History UsefulNotes / IranIraqWar

* PropagandaMachine: The Iraqi media framed the as "Saddam's al-Qādisiyya", referring to the decisive battle where the Rashidun Caliphate conquered the Sassanian Empire in a effort to cast Saddam as the leader of the Arab world by taking the fight against the Persians once again.

* LaserGuidedKarma:
** Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons would later become one of the United States' stated reasons for the 2003 invasion and subsequent toppling of his regime. Despite using the Chemical [=WMD=]s as a proof that Saddam is dangerous, no UN Security Council Resolution mentioned the thousands of Iranian civilians that were killed by those weapons, focusing on the Kurds and other minorities instead. UnfortunateImplications aside, Iran called them on the hypocrisy of that.
** Many countries (the U.S. included) condemning Iraq for use of such weapons had sold them those before, or parts thereof (as well as passing on satellite data on the most effective places to use the poison gas, both in terms of Iranian troop positions and weather patterns), as stated above.
** The cost of the war also led to [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar Iraq's invasion of Kuwait]] and subsequent [[CurbStompBattle humiliating defeat.]]

* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Iran was still reeling from the revolution, ''and'' the Shah had taken a lot of the military commanders with him when he fled the country, when Saddam decided to invade.

** Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons would later become one of the United States' stated reasons for the 2003 invasion and subsequent toppling of his regime. Despite using the Chemical [=WMD=]s as a proof that Saddam is dangerous, no UN Security Council Resolution mentioned the thousands of Iranian civilians that were killed by those weapons, focusing on the Kurds and other minorities instead. UnfortunateImplications aside, Iran [[WhatTheHellHero called them on the hypocrisy of that]].

* WhatTheHellHero: The U.S. Navy shooting down an Iranian passenger jet, due to a misinterpreted radar image identifying it as a military craft.

* HollywoodTactics: Despite possessing an ''enormous'' equipment advantage right at the beginning of the war, kicking up production even further in the later stages, and using weapons of mass destruction to take out single militia squads, they were still just barely able to draw in the war with Iran. Kenneth Pollack's "Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991" goes into detail about this.

!! Examples in works

* ''ComicBook/{{Persepolis}}'': Part of the film (and the original graphic novel) is set during the period, as we get to see stylized battle scenes and Tehran attacked by bombers and [=SCUDs=].

* One of the ''VideoGame/SteelPanthers'' games includes a scenario from the war that can be played by either side.
* Two campaigns from ''Steel Armor: Blaze of War'' cover a the Susangerd tank battle from both Iraqi and Iranian sides.

* The horror movie ''Film/UnderTheShadow'' takes place during the war. A mother and her daughter live in Tehran during Iraq's bombing of the city, and the husband is called to the front and has to leave his family behind.

The ''original'' Gulf War [[note]]until the Kuwait conflict in 1990, of course, and still known as the "First Persian Gulf War", where the wars involving the United States were the Second and Third Gulf Wars[[/note]], in spite of its fury and length, has largely been passed over by world media, and indeed works set in it are rare these days outside of UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}. (UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}, for [[UsefulNotes/GulfWar understandable]] [[TheWarOnTerror reasons]], doesn't have much of a film industry.)

Ironically, in 1978, it was Iranian spies that informed UsefulNotes/SaddamHussein (then vice-president) of a pro-Soviet coup plot, allowing Saddam to initiate a purge and solidify his position. Ties between the countries briefly improve.

Iran was in turmoil by 1980: its army was purged by the mullahs, the U.S. suspended the supply of spare parts and its air force was crippled. The new regime sidelined the traditional military in favor of new, ideologically motivated militias, such as the Pasdaran--"The Revolutionary Guards." Iraq was convinced that the Iranian population hated the new regime. When numerous Iranian officials from the Shah's regime fled to Iraq, Saddam believed that the weak Islamic regime would collapse easily. He believed that a military invasion would spark a new revolution which would overthrow Khomeini and install a government that would be subservient to Iraq interests.

Much of the Middle East was drawn up arbitrarily in the aftermath of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI by the allies, Iraq itself was created by Britain out of the ruins of a large chunk of the Ottoman Empire. The new territory was majority Shi'ite, the majority denomination in Iran, and included territories that Iran claimed for itself; however, the new territory had to be given to the Sunni Prince Faisal of Hejaz, to whom Britain had promised Syria and then stood idly by when France conquered it from him. The prince proceeded to pack the Iraqi elite with fellow Sunnis, to Iran's dismay. Iran also included territories claimed by Iraq, notably the oil-rich Khuzestan--part of which was a majority-Arab that had even previously been called "Arabstan" for quite some time.[[note]]That said, the Arabs of Khuzestan for the most part don't care to leave Iran, even though they have some strong connections to the Iraqi Shiite community.[[/note]] Iraq and Iran both supported insurgent groups in each others' territories. The border dispute remains unsolved to this day.

