One no one lost. 2 considering Iran is much bigger ,and the question was there since 50s during kingdom era and it was clear Iran wants to expand and British moves , Iraq weakened Iran and stopped a potential attack. That is a massive achievement and it strengthened Iraq military with tone of experience. Iran loses are almost 3 times that of iraq. Iraq got out with a stronger bigger military. The tie in itself was a marical. Iraq focused on capturing some land that had oile in the south that has arabs too. However if they changed their strategy properly and actually go after the capital and government itself they could have won and taken all of Iran. That is especially if Iraq worked and asked with Islamic language getting macineries from across Muslim world.
It was the original "Iraq war", the one I grew up with. Anyway, in due time, Saddam made Kissinger's adagio true: "to be enemy of the USA is dangerous but to be our ally is deadly".
First off, thanks to this channel @Hikmahistory for covering many of the events I’m about to mention. I’m glad I can share my perspective here. The Iran-Iraq War had no clear winner-both nations were devastated. But if you look at history, it feels like the Middle East has been condemned to chaos by design. Here’s why: 1. Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916): Arbitrary borders drawn by Britain and France divided the region, ignoring ethnic and sectarian realities and planting the seeds of long-term conflict. 2. Operation Ajax (1953): The CIA and MI6 overthrew Iran’s Prime Minister Mossadegh after he nationalized oil, prioritizing Western control over regional stability. 3. Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988): The U.S. backed Iraq with weapons and intelligence while secretly arming Iran (Iran-Contra), prolonging the war to weaken both sides. Kissinger even said, “It’s a pity they can’t both lose.” 4. Gulf War Setup (1990): U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie’s comments to Saddam Hussein about Kuwait were ambiguous enough to bait Iraq into invasion, leading to Iraq’s devastation. 5. Clean Break Strategy (1996): A policy document suggested destabilizing the region to weaken adversaries like Iraq and Syria. 6. 2003 Iraq Invasion: The U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein under false WMD claims, leaving Iraq in chaos for decades. 7. General Wesley Clark’s Memo (2007): He revealed plans to “take out” seven Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, Syria, and Iran, further highlighting a broader agenda. Looking at these events, it’s hard not to see a deliberate strategy to keep the Middle East fragmented and unstable. Why focus on Iran today? Because Iran, with its deep history and cultural backbone, is the only country in the region currently capable of breaking the rules the West seems to have set for the Middle East. In short, it looks like the region has been condemned to chaos-and Iran is now the focal point because it refuses to play along.
Iraq started the war by invading Iran and was repelled. While it subsequently prevented Iran from taking any of the Iraqi land it still qualifies as an Iranian victory.
Unfortunately your dad is right... on the soldier's level. On the political/governmental, I'm afraid that's not the case - countries gain and lose a great amount in a war.
The Iran-Iraq War dragged on in a stalemate until 1988, when both countries accepted a cease-fire that ended the fighting. Despite the large foreign debt with which Iraq found itself saddled by war's end, Saddam continued to build up his armed forces. In August 1990 the Iraqi army overran neighbouring Kuwait
you missed a very important detail about the foreign debt Saddam built up during his war with Iran, most of the debt was indebted to surprise surprise Kuwait. Saddam thinking he did a favour to the entire middle east by supressing Iranian aggression thought Kuwait would forigve Iraq's debt but they chose not to leading to the invasion in which Saddam wanted to take Kuwaits oil rich land
@@shxmana 1. Iraqi debt wasn't just owed to Kuwait. It was owed to all Gulf countries. 2. Iraq didn't ask Kuwait to forgive its debt. 3. Iraq asked OPEC to lower production so Iraq could recover. But Kuwait not only did not lower production, it lowered oil prices instead. 4. Kuwait was engaging in slant drilling across Iraqi border. 5. Iraq invaded Iran at behest of USA and Gulf region.
@@maquacr7014 I never said only to kuwait I said most of it which was 13 billion (37 in total from all states) which they did ask to forgive for the exact reason I stated being that Saddams opinion was that he defended the entire middle east from Iranian aggression. When Kuwait refused multiple times even! Saddam threatened to reignite a long standing feud between the countries threatening Kuwait with invasion if it didn’t hand over the Bubiyan and Warbah Islands which Kuwait did not. That in combination with Kuwait lowering oil prices which you mentioned is true Saddam accused them of undermining Iraq and not long after took military action. Literally just googled it to get the facts straight and countless of articles pop up saying exactly what I said but worded different in some cases
@@maquacr7014 1. I never said it was but said MOST was learn to read... 13 billion out of a total of 37 was owed to Kuwait 2. Iraq did ask for its debt to forgiven and have them be payments instead for defending the middle east from Iranian aggression cause that was Saddams opinion on the matter. 3. This is true but only after Saddam threatened to reignite a feud over 2 islands governed by Kuwait if Kuwait didnt hand them over. 4. could be evidence for this is hard to find and its largely unkown whether this really happened 5. bro just google this shit I just did to get the facts straight and its so easy to find all over the place
@@maquacr7014you’re wrong on most your points in attempts to whitewash saddams warmongering. Saddam owed its debt to the gulf states, kuwait wasn’t the only nation threatened by invasion, the entire gulf was, hence why saddam had an allied coalition of western AND gulf arabs against him
Thank you for this. I was born in Khorramshahr in 1977. This war had a massive impact on my family. I was saddened to see many Iraqi refugees in Khorramshahr and Abadan, when I last visited those town in 2006.
As an Afghan who went through the savage and brutal invasion of the Red Army of my country, I will never forget an unshakable bravado of Imam Khomeini when he was told by Kremlin during the toughest period of Iran - Iraq war: “compromise your stand on Afghanistan and we will compromised ours on your war with Iraq”, and he said NO.
