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[Gallery] Iran - Iraq war

Can anyone explain to me why some posters still hang on to one of the most irrelevant wars in the 20-century and note many wars took place in that century and this one specifically was one of the most irrelevant once and the most forgetable one and I am even surprised this war has 44 pages dedicated to it..

It is hard to mention a more irrelevant conflict then this one specifically and some Iranians even agree with me that this conflict was by far and large just irrelevant
Probably the most consequential war after WW II. This war changed everything (follow the chain of events):

1- Iraq after this war was in debt to Saudi and Kuwait (saudi debt was $ 70 billion ,kuwait I do not remember)

2- Saudi and Kuwait asked for repayment, Saddam got enraged called them traitor to Arabs..attacked Kuwait

3- US/UK got alarmed by prospect of Saddam taking over Kuwait and Saudi oil started war removed Saddam. Iraq destroyed.Iran watched and took note

4- Saddam gone ,Iran recovered to become to sole power in the region . Saudis invited US to stay

5- Osama bin Laden watched Iraq destruction and became enraged did 9/11 .. US went crazy all over the world with war on Islam (sorry Terror!!).

So in the International stage this war changed Middle east geo political map and exposed US as an aggressive nation not bound by international laws.

This war also changed Iran with the following message:
" you are alone..they will gang up on you again this time he is called Aliyev! ..build a military infrastructure that no one can touch you..so they did..and here we are

This War also killed over a million human beings in both side..Wounds of that war will be with families of the dead for generations. Made Iran and Iraq friends to never do that again .

And the last part: I think this war also finally made Iran and Saudi to realize the master plan for them and made them to become friends again!!
 
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3- US/UK got alarmed by prospect of Saddam taking over Kuwait and Saudi oil started war removed Saddam.

Not right away, they removed Saddam 12 years later. First they subjected Iraq to cruel sanctions which caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths including children. Iran was the only country (perhaps with Jordan?) to allow smuggling of some primary necessities in order to alleviate the suffering of Iraqis, as admitted by a former official of Saddam's regime, while Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a beautiful speech delivered directly in Arabic condemned the US-imposed UN sanctions.

It's unlikely the USA regime got alarmed by Iraq's move. In fact, Saddam had received an implicit green light to invade Kuwait from an American diplomat in Kuwait, who tricked him into believing Washington would not intervene if Iraq occupied Kuwait. It appears to have been a set up.
 
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Not right away, they removed Saddam 12 years later. First they subjected Iraq to cruel sanctions which caused hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths including children. Iran was the only country (perhaps with Jordan?) to allow smuggling of some primary necessities in order to alleviate the suffering of Iraqis, as admitted by a former official of Saddam's regime, while Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a beautiful speech delivered directly in Arabic condemned the US-imposed UN sanctions.

It's unlikely the USA regime got alarmed by Iraq's move. In fact, Saddam had received an implicit green light to invade Kuwait from an American diplomat in Kuwait, who tricked him into believing Washington would not intervene if Iraq occupied Kuwait. It appears to have been a set up.



Half a million.
100% way more than a million judging by the methods used by both sides

Iran resorted to use child soldiers
Iran resorted to tactics involving a lot of personnel death risks (even the stories of "human wave attacks" are largely exaggerated and came from Iraqi documentation)
Usage of WMD by Iraq on a large scale, first war of this scale and currently last that saw the usage of WMD
Both sides targeting civilian infrastructure and areas, Iraq using WMDs on civilian areas including his own population
WW1-like tactics, trenches, lack of medicine, reported resort to cannibalism and eating of animals like mice and snakes because of the lack of food in some cases, diseases, no gas masks for a while
8 year war of this level of violence is very likely to pass the 1 million casualties civilians included

The ceasefire conditions from from Saddam was saying that Iran should not recognize the agression of Iraq and other unacceptable terms for any country that would have sustained such an agression. If the ceasefire was signed, it would have basically mean on paper that what Iraq did for 2 years was not an agression and that it was just "self-defense because Iran wanted to export the revolution in Iraq", if Iran would have signed that, Iraq on paper would be the victor according to the ceasefire. This ceasefire was widely and still today used as a propaganda tool for the west and Baath Iraq/anti-Iran groups, it was the main propaganda used on TVs at the time for justifying the war and indicating that Iraq was in its right and that if Iran suffered more, this is because they didn't signed this ceasefire agreement which was totally corrupted and flawed.

