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By July 1968, the Iraqi government of Abdul Rahman Arif was between a rock and a hard place. In many Arab eyes, they had failed to support the Arab nations who were fighting the Six-Day War and Arif was subservient to the government of President Nasser in Egypt. There were disturbances among the Kurds in the north, the lack of popular elections denied the government any form of legitimacy and it was not very popular among the people of Iraq. The military's loyalty to the government was shaky and doubtful. As a result, when four military officers by the name of Colonel ʿAbd-al-Razaaq, head of military intelligence, Colonel Ibrahim Abd al-Rahman, chief of the Republican Guard, Colonel Saʿdūn Ghaydān, and Colonel Hammad Shibab, threw in their support to the Ba'ath Party, the government was doomed.

On 17th July 1968, a bloodless coup de'tat ensued and Arif went into exile, leaving the Ba'ath Party to take over the government and rule it until 2003's American invasion.

So, what if the four Colonels mentioned above never gave their support to the 17th July Revolution, therefore preventing the coup de'tat?
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