@@mustafaali3333-q1m You can have a thousand differences with Imam Khomeini but if you consider him as a dumb due to standing to the brutal invasion of an independent country, then it means we shouldn’t bother if an innocent nation is brutalised and destroyed by a super power. The USSR killed 1.5 million and forced almost 7 million Afghans (almost 35% of the population in that time) to leave their country regardless of their ethnicity, religious sects etc. And just for your information, after the USSR withdrawal many heart breaking and horrible things happened but there hasn’t been any massacre whatsoever.
Iraq started the war and failed to achieve any of its war aims, despite suffering enormous costs. It may not have been a victory for Iran, but it was unquestionably a defeat for Iraq.
@@wrathofachilles Now we're getting into history. The problem is iran tried to inspire Iraqi Shia revolutionairies in Iraq to ovethrow the saddam Huseein government. I wouldn't say Iraq started the war or Iran, it just happend because of different actions.
Saddam was a baathist tyrant just like assad, and Khomeini was a fanatic: basically a shia version of Bn Laden. Both tyrants who made their people suffer.
i get ur point but i would say saddam was much worse. khomeini didnt start this war and didnt drop chemical weapons on his own people like saddam and assad. comparing khomeini to bin laden is ridiculous to me
What has bldn done that’s so bad? Ridiculous comment, and how can you put saddam in the same sentence as that monster the majority of his people actually loved him unlike assad where the majority lived in fear and hated him, tell me you’re not Arab or don’t understand the land without telling me, shut up white boy
There is a story I came across in the the book Web of Deceit by Barry Lando. During the Iraq-Iran War, Iraqi military officers were being trained by Green Berets Special Forces in the US in urban guerilla warfare. By the mid 1980s the war was a stalemate and the fear of the US was that the momentum was shifting towards Iran's favor; which it eventually did towards 1988 as Iran started going into Iraq, and so the idea was that in the worst case scenario of the Iranians defeating tge Iraqi army and taking Baghdad, an organized urban guerilla warfare would erupt throughout Baghdad and other Iraqi cities where the Iranian occupation would be a chatastrophic nightmare for Iran. Fast foward to 2003 with the American War and Occupation of Iraq. A few months into the American occupation after L.Paul Bremmer fires the entire Iraqi military, the Iraqi insugency explodes and urban guerilla warfare is unleashed on the American occupation that lasts for years. And it was organized with cells throughout the country. The same military officers who were trained by the American Green Berets Special Foces in urban guerilla warfare used these tactics against the Americans.
That be an amazing story if it's true. Maybe if you find enough material, could you do a video? Just a suggestion. By the way, truly enjoy your videos and they greatly inform me about the Middle East.
Having studied this war for many years I can say this is all correct. Millions of lives lost billions of dollars spent and the end result was a stalemate.
@@HikmaHistory basically the Americans instigated saddam to attack Iran but covertly supported Iran as well in order to force khomeni to covertly collaborate with the west in its designs for the middle east. In 2003 the Americans simply served Iraq (which hosts a large no. of shia religious shrines) on a platter to iran by invading the country. We don't know what the Americans got in return for that. But 1 thing is becoming quite clear that iran and the west including Israel are actually partners. And the verbal khurafaat they say to each other is just optics to deceive people.
@@HashiramaSenyuexcept america is suppprted by nearly entire middle east state turkey and saudi alone doing more than iran not to mention gulf states and it because by that time they hate sadam for invade quwait america actually ok (at least tolerate) saddam in charge of iraq but it was saudi who pressure america to help quwait ofcourse arab monarch the reason iran able to gain much influence simply american backed government is unpopular in long term specially their first agenda is privatization of iraqi economy wich most of populace see as balatant stealing and without scular baathist (or other to replace them) as powerfull player and iraq themself didnt have powerfull goverment and fell into chaos with rise of isis, most shia population ofcourse look for iran and iran simply use this for their regional intrest like everyone else
Saddam’s decision to launch a war against Iran was not rooted in his desire to defeat the Ayatollahs and invade Iran; rather, it was a calculated move to solidify his authoritarian grip and cement his one-man rule over Iraq.
Yes because the Southern Shia Iraqis were always a threat being they had the largest population within Iraq. Shia Sunni and Kurds being main groups but there was also a large population of Christians
@ghostirq Saddam didn't respect the 1975 algiers agreement, which ceded half of shatt al arab to Iran. The war was necessary for saddam to cement his one-man demigod rule.
@@JustCallMe-Moe that’s not what the conflict started over. Ayatollah was in Iraq before the Algerian deal and he was part of the deal. That’s why he was exiled to France and considered Saddam and his party to be a foe. He started shelling and sending fighter jets into Iraq after he took over
Iran came out stronger after the war and rebuilt beautifully, with thriving cities today. Meanwhile, Iraq never fully recovered. It’s still not a free country and is largely influenced by Iran. Saddam faced a humiliating death, while Khomeini was honored with an unforgettable funeral. Tyrants always meet a bad end. Proud to be a Shia Muslim! ❤️
Saddam's humiliating death is saying the shahada? Big, big difference between Saddam who died a martyr and Khomeini and his successor, who allied with Israel and America.
@dragon888193ftw he was a secular dude who posed himself as muslim he didnt even recite the shahdah and was killed. Lol! Khomenei never asked for America or Israel's help. Those 2 countries played double games like they do now
has IRAN learnt anything from IRAQI-US war? is Iran BEST buddy with Russia yet? still insist on helping muslims in Georgia against Russia? Your whole country is at risk now....
It’s a shame the Iranian monarchy fell. It’s also a shame that corruption was rampant which also led the rise of Khomeini. The monarchy failed to do one thing, “Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once”. The western culture was too much. If he wanted western culture, he’d have to implement bit by bit.
Imam Khomeini was a great leader chosen by his people, his version of governing 'islamic republic' was voted for by 26 million out if 32 million Iranis. He took Iran out of humiliation and subjugation and poverty into what Iran is tiday, A super power. This is the view of an afghan living in the west.
