Here's the conclusion to the war in Iraq, with a few other tidbits thrown in:
June 13 1981: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat fires off a few words of harsh criticism against Israel, intensely angered by what he sees as unprovoked Israeli aggression. He even threatens to mobilize troops on the border. The threat is mostly empty since Sadat has worked too hard to gain the friendship of the United States, but his words do more than a little to endear him to Arab states that had been angered by his actions following the Yom Kippur War.
September 10 1981: In a short but intense gun battle, Army troops storm Saddam's palace and take him captive. When the news reaches Bush, he jubilantly tells his staff, “That's it, it's over.” He addresses the nation that evening, outlining plans to keep troops stationed in Iraq until stability can be achieved and a new government put in place. This draws criticism, particularly from the anti-war movement. Noted leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky accuses the Bush administration of having “a colonial attitude that would make Cecil Rhodes proud.”
September 11 1981: In an intense meeting with Nixon, Premier Yuri Andropov conveys Suslov's displeasure with the Bush Administration's plans of continued occupation, temporary though they may be, and reiterates the demand that the Baathist Party continue to rule in Iraq. Even as this discussion is taking place, Shi'ite uprisings sweep Baghdad and other major population centers while calls for democratic elections grow louder.
September 12 1981: After a mob attacks a unit of Iraqi soldiers, they respond violently, and nearly 200 civilians are killed in the following bloodbath. This pattern continues for the next week until the unrest is quelled – for the moment. News of the violence, though sparse, clashes with the Bush administration's efforts to work out a piece with what remains of the Baathist party.
September 14 1981: In an effort to free Hussein, his distant cousin and chief lieutenant Abid Hamid Mahmud leads a surprise attack on the palace with hundreds of loyalist soldiers and dozens of tanks.
September 16 1981: After three days of hard urban fighting, the loyalist forces are crushed and Mahmud is taken into custody alongside Hussein. Bush again takes to the airwaves to reiterate that United States forces will remain in Iraq to see the leadership transition through.
September 18 1981: Saddam's first cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid assumes leadership of the Baathist Party and of the army and formally offers peace to the Coalition.
September 22 1981: Representatives from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey meet in Bucharest with the representatives of al-Majid's new government and Moscow. The meeting is overseen by Romanian Dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, who has taken the opportunity to flaunt his international prestige and role as a statesman. The accord is fairly straightforward: Iraq will cede some of its northern regions to Turkey, while the rest of the coalition forces will withdraw by the end of the year. In turn, the ruling Baathists will continue to hold power. Neither Israel nor Turkey are happy with the arrangement; Israel does not believe the Iraqis have been suitably punished, while Turkey is unsatisfied with their relatively small gains. However, neither Bush nor Thatcher are committed to a continued occupation (particularly Bush, who is concerned about approval on the home front) and the Soviets are practically breathing fire at this point. The treaty is signed.
September 23 1981: President Bush announces that the war in Iraq is over and that American troops will be home by the New Year. His chief supporters take the opportunity to crow over the success of the mission. “He promised it would be no Vietnam, and he delivered!” Many are shocked by this new model for American intervention; the swiftness of the war and its almost abrupt conclusion have practically cut the legs out from under the anti-war movement, and Bush's ratings subsequently jump. A new found confidence in America's global power and reach begins to take root across the nation and even in the mind of the President himself. As plans for a withdrawal are made, CIA analysts simultaneously plan on the best way for the US to take advantage of the mess that has been left behind...
October 1 1981: Even as America and its allies are preparing to leave, Soviet advisers arrive in Baghdad. Al-Majid has no interest in turning towards the West following the embarrassment of defeat. However, with few options left to him, he concludes that Iraq must draw further into the Soviet sphere for the sake of his own security. Shi'ite militias, almost certainly stirred up by Iran, are beginning to plague the tattered Iraqi army more and more. And then there's the problem of Iran resuming the war. The recent Soviet Intervention in Afghanistant has given him hope that the USSR will be able to protect his fledgling regime from a premature demise.
What al-Majid does not know is how much the situation concerns the Soviet leaders. Moscow is willing to help rebuild the Iraqi military by providing hardware and advisers, but even the slightest prospect of becoming embroiled in another war to prop up an ally has even Andropov worried. However, the chance to draw Iraq deeper into the Soviet fold is too much for Suslov to pass up, and so plans to help stabilize the al-Majid regime and subdue the Shi'ite population move forward.
Also disconcerting to the Soviets is the ease with which the coalition forces were able to defeat Saddam's armies, which had fought using Soviet munitions and technology. Though the Iraqi forces were not especially well trained, the suggestion that the technology of the Warsaw Pact was not on par with their NATO counterparts deeply unsettles Yuri Andropov, who resolves to rectify the problem.
October 3 1981: Saddam Hussein is placed under house arrest. The sentence is indefinite. Out of loyalty, al-Majid is not willing to kill the former dictator, but he does not trust him to run free either. Not only would the US and her partners in the war raise hell, but al-Majid is unwilling to share power. So Saddam stays in prison. With his children killed in the war and his power taken from him, the lonely years of solitary imprisonment within his own home seem unbearable.