* EvilVersusEvil: Oh yes. Between the brutal dictatorship of Iraq, which took time during the war to attempt genocide against the Kurdish population, and the fanatical Iranian regime with its heartbreaking use of child soldiers... Henry Kissinger may have been onto something when he wondered why both sides couldn't lose.

The failure of the al-Faw counterattacks forced Saddam to allow his generals to run operations as they saw fit after they threatened him with mutiny. Because the regular Iraqi Army proved itself to be ineffective on the offense, the military leadership received approval to expand the Republican Guard into a specialized attack force. By early 1987, the original collection of brigades which made up the Republican Guard expanded into a corps command (Republican Guard Forces Command, RFGC) with eighteen brigades organized into three divisions. More importantly, the Republican Guard began to recruit people based on their military skills rather than political loyalty. The Iraqi General Staff decided to centralize control and write out the "script" for offensive operations, rather than the decentralized approach (let the field commanders do as they wish) which led to ineffectiveness in earlier operations of the war.

The failure of the al-Faw counterattacks convinced Saddam that his military commanders should be allowed to run operations as they saw fit. Because the regular Iraqi Army proved itself to be ineffective on the offense, the military leadership received approval to expand the Republican Guard into a specialized attack force. By early 1987, the original collection of brigades which made up the Republican Guard expanded into a corps command (Republican Guard Forces Command, RFGC) with eighteen brigades organized into three divisions. More importantly, the Republican Guard began to recruit people based on their military skills rather than political loyalty. The Iraqi General Staff decided to centralize control and write out the "script" for offensive operations, rather than the decentralized approach (let the field commanders do as they wish) which led to ineffectiveness in earlier operations of the war.

* ''{{ComicBook/Persepolis}}'': Part of the film (and the original graphic novel) is set during the period, as we get to see stylized battle scenes and Tehran attacked by bombers and [=SCUDs=].

** The Iraqi infantry were barely trained, and armed with little more than rifles. For context, the average US Army fireteam consists of four men: two with rifles, one with a rifle + grenade launcher, and one with a light machine gun. The UK Army has a similar set-up. This gives the team the firepower needed to actually produce casualties (less than 10% of modern combat casualties come from rifle fire). The Iraqis decided "screw it" and skipped giving their men grenade launchers and machine guns, leaving them at a severe firepower disadvantage against the Iranians, who would spam [[MoreDakka machine gun fire]] wherever they could, and use RPG rounds to kill single soldiers. The Iraqis actually DID use light machine guns, occasionally... but only in static, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WW1]-style trench nests. These static formations ran into the same problem as the dug-in tanks.

--->'''Kenneth Pollack''': In every battle the Iraqis were able to bring enormous firepower to bear against the outgunned Iranians. Despite this advantage, [[EpicFail Iraq's invasion of southwestern Iran did little damage to the disorganized and demoralized Iranian military, nor did Baghdad conquer anything of military or economic value in 3 months of unimpeded defenses]]. By the end of the war, Iraqi forces not only enjoyed a very sizable advantage in numbers of equipment but also possessed an equivalent edge in the sophistication of their weaponry. For instance, Iraqi forces deployed [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill nearly 5,000 tanks compared to the less than 1,000 tanks Iran could muster]]- and most of the Iraqi tanks that saw the brunt of the fighting were advanced T-72s and T-62s, while the Iranians were mostly equipped with miserable [[SchizoTech Chinese Type-59s]]. Whereas the Iraqi Air Force had nearly 700 combat aircraft, including new French Mirages and Soviet MiG-29s, the Iranians had less than 100 flyable U.S. F-14s, F-4s, and F-5s, few of which were fully functional as a result of the US arms embargo. Still, Iraq was able to eke out a stalemate in 1988 only by resorting to liberal doses of chemical warfare and creating local force ratios of 20- or even 30-to-1 in tanks, troops, and guns.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: The Iraqis underestimated the Iranians with catastrophic results. They went in and expected to win a quick victory but as soon as the moment of surprise was gone and the Iranians started to counterattack, the Iraqis realized that they had underestimated the Iranians' zeal and military strength, and with it they could kiss the quick victory goodbye. Note that the Iranians genuinely were as poor as the Iraqis thought they were. Their actual military was outnumbered two to one by the Iraqis for most of the war in men, and anywhere from two to one/ten to one in tanks, artillery, aircraft, armored personnel carriers, and [[BoringButPractical trucks]]. The Iraqis had a technological advantage too, with the majority of their equipment being '70s vintage, as opposed to the Iranian equipment, which with the exception of their air forces came straight out of the late 40s/early 50s. Their army's command and logistic structure had been gutted by the revolution too, so a lot of the Iranian resistance the Iraqis encountered consisted solely of local light infantry without any central direction. It just so happens that the Iraqis themselves were really, really, '''''really''''' bad (see above).