1. Iran under the shah had frequently harassed Iraq in the 1960s as they sought to grab the entire contested border area. To make matters worse, Iran under the shah , actively armed Kurdish rebels in Iraq to weaken Iraq. This caused immense resentment in Iraq - amongst Shias and Sunnis. 2. So Saddam sought to avenge these things in 1980 on seeing that Khomeini was threatening the whole world: US hostage crisis, threatening Sunni Gulf countries with ‘pious Shia revolution’ , arming shia militants in Bahrain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc. 3. The Iran Iraq war at the ground was not shia-Sunni conflict: Iranian Sunnis in oil rich Kuzestan fought brilliantly against Iraqi occupation, and even surprised khomeini amd his shia clergy. Similarly Shias in the Iraqi army fought against iran. 4. Iraq offered a cease fire in 1983 seeing that Iran was more resilient than he calculated but Iran refused and saddam then lost it going bezerck. And then the west stepped in with arms sales, other Sunni countries pitched in as they had seen how shia militants in their countries had been armed and funded by Iran in the zeal of spreading the shia revolution overseas.
People always say "saddam lost bc he couldnt gain any iranian territory", okay then did iran overthrow the iraqi government?? Did they capture basra at all from 1982-1988?? The iraqi army literally maintained control over the shatt al arab all the way until 1990 and khomeini himself literally admitted that he was displeased with iran accepting the ceasefire and that he was happy for all the iranian "martyrs" but unhappy that he was still alive. Its simple, iraq invaded in 1980, iran kicked out iraq in 1982, iran invaded iraq in 1982 and continued to do so until 1988, and the iranian army got kicked out from iraq in the tawakalna ala allah operations, that is why iran lost, respectively. The only reason iran is a regional power in the middle east today is bc saddams regime was ousted from power in 2003, so iran becoming a regional power has nothing to do with the iran iraq war at all, that war was when iran lost
Khomeini agreed to the seize fire only after US Navy shutdown the Iranian civilian airliner thinking there is no limit to American strategy in not allowing Iran to win !
@@Payamjafarian I really like both of my parents. They’re divorced. My mother is Iraqi. Back then I preferred my father because I often went to work with him, but now I live with my mother and do more things with her.
Just to show the interconnectedness of this war, 20:10 in the photo with Khomeini is my grandfather (the one with the white turban). He was born in Iraq, studied in Iran, believed in the exportation of the revolution, became the official Arabic translator for Khomeini in exile in France, then fled to the UAE when Khomeini put his older brother, Ayatollah Shoberi Khaqani under house arrest in Qom. This is how complicated this conflict was on personal level for Iraqis and Iranians. Many people want this conflict to be described in numbers and figures and opposing ideologies, while it is, as a matter of fact, a conflict between two countries that shared cultural and historical similarities for centuries, often intermarried between one another and influenced one another. Ps. I’m an Iraqi citizen, born, raised and living in Iraq.
Great video as always, but I must disagree when you say that the US was Iraq's "erstwhile ally". The US never had any illusions about Saddam's true nature and was merely trying to check Iranian power and stop the spread of the revolution. To call the US an Iraqi ally is a stretch.
I get where you're coming from. I was trying to allude to the fact that the US gave very real material aid to Iraq during the war with Iran. I know that doesn't necessarily make them allies in the traditional sense but then you have to be careful - were the US/Britain not allies with Stalin's USSR during WWII? Obviously we saw what happened after and even during WWII it was obvious that it was an alliance of convenience but I would say they were still allies.
Saddam had the support of all the powerful western countries and used every weapon including chemical weapons on the Iranians but lost horribly. This shows that having all financial and military support doesn’t mean you can win.
1) no he didn’t. Only country he was dealing with was the USSR doing arms deals. 2) Iran is 3x bigger than Iraq and has 3x the population 3) the full scale escalation started to stop the Iranian shelling not to take over.
You understand I'm limited by what's available on Google, right? The purpose of the visuals is to give the viewer an understanding of the audio narration. Inshallah in the future when I become much bigger and I can dedicate more funds to each video, I will aim to make every visual synchronise accurately with the audio.
@@HikmaHistoryquit making excuses! You failed us Hikma. Lol. Jk. Love your channel. Of all the channels on TH-cam I'm most excited to see your channel grow.
Alternative timeline Iraq: Hey, how about we solve our problems diplomatically? Iran: Good idea. Let us focus on peace and development as well Iraq: Nice. Now we sign trade agreements. Iran: Don't forget to keep those extreme ideas to a minimum Now both regimes avoid a pointless war and maintain close ties to each other with despite differences
The complex interplay between regional and geo politics are factors whose consequences still affect both nations & the region to date. Leaders across the region have been unable to leverage geopolitics to their advantage. And instead are used as pawns by the bigger world powers.
@HikmaHistory If anything the Khaleeji states have been pivotal in the regions political power play: As trusted agents of West. Propping up financially, politically & militarily governments allied to them also opposition groups. It's their financial muscle that has given them significant regionally. Prior to the discover & exploitation of their crude oil resources. The Khaleeji States weren't considered much of a factor in regional politics.
you made a lot of videos on many important leaders of middle east so i would love it if u make one on him considering that there are rarely any videos about him in english and your content is great so i assume you would attract many kurds to your video.
Thanks for pointing out that Saddam lost. People who say the war was a tie don’t understand the conflict. Iran was fighting Iraq backed by the Europe USSR US and the Gulf getting their territory back and surviving is a win.
Lol bro both countries got wrekt. The only way Iran stayed in the fight as long as it did was it sent millions of underage children to the frontlines to engage Iraqi troop positions. Cannon fodder.
Ultimately the war was a tie because everything went back to ante bellum. But if you delve deeper, Iran winning is a lot easier to argue than Iraq winning.