They also used a quote from Khomeini in 1988 saying that signing this was like drinking poison, indeed, because he signed something that was making Iran recognize its "agression towards Iraq" and is still on every documents and encyclopedias, mentioning the cause of the Iraqi agression "because Iran wanted to export the revolution".

The numbers indicated mostly by Western agencies are never precise, they are not even precise in 2023 with the Ukraine war and holds a lot of bias
 
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100% way more than a million judging by the methods used by both sides

Iran's Foundation of Martyrs is a serious institution, which has done proper reliable work documenting casualties of the Sacred Defence.

According to these findings Iran gave 213.255 martyrs during the conflict. Additional martyrs after the ceasefire however, especially among those injured by Iraqi chemical weapons.

See: http://www.lsrw.ir/st/251

Iran resorted to use child soldiers
Iran resorted to tactics involving a lot of personnel death risks (even the stories of "human wave attacks" are largely exaggerated and came from Iraqi documentation)
Usage of WMD by Iraq on a large scale, first war of this scale and currently last that saw the usage of WMD
Iraq using WMDs on civilian areas including his own population

These casualties are accounted for in the mentioned figure.

Both sides targeting civilian infrastructure and areas,

An one-sided affair in essence, which is important to underscore.

War_of_the_Cities_map.png


WW1-like tactics, trenches, lack of medicine, reported resort to cannibalism and eating of animals like mice and snakes because of the lack of food in some cases, diseases, no gas masks for a while

Cannibalism et al. is fictitious.

8 year war of this level of violence is very likely to pass the 1 million casualties civilians includedReply

Except that these were not 8 years of continuous fighting. On the contrary, for most of that duration there was little activity along the front lines.

A particularity of this war is that it consisted mostly of a series of large scale offensives and counter-offensives, with clashes of rather low intensity in between.

The ceasefire conditions from from Saddam was saying that Iran should not recognize the agression of Iraq and other unacceptable terms for any country that would have sustained such an agression. If the ceasefire was signed, it would have basically mean on paper that what Iraq did for 2 years was not an agression and that it was just "self-defense because Iran wanted to export the revolution in Iraq", if Iran would have signed that, Iraq on paper would be the victor according to the ceasefire. This ceasefire was widely and still today used as a propaganda tool for the west and Baath Iraq/anti-Iran groups, it was the main propaganda used on TVs at the time for justifying the war and indicating that Iraq was in its right and that if Iran suffered more, this is because they didn't signed this ceasefire agreement which was totally corrupted and flawed.

They also used a quote from Khomeini in 1988 saying that signing this was like drinking poison, indeed, because he signed something that was making Iran recognize its "agression towards Iraq" and is still on every documents and encyclopedias, mentioning the cause of the Iraqi agression "because Iran wanted to export the revolution".

100% correct.

The numbers indicated mostly by Western agencies are never precise, they are not even precise in 2023 with the Ukraine war and holds a lot of bias

That's why I reference Iran's official tally.
 
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Website of martyrs of Army which you may search name of one person. if you know someone and like to add something about shim/her there you may add comments.

It's a shame that in these websites there is only very few details availiable it would be better to have history and military record of someone beside his/her name. it's ~35 years already ...

 
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Probably the most consequential war after WW II. This war changed everything (follow the chain of events):

1- Iraq after this war was in debt to Saudi and Kuwait (saudi debt was $ 70 billion ,kuwait I do not remember)

2- Saudi and Kuwait asked for repayment, Saddam got enraged called them traitor to Arabs..attacked Kuwait

3- US/UK got alarmed by prospect of Saddam taking over Kuwait and Saudi oil started war removed Saddam. Iraq destroyed.Iran watched and took note

4- Saddam gone ,Iran recovered to become to sole power in the region . Saudis invited US to stay

5- Osama bin Laden watched Iraq destruction and became enraged did 9/11 .. US went crazy all over the world with war on Islam (sorry Terror!!).

So in the International stage this war changed Middle east geo political map and exposed US as an aggressive nation not bound by international laws.

This war also changed Iran with the following message:
" you are alone..they will gang up on you again this time he is called Aliyev! ..build a military infrastructure that no one can touch you..so they did..and here we are

This War also killed over a million human beings in both side..Wounds of that war will be with families of the dead for generations. Made Iran and Iraq friends to never do that again .