* EnemyMine: Iran received arms, training and spare parts from... [[ArchNemesis Israel]], of all countries, who regarded Saddam Hussein as the greater threat. It's also been claimed that the Israeli bombing of the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq was partially aided by Iranian intelligence (after the Iranians had attempted to bomb the same facility in 1980). [[FanonDiscontinuity Iran completely denies all of this]].

* EvilVersusEvil: Oh yes. Between the brutal dictatorship of Iraq, which took time during the war to attempt genocide against the Kurdish population, and the fanatical Iranian regime with its [[{{Tearjerker}} heartbreaking]] use of child soldiers... Henry Kissinger may have been onto something when he wondered why both sides couldn't lose.

* HollywoodTactics: The Iraqis took this UpToEleven. Despite possessing an ''enormous'' equipment advantage right at the beginning of the war, kicking up production even further in the later stages, and using weapons of mass destruction to take out single militia squads, they were still just barely able to draw in the war with Iran. Kenneth Pollack's "Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991" goes into detail about this.

** The Iraqi infantry were barely trained, and armed with little more than rifles. For context, the average US Army fireteam consists of four men: two with rifles, one with a rifle + grenade launcher, and one with a light machine gun. The UK Army has a similar set-up. This gives the team the firepower needed to actually produce casualties (less than 10% of modern combat casualties come from rifle fire). The Iraqis decided "screw it" and skipped giving their men grenade launchers and machine guns, leaving them at a severe firepower disadvantage against the Iranians, who would spam [[MoreDakka machine gun fire]] wherever they could, and use RPG rounds to kill single soldiers. The Iraqis actually DID use light machine guns, occasionally... but only in static, UsefulNotes/WW1-style trench nests. These static formations ran into the same problem as the dug-in tanks.

* LaserGuidedKarma: Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons would later become one of the United States' stated reasons for the 2003 invasion and subsequent toppling of his regime. Despite using the Chemical [=WMD=]s as a proof that Saddam is dangerous, no UN Security Council Resolution mentioned the thousands of Iranian civilians that were killed by those weapons, focusing on the Kurds and other minorities instead. UnfortunateImplications aside, Iran [[WhatTheHellHero called them on the hypocrisy of that]].
** Not to mention that many countries (the U.S. included) condemning Iraq for use of such weapons had sold them those before, or parts thereof (as well as passing on satellite data on the most effective places to use the poison gas, both in terms of Iranian troop positions and weather patterns), as stated above.

* ShaggyDogStory: The war ended in a stalemate with no changes. Except the loss of a million lives, of course.
** On the other hand, it did result in Iraq eventually turning against Arab and Western countries, so Iran was able to have more than a decade of relative peace. EarnYourHappyEnding, to a point.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: The Iraqis underestimated the Iranians with catastrophic results. They went in and expected to win a quick victory but as soon as the moment of surprise was gone and the Iranians started to counterattack, the Iraqis realized that they had underestimated the Iranians' zeal and military strength, and with it they could kiss the quick victory goodbye.
** More like "Overestimating Badassery". The Iranians genuinely were as poor as the Iraqis thought they were. Their actual military was outnumbered two to one by the Iraqis for most of the war in men, and anywhere from two to one/ten to one in tanks, artillery, aircraft, armored personnel carriers, and [[BoringButPractical trucks]]. The Iraqis had a technological advantage too, with the majority of their equipment being '70s vintage, as opposed to the Iranian equipment, which with the exception of their air forces came straight out of the late 40s/early 50s. Their army's command and logistic structure had been gutted by the revolution too, so a lot of the Iranian resistance the Iraqis encountered consisted solely of local light infantry without any central direction. It just so happens that the Iraqis themselves were really, really, '''''really''''' bad (see above).
* WeHaveReserves / HopelessWar: When you make UsefulNotes/WorldWarI look ''very'' good by comparison, you KNOW you have issues.

* ZergRush: While the Iranians had a pretty good fleet, air force and amphibious troops, this was their main strategy during traditional land battles, using the Basij. Pretty viable strategy when Iran had almost three times as many people as Iraq.
** It was a lot more complicated than that. The Iranians would use (extremely) expendable militia (e.g. Revolutionary Guards) to punch a hole in Iraqi lines. They would then follow that by creating a concentration of tanks, artillery, and professional troops, and using it to exploit the gap and flank entire Iraqi units. They didn't ZergRush with their actual army, as the Iraqis did, because they were very much outnumbered.