Absolute rubbish. Iraq never lost. Saddam crushed khomaini. Iran is a massive country compared to iraq and for iraq to go toe to toe with iran, that alone tells you that iraq won the war u idiot.
USSR was the only one trading weapons with Iraq. EU didn’t do anything and the US was passing satellite images to both sides. The conflict started by Iran and dragged by them for 8 years
This happened to weaken both countries. The aftermath was that Iraqi military broke down facilitating the 2003 US and allies invasion. As for Iran, Iran learnt its lessons from this war and began developing their own missiles with the help of North Korea, Russia etc. . All in all I think this war just stopped industrialization of both countries enormously. No one won, but Iraq having 3 times less the population of Iran actually suprised
Iraqi military didn't break down as a result of Iran Iraq war. Infact, both Iranian and Iraqi militaries became aware of modern warfare and gained tons of experience. Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, subsequent American response and sanctions on Iraq weakened Iraqi military.
@@maquacr7014USA is not the world GOD!! And so you think Middle East people care about what US wants? Haha. They are not afraid of USA. Trust me I’ve been to IRAQ.
The stalemate only began in the third year and when IRGC took over the decision making. Even though the war lasted for eight years, most of the decisive operations and intense fighting occurred up to June 1982, a pivotal point in the war, when twelve armored divisions of the Iraqi forces were either annihilated or crushed and were forced to retreat to pre-war borders. The defeat caused the shocking events within the Iraqi camp following the conviction of Iraqi top military commanders in the court martials of July 1982. Up until this point in the war, it was Iran’s regular army, the remnant of the Shah's army after the revolution, who led and did bulk of the fighting, and managed to preserve the pre-war borders while maintaining superiority on the ground, air, and in the Persian Gulf, in addition to holding a staggering amount of Iraqi prisoners of war (only the last operation in June 1982 led to the capturing of around twenty thousand Iraqi PoWs). At this point Iran had the upper hand for a peace treaty, and even could have captured the Iraqi city of Basra, which did not materialize since the regular army opposed it as an act of aggression, but the revolutionary government in Iran had other plans for the war going forward.
Also iraqi infastructure was still intact to an extent after the war, the only thing that wasnt was the iraqi economy, however both were destroyed after the 1991 persian gulf war
Saddam lost to Khomeini? Are you okay buddy? As an Iranian, I would say that Saddam won by tearing up Algeria accord he agreed upon with the Shah. Khomeini said he lost by drinking from the poison chalice. I think you are an Afghan Shia by defending and glorifying Khomeini.
@HikmaHistory see buddy! You don't have to know the person making the videos to understand their mentality. It's time for shias, sunnis and ismailis to stop glorifying safavid, ghaznavid and the hashashin genocidal maniacs. It's time to find our identity in our common shared values and free ourselves from the legacy of these murderous bastards over the past millennium. What's happening in Afghanistan today is exactly the legacy of Mahmud Ghaznavi. If you only knew what horror the ghezelbash inflicted on our people by chopping up children and adults whilst they were alive, drink their blood and eat their flesh.
Saddam lost, because the war put him in debt, which led to the invasion of Kuwait and subsequent destruction of Iraq. Divine revenge against the man who created a war between Muslims.
@@GerrardSlater in a war, you don't determine a winner by the number of rockets fired. You have the same mentality of the mullahs regime in Tehran. In the first air attack, Iran lost most of its fighter jets. Khomeini facilitated an eight year arms sales to weapons manufacturers and assisted the state of Israel by being a proxy for them to fight the first ever person who directly shot rockets towards Israel. Not to mention Israel being successful in expanding territory by Khomeini distracting the entire world. So keep getting drunk on your Shi'ite ideology buddy.
Materially both lost and gained nothing. Both countries failed to occupy any territories. Iran was on defence under Iraqi offence first 2 years of the war, Iraq was on defence for 6 years under Iranian offence later. Both lost materially, Iraq was on a huge debt, and Iran collapsed economically, therefore accepting ceasefire (while Iraq was planning for biggest offence, after Iranian offence failed). Khomeini wanted to spread Islamic revolution throughout the middle east, Iraq was the first and biggest target. Khomeini wanted the Shia of Iraq (Shia is the majority of Iraq already at that point) to side with Iran and revolt against Saddam’s Sunni dominated regime. Khomeini basically main goal of the war was to overthrow Saddam’s regime, and replace it with Iranian proxy. Saddam on the other hand wanted to smash that, the main reason on why he invaded Iran is because so that Shia Iraqis won’t be inspired by the Islamic State ideology, and so that the revolution won’t enter Iraq. He thought also occupying Iranian province Ahwaz was a bonus to the goal. The invasion lasted 2 years successfully for Iraq. The UN wanted them to accept ceasefire by 1982, which Saddam agreed to, but Khomeini refused. Because Iranians became united under one goal at that point, to defend their soil from Iraqi aggression. Both countries gained support internationally. Iraq gained support from Soviet Union, Germany and France on weaponry, Gulf countries financially, and US by satellites. Iran gained both financially and weaponry support from China, Japan, North Korea, Israel, Libya, Syria and even USA during Iran-Contra Affair, and Iraqi Kurdistan region in Northern Iraq supported Iranian armies as well. Iraq also had mercenaries from some other Arab countries as well. The war destined to be a stalemate. Iraqis claimed victory because their defence succeeded, and Iranian offences failed (1982-1988). Tehran was on their worst period of absences, also 30% of Iranian population moved out from Tehran. Baghdad on the other hand was on pure joy in the end of the war. In conclusion: Both lost materially, Iran lost more on both materially and casualties, Iraq won morally because their actual goal was to counter Iranian islamic proxy and offence. Iranian succeeded defending their soils but failed to occupy Iraqi soil and didn’t win anything materially as well. Khomeini kept the Islamic regime in Iran but failed heavily by trying to overthrow Saddam’s Sunni regime in Iraq. In my opinion, no winners. Most of the western analysts claims that neither side won, while some analysts claimed that Iraq was victor of the war, because of overwhelming successes in the end. But this war also led to Iraq invading Kuwait, which also led to fall of Iraq.
