iran. He moved to northern Iraq in 2002. His group pledged allegiance to bin Laden in October 2004 and renamed itself al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia (AQI).
What is shia militias?Show answer
The Mahdi Army (Jaish al-Mahdi) under Moqtada al-Sadr, formed June 2003. The Badr Organization, connected to Iran. Active against Coalition forces from 2004 and against Sunnis from 2005.