And the last part: I think this war also finally made Iran and Saudi to realize the master plan for them and made them to become friends again!!
I don't know if it's one of the most important wars in the post-WWII era,but for me it's one of the most interesting wars ever.

-A clash of two different civilizations: Arabs and Persians
-Both Muslim,one with a majority Shia population,ruled by a minority Sunni secular elite. The other,a Shia majority with a Sunni minority.
-Arabic language and Farsi (which uses a version of the arabic script)
-So many different phases: The Iraqi invasion,the Iranian counterattack,the battle in the Faw peninsula,the Tanker War,the War of the Cities.
-The Pasdaran and the Basij on one side and the Fedayeen Saddam and the People's Militia on the other.
-All these NATO and Eastern Bloc weapons and equipment used.
-Many air battles
-Some of the few post-WWII naval battles
-Iran's human waves
-Both countries having Kurdish enemies and Kurdish allies
-Both were among the largest oil-producing countries in the world
 
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I don't know if it's one of the most important wars in the post-WWII era,but for me it's one of the most interesting wars ever.

-A clash of two different civilizations: Arabs and Persians
-Both Muslim,one with a majority Shia population,ruled by a minority Sunni secular elite. The other,a Shia majority with a Sunni minority.
-Arabic language and Farsi (which uses a version of the arabic script)
-So many different phases: The Iraqi invasion,the Iranian counterattack,the battle in the Faw peninsula,the Tanker War,the War of the Cities.
-The Pasdaran and the Basij on one side and the Fedayeen Saddam and the People's Militia on the other.
-All these NATO and Eastern Bloc weapons and equipment used.
-Many air battles
-Some of the few post-WWII naval battles
-Iran's human waves
-Both countries having Kurdish enemies and Kurdish allies
-Both were among the largest oil-producing countries in the world
"Iran human waves"

This is largely exagerrated and a distorted part of the war confusing people, there were not what people had in mind of like 5000 conscripts and childs going into minefields and serving as pure suicide canonfodder with "keys to heaven" Iran supposedly gave them, that Iraq was easily killing them with their better weaponry, this is a mix of old Iraqi war propaganda and supportive countries of Iraq but also general confusion about the war.

The "wave" attacks happened more at night with groups of volunteers, above was the narrative from the time with the imaginary "keys to heaven" that Iran gave to soldiers to incite them to rush according to propaganda

Same goes for the 1982 ceasefire that "Iran should have accepted", the ceasefire shown by Saddam, if signed by Iran, Iran would not acknowledge the agression of Saddam but Iran would be the agressor, if signed, this was a propaganda win for Saddam that would be depicted today as an Iranian invasion. At the end, Saddam achieved nothing of its goals he set before the invasion, and proceeded to invade Kuwait.

And you also forgot that this was the first time in history that 3rd party countries were selling WMDs to Iraq (nerve agents), and just WMD used extensively

Iran did use its population advantage to make up for some of its disadvantage in quality and quantity of equipment, but it was not done to erode the morale of the Iraqis.
Infantry were often used by Iran aggressively in swift focused attacks coming from many directions, sometimes complimented with squads dropped in behind the enemy, in surprise night assaults (which contrasts them with the human wave attacks of other wars). They frequently ended up surrounding the entrenched heavy defenses of the enemy, they didn't roll over them with sheer numbers and force Iraqis into hand to hand combat which is what people often associate with the phrase "human wave attack".

The Iran-Iraq War: Chaos in a Vacuum: Stephen C. Pelletiere

The human wave has been largely misconstrued both by the popular media in the West and by many scholars. The Iranians did not merely assemble masses of individuals, point them at the enemy, and order a charge. The waves were made up of the 22-man squads mentioned above [in response to Khomeini's call for the people to come to Iran's defense, each mosque organized 22 volunteers into a squad]. Each squad was assigned a specific objective. In battle, they would surge forward to accomplish their missions, and thus gave the impression of a human wave pouring against enemy lines.