@HikmaHistory what about human life? That's what people have always said until we all started talking like the monopoly man running a corporate conglomerate! For real I never heard human life referred to as "human capital" until a year or two ago! And now I hear it a few times a week.
@@danielwatcherofthelord1823 I share your disgust with the normalization of profit-oriented thinking in everyday life and the resulting dehumanization. However "human capital" is an economic term widely used since the 60's with its own meaning, it's not the same as human life. When a country suffers from brain-drain, there is a loss of human capital but not human lives for example. It was not only about populations dying when he used the term, lots of young Iranian men had fled the country to not become a part of those "human-wave attacks". It's an important part of the socio-economic implications of the war for Iran and I think it was perfectly reasonable to talk about it. The tragic loss of human lives on both sides is another topic altogether and was mentioned briefly about 20 seconds earlier.
I wonder what would have happened if the us supported Iraq. I knew the Iran was shaky after the revolution but I didn’t understand just how shaky. I am of the opinion that had Iran fallen it might have lead to a different early 21st century.
Please don’t post historical videos when you don’t do your research. He was in Iraq first before he was exiled to France because of the Algerian deal and from that point he considered the ruling in Iraq to be a foe. When he took control he was shelling towns by the Iraqi border and the first captive was an Iranian pilot near Baghdad not even the border and that was few days before the full scale escalation. Saddam tried to complain about Iran to the UN and nobody did anything so he resorted to full scale.
One no one lost. 2 considering Iran is much bigger ,and the question was there since 50s during kingdom era and it was clear Iran wants to expand and British moves , Iraq weakened Iran and stopped a potential attack. That is a massive achievement and it strengthened Iraq military with tone of experience. Iran loses are almost 3 times that of iraq. Iraq got out with a stronger bigger military. The tie in itself was a marical. Iraq focused on capturing some land that had oile in the south that has arabs too. However if they changed their strategy properly and actually go after the capital and government itself they could have won and taken all of Iran. That is especially if Iraq worked and asked with Islamic language getting macineries from across Muslim world.
Saddam wasn’t worried about an Iranian invasion, he was worried they would train, fund, and arm Iraqi Shi'a who could take the fight on domestically - then join with Iran politically. He was aiming for Tehran - he didn’t get bogged down in the border provinces for fun, but no one can take Tehran by air assault… Had he left them alone for a bit longer, Khomeini’s purge of the Air Force which had literally started that week would have either a. kneecapped itself, or b. kicked off military counter revolution given a lot of the officer corps were NOT that keen on new regime Instead, Saddam couldn’t help himself and completely united nearly all factions in Iran to join the patriotic fight against the invaders, something that happens 95/100 in times of invasion, even when huge domestic turmoil. His absolute failure to achieve anything like air superiority in opening days of the war absolutely stuffed up everything that followed. There was no way he could replicate the opening of thr 6 day war because while he had good planes, he didn’t have the intelligence or the logistics and the dispersal of the targets was over massively bigger area and each sortie was tons longer in distance than Israel had to contend with. There’s no way the rest of the gulf states were going to get involved. Saudi hated and feared Iraq, and while they needed Iraq as a buffer against Iran, having a combined Iran-Iraq would have been their worst nightmare. Egypt and Syria were too far away to help and already had their hands full.
This is absolutly a wrong take sure there were arabs on living on the coast of persian gulf in iran but saddam expected them to join them instead of fight it was some arabs themselves who bought time for irans military to get ready for a counter attack second both sides lost iraqs economy was in shambles after the war their industry was kapput and that paved the way for the invasion of kuwait because they needed a coast money and oil irans airforce wich was all basically top tech f-14 phantoms wrecked the iraqi airforce before it even got Airborn
@@bernardkealey6449 Iranian airforce was trained by USA. No way Iraq was going to establish air superiority. India couldn't do that with Pakistan in any of the conflicts either with the exception of 1971 when Pakistan was under sanctions.
@mindblower5043 it wasn't battle harden yet plus we talking about religious Muslim fokes. Those are additional forces to confuse and out stretch the enemy forces and concerns. Not to mention u did not read what I said correctly. It was his gole and streagy wrong which give the wrong outcome. The capital is not far away from the north of Iraq. The entire strategy needs to be changed and should been all out from get go. The thing is he underestimated them. Please read propoly before typing.
@@jajatodo2072 Iraq got out of the war stronger. Their industry was mostly intact. Gulf War what destroyed Iraq. Iraq military needed 5 years ie 3 more years to catch a break and heal. Iraq got out off the war stronger than before and stronger position than Iran.
You’re missing the Israeli part. Israel was heavily involved in Iran be it industry, defence, agriculture, sewage to all the way to training Iran’s military and airforce which paved the way for Iran to defeat Iraq despite having everyone’s support. Israel also the was the only country to actually support Iran despite the new regime’s hostility towards Israelis but the Jewish state hoped that it’ll keep the window of cooperation open but it was unfortunately not true. Israel not only armed Iran but also carried out airstrikes to destroy Iraq’s nuclear ambitions forever and both countries shared intelligence to counter Saddam’s regime. Both countries cooperated closely to contain Arab nationalism. Iran also supplied oil to Israel during the OPEC’s oil embargo.
