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Iraq: Al-Iraq
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Iraq covers about 169,000 square miles and is surrounded by six countries - Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, and Syria. It is essentially a landlocked country. The country's access to the high seas is through two major ports, Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf and Basra, which is located at the Shatt al-Arab, the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Geographically, the country is divided into four areas: the Syrian Desert in the west and southwest; the river valleys of the central and southeast areas, which contain the most fertile agricultural soil; the upland between the Upper Tigris and Euphrates Rivers; and the mountains of the north and northeast. The climate is subtropical, with long dry summers and a wide difference in temperatures between summer and winter. Rain falls mostly between the months of October and April, but not heavily.
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Iraq is already providing a first-rate jihadi combat training-zone and, from an al-Qaida perspective, this is without any risk of changing. They (and many western analysts) simply do not believe that the United States can win in Iraq. Therefore, the longer it loses the better. In light of the fact that al-Qaida deals in decades, it has the prospect of decades of training for jihadi cohorts.
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![[Iraq, 1991-2004]](http://retrieverimages.lycos.com/images/i/r/a/iraq/i/019.gif)
The choice of Kufic calligraphy for the takbir on Iraq's new flag is quite appropriate. The Kufic style is oldest calligraphic form of the Arabic script and originates in Kufa (al-Kufah), which is south of Baghdad near Najaf. Wikipedia has a short article on Kufic (with some links to other sites about the Kufic hand and history.)
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Large parts of Iraq consist of desert, but the area between the two major rivers Euphrates and Tigris is fertile, with the rivers carrying about 70 million cubic meters of silt annually to the delta. The north of the country is largely mountainous, with the highest point being Haji Ibrahim at 3,600 m. Iraq has a small coastline with the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab there used to be marshlands, but many of these were drained in the 1990s.
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A long-standing territorial dispute over control of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran broke into full-scale war on Sept. 20, 1980, when Iraq invaded western Iran. The eight-year war cost the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people and finally ended in a UN-brokered cease-fire in 1988. Poison gas was used by both Iran and Iraq.
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On Thursday August 16th, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a new coalition that will govern Iraq. The alliance contains no Sunnis and resulted from the resignation of five ministers from to the Iraqi Accordance Front (IAF) on the previous Wednesday.
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