The article I've chosen for review, Land reform in Zimbabwe, actually stands to be one of the better articles of Wikipedia. There is a great deal of information dealing with the background, presenting both sides of the events without going too overboard with information or bias for either side, and when bias is presented it is noted upon by means of reflecting on the origin of the citation. Further, the citations by and large are either news articles from the time the events transpired or scholarly articles from the times afterwords, creating a fair amount of primary source and confirmation for information presented. Citations are presented throughout and used where relevant, the leader is concise and provides a generalized timeline of events in brief, and the Talk page, while not always civil, provided the basis for meaningful change in compliance with Wikipedia's standards.

I learned that some of my classmates, some of whom are majoring in Political Science, don't exactly keep up with politics on a basis outside consumer US outlets. That's pretty damned scary when you think about it!

Ideally, I want to add content to the page: though Iraq's history is related to France from it's inception to the modern day, there is very little discussion about anything of the matters. Some ideas I want to explore are the influences that made France recognize Iraq in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, French involvement in the UN pertaining to Iraq-Iran conflicts and Desert Shield/Storm, and current efforts in Iraq or with the Iraqi government in support of US/NATO operations to defeat ISIS.

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/iraq/france-and-iraq/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/crisis_in_the_gulf/decision_makers_and_diplomacy/58568.stm U

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/france-and-iraq-restore-diplomatic-relations-1.984680

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09662830490499966 U

http://mofamission.gov.iq/en/France U

https://iq.ambafrance.org/ U

http://countrystudies.us/iraq/99.htm U

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/21/world/confrontation-in-the-gulf-french-reportedly-sent-iraq-chemical-war-tools.html

As it stands now, the article doesn't elaborate on the actual history or state of affairs between the two nations, not even to a contemporaneous state; the last noted event was French diplomatic response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, which took place in 1990 and the reestablishment of formal relations after the US invasion in 2004. This leaves a sizable gap to be explored, not only between 1990 and 2004, but from the foundations of the Iraqi government to 1990.

French–Iraq relations refers to the relations between France and Iraq. France played a major role in Iraqi succession from the Ottoman Empire and eventual freedom from British colonial status. The Franco-Iraqi relationship is often defined by conflict and peace, supporting Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, supporting intervention in Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, and opposing the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. As of 2004, Iraq maintains an embassy in Paris^[1] and France maintains an embassy in Baghdad^[2].

Contemporary Iraqi independence is firmly rooted in the fall of the Ottoman Empire, of which the French, British and Russian forces were certain would come about as a result of Triple Entente in the Middle East during World War I^[3]. In response to waning Ottoman cohesion following the war and the signing of the Armistice of Mudros, the powers sought and were gained mandates of former Ottoman territories through the League of Nations; France being granted of Lebanon and Syria and Britain being granted Mesopotamia and Palestine. However, independence movements in Iraq ultimately reduced British influence in the region to allow for a semi-autonomous state. Other mandated areas experienced similar revolts around the same time, namely Syria, which succeeded in a revolt and established the independent Arab Kingdom of Syria. In the war that followed, France deposed the revolt-instated King Faisal I, whom the British government saw as a popular figurehead that was friendly to the British thanks to prior dealings with the British before World War I. Further, the British believed placing Faisal on the throne would prevent him from returning to fight for his throne in Syria, leading to tension in British-French relations^[4]. Ultimately, Iraq was granted full independence as the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932.

Following the independence of Iraq, France maintained formal relations with the Iraqi Kingdom, even the governments coming in result of coup. At the turn of the 1940's, the occupation of France and establishment of Vichy France during World War II forced the French government into exile, as well as another Iraqi coup lead to a pro-German regime^[5] that put the two governments in conflict. British military operations eventually reestablished the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which served as the Allied hold to attack Vichy territory in Syria, which was aided by Free France. After the defeat of the Axis, both France and Iraq's exiled governments were reinstated and both joined the United Nations. Some years later, the French provided clandestine support against Iraq to Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict; not only allowing Air France to ship arms, but blocking UK-brokered Swiss arms sales to Iraqi allies in the conflict^[6]. Later, conflicts with the Egyptian government over union with Syria, British opposing Kuwaiti inclusion into a Arab-Hashemite Federation and growing unrest lead to another coup that deposed the Iraqi monarchy to form an Iraqi Republic.

The later days of the Iraqi Republic saw a new shift in relations with France with the election of Charles de Gaulle in 1968. From a position of unrest following the Algerian War, de Gaulle sought to re-establish relations with the Arab world^[7]. Although France's support of Israel was evident during the Six Day War, de Gaulle found that Algeria was no longer able to be controlled and would need Arab support in the Middle East to retain French status as a global political entity outside that of the United States' or Soviet Union's sphere of influence^[8]. This period of warming of relations and increased trade would persist even after the fall of the Iraqi Republic in the 14 July Revolution, the eventual coup ousting the then general Abd al-Karim Qasim in the Ramadan Revolution and the Ba'athist seizure of power in the 17 July Revolution^[9].

After the 17 July Revolution, the Ba'ath Party of Iraq, under then chairman Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, attempted to consolidate power and fulfill party principles by removing Nasserists and communists from Iraq. This coincided both with the regimes policy against Soviet influence in the party^[10] and attempts to woo the Iraqi Communist Party into acceptance of the Ba'ath regime and the National Progressive Front, given the ICP's apprehension after the anti-communist stance of the regime in 1963.^[11] Further, France was very willing to continue providing for the regime under these circumstances, especially within their own foreign policy centered around Soviet containment, stemming from Soviet assistance in the liberation of French Indochina and assistance to the North Korean regime during the Korean War, a stance embraced by the United States in the aftermath of World War II that other Western nations followed during the Cold War^[11]. This continued improvement of relations established a precedent of French support for the Iraqi state, which established the sale and lending of weapons in 1975, which would include the sale of Mirage F-1 jet fighters, Alouette, Gazelle, Puma and Super Frelon helicopters, a share in the future production of the Mirage 2000, Exocet missiles and the training to use said equipment^{[12][13][14][15]}. Additionally, French reliance on Iraqi oil and trade further cemented these relations^[16], affirmed further by the French Defense Ministry being a controlling stake of French trade and export policy based on France's missile superiority in Europe^[17]. This supply of military arms, though not initially intended for use in a conflict, ultimately came to use in the Iran-Iraq War following the Iranian Revolution, which was initially welcomed by the Iraqi government as the ousting of a British instated Shah, but later came to conflict between pan-Islamic Iranian and pan-Arab Iraqi policy^[18][19]. Central Intelligence Agency documents detail that Iraq had been perusing nuclear weapons as early as 1980, being offered reactors by the Soviets in 1959, with France selling them another two reactors in 1975. However, France's supply of highly enriched uranium came under question when Iraq refused to allow it to be substituted for lower quality uranium insufficient for the development of weapons^[20]. An Israeli strike on the Osirak Nuclear Reactor, which the French had assisted in building, is often referred to as the end of French support of Iraq's nuclear ambitions and Iraqi nuclear capability^[21][22][23]. However, France also supported Iraqi chemical weapons programs, among other Western states, including the United States^[24], the Netherlands, Australia, Italy and France, as well as countless private companies within these countries^[25].

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