Hell of a docco, thanks for making it! A very important part of recent Iranian and Iraqi history. A great follow up would be to cover how Iran and Iraq became friendly after the American forces left , leading a complete reversal of the situation in the 1980s
Hi Hikma. Do you understand the contradiction of your presentation? Mohammed Reza Shah sought to modernize and develop Iran ... Iran has a Shah, a King. You do understand that the industrially developed countries in the world all have modern democratic republics with the Rule of Law. Do you understand your statement contradicts logic? Or are the Middle Eastern people as lost as the people of Communist China and Communist Cuba. The fighter jets and tanks you presented are not bought from America. You just showed Soviet made fighter jets and tanks. The warship you displayed was not available at the time of the Shah. That warship is a US built warship in the early 2000s. Do you understand that what you have presented is misleading if not a lie? The Shah did purchase American fighter jets and tanks. Yes, the Shah of Iran was well equipped with US made weapons of mass destruction at the time of the 1980s. Iran was well equipped for a Middle Eastern country. The countries of the Middle East were and still are not capable of producing modern weapons of mass destruction. The countries of Middle East can only buy such weapons from developed countries like the US. The Iranians and Iraqis cannot make poisonous gas. The Iranians and Iraqis cannot make nuclear weapons. Communist China, Syria, and Libya cannot sell modern mechanized weapons to Iraq or Iran because they cannot make these things. Why would Israel sell weapons to Iran? Aren't the two mortal enemies? Yes, maybe Ronald Reagan would sell weapons to Iran to get American Embassy hostages back. That is possible, but as soon as the hostages are returned to the US I am sure Ronald Reagan would arm the Iraqis. A lot of what you have presented is not possible. Iran, Iraq, Communist China, Libya, Syria, ... cannot make modern weapons. These are pre-industrial societies. It is questionable Israel can make modern fighter jets. Israel can make assault rifles but why would the Israelis arm the ultra-Islamic Iranians?
That's a lot to respond to! 1 - Democratic Republics are not the only industrially developed countries in the world (China & Saudi). 2 - Weapons-wise, the purpose of my videos is to give visual aides for the narration (so the visuals obviously have to be close the thing I'm talking about but not always exact - because I have limited resources, I can't just buy every relevant photo/video). But when exactly did I use the 2000 US Warship, time-stamp? 3 - China absolutely can make mechanised weapons (even if they or the Syrians couldn't, it doesn't make a difference because they could just sell weapons they bought from the Soviets to the Iranians). 4 - Israel feared Iraq. Geopolitics is not as simple as 'I don't like so I won't work with you' - it's too complex for that. 5 - America sold weapons to both Iran & Iraq for very different reasons. This might be contradictory but I assure you, in geopolitics this is very normal.
You also lied about MEK by stating that they collaborated with Saddam against Iran during the Iran - Iraq war. 1. When the Iran-Iraq war started and Saddam invaded Iran, the MEK mobilized all its members and sympathizers to fight against Iraq and sent its fighters to the front line which promoted Khomeini to react negatively and to order the Iranian army to shoot them in the battel field. 2. MEK fought Iraq for over 2 years until such time that Iraq retreated from all Iran's territories in 1982. 3. When Iraq called for ceasefire and offered to pay war reparations to Iran and Iran refused and Khomeini declared that this war would continue until we conquer Jerusalem, MEK stated when peace is achievable, we should avoid war and stop further bloodshed that had cost both sides greatly and that based on Khomeini's declaration of conquering Jerusalem, this war is not in the interest of Iranian people rather is in the interest of ideology of Khomeini, which is exporting Islamic revolution, thus this war is no longer justified and will become a never ending war which again based on Khomeini statement that if the war with Iraq continues for 20 years he is willing to scarifies the country for 20 more years, then Iran was headed towards a complete destruction and destruction of the region which would eventually bring Israel to the fight if Iran was able to advance towards Israil. Which as we saw MEK was right about that as Iran never gave up the idea of annihilation of Israel and conquering Jerusalem which finally led to the current events in Palestine and Lebanon. 4. MEK realizing after the statement by Khomeini that he wants to continue the war for another 20 years and was talking about the 20 million mobilized civilian paramilitary forces which we now know them as Basig, to step forward to conquer Jerusalem, is becoming an official agenda for the regime and the defending against an invading Iraqi forces are no longer the issue, sought to stop the regime from its war mongering agenda and went to meet with Saddam and singed a ceasefire agreement with Saddam to show to the Iranian people that peace is within reach and achievable and from now on it is Iran that is the invading force and instigator of the continuation of the war and is sacrificing the entire nation for Khomeini's destructive agenda and this war has no legitimacy and has to stop. 5. The devastation that will be caused by Iran wanting to continue the war for 20 years or more promoted the MEK to stop the regime's war machine by creating an organized insurgency against the regime forces and to that effect they established the first ever National Liberation Army of Iran as the military arms of the MEK and National Council of Resistance as the political coalition of Iranian anti regime parties and organization of Iran to combat Iran's appetite and ability to continue the war and started a worldwide campaign to overthrew the Islamis regime in Iran. 6. MEK moved its organization to Iraq after a negotiation with Saddam that their sole intend, and activities will be to stop the continuation of war by fighting the regime forces along the iran-Iraq borders in order to weaken the regime from the inside (as they still had a lot of supporters and well-organized movement inside the Iran) and from outside by armed resistance. And made an agreement with Saddam that they will not in any shape or form collaborate or fight alongside Iraqi forces for as long as they remain inside Iraq and allowed to continue their fight to oust the clerical regime in Iran. And MEK succeeded in its mission to finally stop the war in 1988 by weaking Iran's military forces since they had support from inside Iran and specially among the Iran's Kordestan people and some of their organizations and border cities where Khomeini was forced to accept the ceasefire and said he had to agree to the ceasefire for the reasons that he cannot reveal, and that he drank the poison of peace. Later on a few prominent Iranians officials including the Iran's then President Rafsanjani and also the commander of revolutionary guard and other government official confessed that the poison was the MEK's National Liberation Army that Khomeini had to drink. 