Because the Iraqi army has always focused inward — as its primary purpose was to preserve internal security, disperse demonstrations, confront political protests and rebellions and protect the government — it has been influenced by the country's political ideologies and used in numerous coups at the whim of military commanders. Among them are the coups by Bakr Sidqi (1936), Rashid Ali al-Gaylani (1941) and Abd al-Karim Qasim (establishing the republican system, 1958).
Others include the Baathists takeover (February 1963), followed by the coup led by Abdul Salam Arif overthrowing the Baathists (November 1963) and the coups that returned the Baathists to power (July 18, 1968) and allowed the party to tighten its grip on the country (July 30, 1968). In addition, there have been dozens of other small or failed coups.
From its creation in 1921 until the fall of Hussein's regime in 2003, the Iraqi national army had in reality been a Sunni army. At its establishment, the Shiites, who periodically rose up against British rule, boycotted it. An attempt was made to try to win over the Shiites by forming the Musa al-Kadhim regiment, named after the Shiite's seventh imam. It was to no avail. When Hussein took power, he banned all non-Sunnis from holding high ranks.
This year in the Sunni city of Mosul, there were more than 7,000 former officers and 100,000 former soldiers who had been forced from the military by de-Baathification, according to the BBC. Moreover, reports by CNN claim that thousands of members of IS had been army defectors.
Until 1980, the army had been involved in only two external wars: the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. In both cases, there is no evidence of effective participation by the Iraqi military. The army failed to bring the Iraq-Iran War (1980-88), which Hussein initiated, to a decisively conclusion. Instead, it ended with an Iranian decision to conclude it with an international resolution.
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