Strategic and Operational Implications of Iranian Military Operations in the Iran-Iraq War: Donald H. Zacherl

Operation Undeniable Victory, which took- place in the north in the vicinity of Dezful, began in the third week of March [1982] with a force of roughly four divisions. 100,000 regulars and 30,000 Pasdran light infantry. Iraq had launched a number of spoiling attacks which resulted in a high number of casualties and a decision to dig in even deeper. The Iranian attack began with a night insertion of commando forces behind Iraqi lines, followed by a night attack on two separate axis by combined Armor and Infantry units. The Iraqis, surprised by both the location and size of the attack, later claimed overwhelming odds and "human wave" infantry assaults by frenzied religious fanatics. This is almost certainly false. While infantry was undoubtedly used courageously and aggressively, it was also used with great skill and effectiveness.
In order to appreciate the skill and effectiveness of the Iranian fighting force it is necessary to explain it in greater detail. Night attacks, which are always the most difficult and require the most detailed planning, staff work, rehearsal, training and leadership, were routine throughout this campaign. Units, which were frequently out of contact, acted with initiative and elan. For example, small detachments of infantry were trained to attack specific Iraqi positions, suppress the strong point to mask the armored penetration, and assure a breakthrough. Not only is the effectiveness, aggressiveness and skill of the army demonstrated by its victory in these difficult and complex night operations, but also in the high ratios of enemy to friendly dead. During this campaign, the Iranian soldiers killed their opponents at a ratio of about two to one, without Air supremacy, against a prepared and well equipped enemy in strong echeloned defensive positions, at night.
It was a courageous, effective, and lethal performance that any army would be proud of. It was certainly not a series of suicidal assaults by crazed fanatics seeking martyrdom.
 
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"Iran human waves"

This is largely exagerrated and a distorted part of the war confusing people, there were not what people had in mind of like 5000 conscripts and childs going into minefields and serving as pure suicide canonfodder with "keys to heaven" Iran supposedly gave them, that Iraq was easily killing them with their better weaponry, this is a mix of old Iraqi war propaganda and supportive countries of Iraq but also general confusion about the war.

The "wave" attacks happened more at night with groups of volunteers, above was the narrative from the time with the imaginary "keys to heaven" that Iran gave to soldiers to incite them to rush according to propaganda

Same goes for the 1982 ceasefire that "Iran should have accepted", the ceasefire shown by Saddam, if signed by Iran, Iran would not acknowledge the agression of Saddam but Iran would be the agressor, if signed, this was a propaganda win for Saddam that would be depicted today as an Iranian invasion. At the end, Saddam achieved nothing of its goals he set before the invasion, and proceeded to invade Kuwait.

And you also forgot that this was the first time in history that 3rd party countries were selling WMDs to Iraq (nerve agents), and just WMD used extensively
I know,I know it was exaggerated. I haven't seen any of those "keys" in any photos. I think many wonder about that too. So much fuss about it and not a single photo of them.

Yes,I was gonna mention the chemical weapons and the MEK as well...but I deleted some parts in the end.
 
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History as it happened (without being politically correct!)
43 years ago just few months into the Iranian revolution a combined Arab army of 400 million people (citizens and $$ funds of 22 Arab countries minus Syria and Libya) attacked Iran. Attack was headed by Iraq and its purpose was to steal Iran's oil rich province of Khozestan. US, Soviet union,UK,France and Germany providing all the supplies needed by the Arabs including Chemical weapons.

Iran was alone and her armed forces decimated by internal purge in the hands of mullahs and boycott of supplies from the West.

Iranian nation especially the young Iranians saw the danger and mobilized and sacrificed immensely and saved the country.
here are some photos of these very young Iranians that went to war and saved the nation .
WAR_10.jpg

WA_1.jpg
WAR_9.jpg

WAR_5.jpg

WAR_6.jpg

WAR_12.jpg
WAR_11.jpg


Arabs used chemical weapons on troops and civilians..The Chemical weapons were supplied by Germany
WAR_4.jpg

WAR_2.jpg

WAR_3.jpg

Arabs also used mercenaries from 50+ nations including these POWs from African countries
WAR_8.jpg
 
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Iraki war with Iranian was the most stupid act, arabs did in history.

A war between muslims forced by idiotic secularists, Irak was delusional and deceived by clever westerners.

Iran got to free themselves of a non believer government and get the freedom in a bloody war, but i hope next generation of iranians never forget the price of being weak, be united and always strong.

This wont happen again since is going to be stronger, and the natural position it s arabs supports Iran, it s gonna happen i m sure of that.
 
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