7. Factors that made MEK a force to reckon with to stop the Regime's war machine and ultimately force the regime to accept the ceasefire and the UN resolution 598 were a). MEK had broad support in Iran, b). 10s of thousands of Iranians joined the MEK fighting forces along the border from inside Iran as well as Iranian diaspora from around the world, like what we witnessed with Afghan men going back to borders of Afghanistan from Europe to fight the Russians, c). during the MEKs operations against the military bases of the regime inside Iran many soldiers either did not fight the MEK and surrendered as they considered the MEK forces as a insurgency forces against the theocracy regime in Iran and freedom fighters to end the war, d.) many of the soldiers from Iran's military during the war either surrendered to MEK or during the MEK attack on Iran's military bases left their posts and joined MEK and went back with MEK to their barrages inside Iraq, e.) MEK was able to take 100s of millions of dollars' worth of military hardware and tanks and ammunitions back to their bases in Iraq after attacking Iran's military depos like what we saw happened in Syria in the last month or so that toppled Assad's regime - to name a few - which made Iran's regime very scared and to stop the MEK they decided it is to their best interest to accept the ceasefire and close the border to MEK and force Saddam to withdraw its permission for MEK to use Iraqi soil to launch operations against Iran and for the UN to deploy a peace keeping forces to the border areas and to delegitimize MEK's operation and its insurgency forces. There were reports that the MEK fighters grew to more than 30,000 men and women fighting forces during that time. Also during some of the military operation by MEK inside the regime military forces some members of the media were invited by MEK and accompanied the MEK forces and reported the operation live in some instances as i remember watching them. These videos and reports are still out there for anyone to find and watch. 8. UN and the US and all the international organization after the fall of Saddam including the Iraqi Kurds have not found any evidence that MEK had collaborated with Saddam during their time in fighting the regime inside Iraqi soil and during the integration and tribunal of Saddam's military generals and political officials there were no findings and or confession by any of the Iraqi officials that there ever were any collaboration between the MEK and Saddam government. 9. Furthermore, Saddam's lawyers in France in an interview and conference stated that they were approached by Iranian officials and were offered millions of dollars to somehow bring MEK name into the equation and implicate them in being a Saddam collaborator which Saddam lawyers refused and made an official statement about that. I have the facts and the statement and video interviews of the Sadaam lawyers stating these facts and can provide them to you. And many many more facts that points to MEK's independence and not being a collaborator of Saddam which will necessitate hours on end discussion. So for you so inaccurately and bluntly and without any proof implicating MEK as a collaborator of Saddam is appalling and speaks to either your bias or ignorance or perhaps rendering favoritism to Iran clerical regime. So you need to make an official apology to MEK and set the records straight now. capisci?
Saddam offered peace in 1982. Iran refused and wanted to topple saddam. Spent the next 6 years trying to invade iraq and failed while also losing hundreds of thousands. If the war ended in 82 iran would have won but by 88 its actually iraq that came out stronger militarily
You can't invade and then claim you want peace. That's like hitting someone and asking them not to respond. If you choose aggression, expect to get hit back. The only way to stop aggression is with force. You don't seem to understand that a promise to keep the peace, from a proven aggressor, is not something you can rely on.
You lied sir about the actual events that led to Iran and Iraq war either intentionally or out of ignorance. First off as the reason why Saddam attacked Iran you stated that it was due to Saddam feeling threatened by Khomeini's vision challenging his power. Although that vision was a concerned not only to Saddam but also to the entire region (which it turned out to be true as Iran pushed on to export its Islamic revolution throughout the region and to that effect Hezbollah was bourn) but there are few significant events that you have missed to mention. 1. Before the Iraq attack on Iran, Khomeini issued a fatva on Shia Muslims rising up against Saddam 2. Khomeini planed Saddam assignation and used its embassy in Iraq to carry out such assignation on Sadaam and his center of power and to that effect Iran orchestrated the attempted assignation of Saddam foreign minister by the name of Tariq Aziz, which failed, and the Iran ambassador fled Iraq after that 3. Khomeini issued another fatva and asked the Iraqi military to oust Saddam. 4. Khomeini like Shah used the Kurds to start armed insurgency inside Iraq to sow chaos and undermine Iraqi government control over parts of Iraq. 5. Khomeini dismissed and refused to recognize the Iraqi goodwill delegation to meet with him to set aside their differences offering cooperation and friendship before the start of the war 6. Iran State media were ponding Iraqi airwaves with anti Sadaam propaganda calling on Islamic revolution under the leadership of Khomeini in Iraq 7. Iran was using the Shia clergy to mobilize against Saddam in Karbala, and Najaf 8. Iran had started limited border incursions into Iraqi soil mostly in Kurdish region and occasional firing of artillery rounds into Iraqi border areas. 9. Khomeini declared Saddam the corrupter of the earth and based on Islamic decree fighting Iraq and Saddam became a religious duty. And a few other things which were all the reason Saddam saw no choice but to retaliate as he saw a call for war by Iran had already started.
The first captive was an Iranian pilot that was downed near Baghdad few days before the full scale escalation. I can give you his full name but I don’t know if you will find anything in English
The Shia that weren’t happy under Saddam were Iranian followers. Assad and his father are not Ba’athist nor they are Syrian. Just using them to gain control
Ppl here blame sadam and the ayatollah. 😂 foolishness. Its a border between cultures religions and empires. Of course there will be fighting at some point.
Yeah? Saddam made iraq a developing nation until 91 when the 45 nations decided to end his invasion and sanction him Shias have ruined Iraq Even after the sanctions have been lifted
@@رضا-د6ه8تhahahahahah keep lying, completely different religions, taqqiya mutah and so many other things are far from the teachings of Islam, difference is sunnis call themselves Muslim no one says Sunni, shias say we are Shia, a clear distinction because they’re different, enough with the lies
Who do you think won the Iran-Iraq War and why?