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<<|UsefulNotes/{{Iran}}|>>
<<|UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}}|>>
<<|MilitaryAndWarfareTropes|>>

** The Iraqi infantry were barely trained, and armed with little more than rifles. For context, the average US Army fireteam consists of four men: two with rifles, one with a rifle + grenade launcher, and one with a light machine gun. The UK Army has a similar set-up. This gives the team the firepower needed to actually produce casualties (less than 10% of modern combat casualties come from rifle fire). The Iraqis decided "screw it" and skipped giving their men grenade launchers and machine guns, leaving them at a severe firepower disadvantage against the Iranians, who would spam [[MoreDakka machine gun fire]] wherever they could, and use RPG rounds to kill single soldiers. The Iraqis actually DID use light machine guns, occasionally... but only in static, WW1-style trench nests. These static formations ran into the same problem as the dug-in tanks.

Politically, it was inconclusive. Both sides claimed victory; Saddam had successfully held on Basra throughout the war and Iran had defeated the initial Iraqi invasion and if they had won the Battle for Basra, would have reached Baghdad. Both sides failed to achieve their stated goals, however.

[[caption-width-right:300:It's [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne World War I]] in the UsefulNotes/ColdWar!]]

Much of the Middle East was drawn up arbitrarily in the aftermath of UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne by the allies, Iraq itself was created by Britain out of the ruins of a large chunk of the Ottoman Empire. The new territory was majority Shi'ite, the majority denomination in Iran, and included territories that Iran claimed for itself; however, the new territory had to be given to the Sunni Prince Faisal of Hejaz, to whom Britain had promised Syria and then stood idly by when France conquered it from him. The prince proceeded to pack the Iraqi elite with fellow Sunnis, to Iran's dismay. Iran also included territories claimed by Iraq, notably the oil-rich Khuzestan--part of which was a majority-Arab that had even previously been called "Arabstan" for quite some time.[[note]]That said, the Arabs of Khuzestan for the most part don't care to leave Iran, even though they have some strong connections to the Iraqi Shiite community.[[/note]] Iraq and Iran both supported insurgent groups in each others' territories. The border dispute remains unsolved to this day.

* DeadlyGas: There was considerable use of chemical weapons in an attempt to break the stalemate in the later years of the war, yet another parallel with UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as evidenced by the picture above.

* WeHaveReserves / HopelessWar: When you make UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne look ''very'' good by comparison, you KNOW you have issues.

By October and November, the Iraqi invasion was its high point. They failed to secure nearly all of their major objectives with the exception of Khorramshahr; in response they announced a ceasefire on October 5 with the hopes of reorganizing its forces to resume the invasion. This allowed the Iranians to bring in reinforcements in December to launch a counteroffensive by 1981. Additionally, the start of the rainy season in Khuzestan hampered Iraqi forces as their vehicles could not operate effectively in the mud.

* ChildSoldiers: One of the war's most infamous things was the Iranian recruitment of young children, who were given plastic "keys to Heaven" and then ordered to run straight out on Iraqi minefields in order to clear the ground for the main army. Some were also given infantry weapons and told to attack Iraqi positions. It's said that plenty of Iraqi troops cracked by the sheer guilt they felt after they had killed countless young children who tried to storm them by sheer numbers.

* The war is a late-war event in ''TwilightStruggle''.

* Covered in brief in a 1980s ''SpittingImage'' episode in the form of a newsreel, poking fun at the conflict from the vantage points of both the warring nations and the (slumbering) [[UsefulNotes/UnitedNations international community]].

* HollywoodTactics: The Iraqis took this UpToEleven. Despite possessing an ''enormous'' equipment advantage right at the beginning of the war, kicking up production even further in the later stages, and using weapons of mass destruction to take out single militia squads, they were still just barely able to draw in the war with Iran. Kenneth Pollack's "Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991".

! 1982-6: Iranian Invasion and Stalemate

! 1986-7: Breaking the Stalemate in Basrah

** Iran received military aid from Israel, North Korea, Libya, and China.

Ironically, in 1978, it was Iranian spies that informed SaddamHussein (then vice-president) of a pro-Soviet coup plot, allowing Saddam to initiate a purge and solidify his position. Ties between the countries briefly improve.

In 1979, the Islamic revolution occurred in Iran. The pro-U.S. monarchy was overthrown and replaced by a new theocratic state. In Iraq, SaddamHussein took over the office of President. Over the next two years, ties between the two countries deteriorated. By 1980 Saddam was actively incorporating allusions of the Islamic conquest of Iran centuries ago. Iran denounced the Iraqi regime as a "Puppet of Satan" (please recall that the Islamic Republic called the United States the "Great Satan" and Israel the "Little Satan." Make of that what you will).

* The war plays a big role in ''House Of Saddam'', a historical drama chronicling the rise and fall of Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein.

* ''Series/HouseOfSaddam'', chronicling Saddam Hussein's reign, prominently features the Iran-Iraq War.