Iran - Iraq War 1980 - 1988

F**KING INTENSE!!!

The sunni dominated secular oriented Baath party generated tensions with the shias in the south and fears of Iranian involvement in that region grew.
On the other hand, from the Iranian point of view, Irak's pan-arab policy threatened its sovereignty in Khuzestan.
Irak was obviously dwarfed by a stronger Iran and seized the opportunity to attack before the Islamic regime solidified.

Great video. How did those guys managed to run away from the tank in plain view of the iranians? They were barely runing.
Best info about this war that I found is on the excellent site of the Federation of American Scientists.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/war/docs/3203/
It's nice to see the marines opinion about chemical warfare and about the infamous irakian chemical attack against kurd civilians.

Documentary about the war with very interesting combat footage:

http://rapidshare.de/files/11829166/Story_...n_Iraq.wmv.html

Today i watch a little movie, probably the one mentioned in one of the above links of this topic. That movie with iraqi tanks and iranian bad shooter... Yes, was pretty intense but oh my god! How bad shoters are the iranians! It is the AK poor precision or they are blind? And just a single iraqi tank hit by rpg fire? The distance was not to long and there were some tanks to target.... Maybe iranians in this clip were not so good trained...

Iama

Hi Iamandi,

The ayatollahs did not trust the Iranian Army. The Iranian Revolution had got rid of most of the army's officer corps because they had been loyal to the deposed Shah.

Instead the ayatollahs favoured the use of religious fanatics of the Revolutionary Guards. These were more suicidally courageous than the army but less competent. Thus extremely poor shooting from the Iranian side is very possible.

Cheers,

Sid.

They where the Basij ... They used the you kids of 15-17 as sacrifice troups ... they where forced to run over extensive minefields...

[edited by admin]

Hi Sid, another view I heard from an iranian I knew was that the soldiers actually missed on purpose and thought of the Iraqis as their brothers. Something like the Christmas cease-fires in WWI. Apparently they also treated the prisoners well, as fellows of the same religion or something like that. Maybe the movie is an example of that mercy, since the iranians have RPGs and a tank and yet they dont kill any iraqis and let them slip by.

cheers

Hi Imp,

I think you can dismiss the idea that either side was soft on the other out of some sort of fellow-feeling completely. Persians and Mesopotamians are of different races (indeed different racial groups) and have been at each others throats for thousands of years. Their regimes were also very different. Saddam Hussein's was secular/Sunni while Khomeini's was religious/Shiite.

Cheers,

Sid.

Yes but the regular soldiers were muslims and some disliked the fact that Saddam was secular and supported by the US.

It is hard to believe about a good manifestation against pows. This guys (iranians and iraqi) are pretty strange in theyr mentality, but who knows - maybe this was another strange thing from them.

Iama

Hi Imp,

Almost the entire Iraqi Army were Muslims and more than half its manpower was probably Shiite, like the Iranians. But how does anyone tell this in battle?

Cheers,

Sid.