Due to sand storms and inclement weather, we were diverted from Mosul to Balad Air Force Base, located at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and home to the descendants of the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

CNN: Commentary: A tale of two wars

Weiss believes this climate change initiated a mass migration away from dry-land farming to the creation of irrigated fields along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, allowing the people to build some of the earliest institutions of civilization.

CNN: Past may hold clues to climate's future

"Pte Gibson survived these early battles, and fought with the Black Watch for the next two years up the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as Baghdad was liberated and the Turks were pushed up the valley, " Mr Roodnick said.

BBC: Medal

Professor Robert Englund of the University of California believes that the culture that flowered in this region around the delta that flows from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers formed the basis for what is almost certainly the world's oldest literary culture.

BBC: Iraq honours the word

Mr Hussein may destroy dams on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

ECONOMIST: The coming war