The Iran-Iraq War: 1980-1988
In most discussions of the Iran-Iraq War, it has become commonplace to view the conflict as the latest manifestation of the millenarian Arab-Persian struggle for domination of the Gulf and the Fertile Crescent. Some historians have traced its origins to the pre-Islamic rivalry between the Achaemenid and the Babylonian empires, others to the 7th-century Arab-Muslim destruction of the Sassanid Empire and the subsequent conversion of most Persians to Islam. Still others view the war as the extension of the historic struggle for power and control between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam: while Arabs are predominantly Sunni, with their emphasis on the Koran and the religious law, Iranians were converted in the 16th century to Shi'ism, a minority faction in Islam dating back to Ali Ibn-Abi-Talib, Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law.
Yet while these general causes may explain why wars between Iran and Iraq are possible, or even probable, they do not explain the occurrence of a specific war, let alone the lengthy periods of tranquillity between the two countries. To understand why the Iran-Iraq War broke out in September 1980, it is necessary to look for more proximate causes, namely the nature of the two leaderships at the time and their political and ideological objectives...
Contents
Introduction / 7
Chronology / 9
Background to war
The quest for the empire of God / 12
Warring sides
Strengths and weaknesses of Iran and Iraq / 16
Outbreak
Invasion and after / 22
The fighting
The delicate balance of incompetence / 30
Portrait of a soldier
Iran's boy soldiers / 62
The world around war
Nations at war / 66
Portrait of a civilian
Death of a village / 76
How the war ended
The poisoned chalice / 79
Conclusion and consequences
A costly exercise in futility / 84
Further reading / 93
Index / 94
The Iran-Iraq War
1980-1988
Efraim Karsh
Osprey Publishing
First published in Great Britain in 2002 by Osprey Publishing,
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ISBN 1 84176 371 3
Editor: Rebecca Cullen
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EFRAIM KARSH is Professor and Head of the Mediterranean Studies Programme at King's College, University of London. He has held various academic posts at the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics, Columbia University, Helsinki University and Tel-Aviv University. Professor Karsh has published extensively on Middle Eastern affairs, Soviet foreign policy and European neutrality.