For Full Modern History Playlist: th-cam.com/play/PLiPhmAD3I2Jz6goEJlQ1zh6KkbeBWZ2pP.html
One no one lost. 2 considering Iran is much bigger ,and the question was there since 50s during kingdom era and it was clear Iran wants to expand and British moves , Iraq weakened Iran and stopped a potential attack. That is a massive achievement and it strengthened Iraq military with tone of experience. Iran loses are almost 3 times that of iraq. Iraq got out with a stronger bigger military. The tie in itself was a marical.
Iraq focused on capturing some land that had oile in the south that has arabs too.
However if they changed their strategy properly and actually go after the capital and government itself they could have won and taken all of Iran. That is especially if Iraq worked and asked with Islamic language getting macineries from across Muslim world.
It was the original "Iraq war", the one I grew up with. Anyway, in due time, Saddam made Kissinger's adagio true: "to be enemy of the USA is dangerous but to be our ally is deadly".
First off, thanks to this channel @Hikmahistory for covering many of the events I’m about to mention. I’m glad I can share my perspective here.
The Iran-Iraq War had no clear winner-both nations were devastated. But if you look at history, it feels like the Middle East has been condemned to chaos by design. Here’s why:
1. Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916): Arbitrary borders drawn by Britain and France divided the region, ignoring ethnic and sectarian realities and planting the seeds of long-term conflict.
2. Operation Ajax (1953): The CIA and MI6 overthrew Iran’s Prime Minister Mossadegh after he nationalized oil, prioritizing Western control over regional stability.
3. Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988): The U.S. backed Iraq with weapons and intelligence while secretly arming Iran (Iran-Contra), prolonging the war to weaken both sides. Kissinger even said, “It’s a pity they can’t both lose.”
4. Gulf War Setup (1990): U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie’s comments to Saddam Hussein about Kuwait were ambiguous enough to bait Iraq into invasion, leading to Iraq’s devastation.
5. Clean Break Strategy (1996): A policy document suggested destabilizing the region to weaken adversaries like Iraq and Syria.
6. 2003 Iraq Invasion: The U.S. toppled Saddam Hussein under false WMD claims, leaving Iraq in chaos for decades.
7. General Wesley Clark’s Memo (2007): He revealed plans to “take out” seven Middle Eastern countries, including Iraq, Syria, and Iran, further highlighting a broader agenda.
Looking at these events, it’s hard not to see a deliberate strategy to keep the Middle East fragmented and unstable. Why focus on Iran today? Because Iran, with its deep history and cultural backbone, is the only country in the region currently capable of breaking the rules the West seems to have set for the Middle East.
In short, it looks like the region has been condemned to chaos-and Iran is now the focal point because it refuses to play along.
Iraq started the war by invading Iran and was repelled. While it subsequently prevented Iran from taking any of the Iraqi land it still qualifies as an Iranian victory.
Obvious Iran won, Iraq was a lost, because they didn't achieve any of their war aims.
Im Iranian. My father was in the war. Wheni asked him "dad who won the war". He always told me son in war there are no winners only losers.
Unfortunately your dad is right... on the soldier's level. On the political/governmental, I'm afraid that's not the case - countries gain and lose a great amount in a war.
Iran didn't win the war's against Sadam Hussein, but George bush did
I mean it was a white peace, no one gained anything from it. But Iran did defend it’s sovereignty’s
@@HikmaHistoryyeah…. Right.
I was in the war, too.
The Iran-Iraq War dragged on in a stalemate until 1988, when both countries accepted a cease-fire that ended the fighting. Despite the large foreign debt with which Iraq found itself saddled by war's end, Saddam continued to build up his armed forces. In August 1990 the Iraqi army overran neighbouring Kuwait
you missed a very important detail about the foreign debt Saddam built up during his war with Iran, most of the debt was indebted to surprise surprise Kuwait. Saddam thinking he did a favour to the entire middle east by supressing Iranian aggression thought Kuwait would forigve Iraq's debt but they chose not to leading to the invasion in which Saddam wanted to take Kuwaits oil rich land
@@shxmana 1. Iraqi debt wasn't just owed to Kuwait. It was owed to all Gulf countries.
2. Iraq didn't ask Kuwait to forgive its debt.
3. Iraq asked OPEC to lower production so Iraq could recover. But Kuwait not only did not lower production, it lowered oil prices instead.
4. Kuwait was engaging in slant drilling across Iraqi border.
5. Iraq invaded Iran at behest of USA and Gulf region.
@@maquacr7014 I never said only to kuwait I said most of it which was 13 billion (37 in total from all states) which they did ask to forgive for the exact reason I stated being that Saddams opinion was that he defended the entire middle east from Iranian aggression. When Kuwait refused multiple times even! Saddam threatened to reignite a long standing feud between the countries threatening Kuwait with invasion if it didn’t hand over the Bubiyan and Warbah Islands which Kuwait did not. That in combination with Kuwait lowering oil prices which you mentioned is true Saddam accused them of undermining Iraq and not long after took military action. Literally just googled it to get the facts straight and countless of articles pop up saying exactly what I said but worded different in some cases
@@maquacr7014 1. I never said it was but said MOST was learn to read... 13 billion out of a total of 37 was owed to Kuwait
2. Iraq did ask for its debt to forgiven and have them be payments instead for defending the middle east from Iranian aggression cause that was Saddams opinion on the matter.
3. This is true but only after Saddam threatened to reignite a feud over 2 islands governed by Kuwait if Kuwait didnt hand them over.
4. could be evidence for this is hard to find and its largely unkown whether this really happened
5. bro just google this shit I just did to get the facts straight and its so easy to find all over the place
@@maquacr7014you’re wrong on most your points in attempts to whitewash saddams warmongering. Saddam owed its debt to the gulf states, kuwait wasn’t the only nation threatened by invasion, the entire gulf was, hence why saddam had an allied coalition of western AND gulf arabs against him
Great coverage as always. What a tragic, pointless war.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Like all Arab wars
It kept the islamic regime takt on power for decades and US got paid
It wasnt tragic for Iran. We were defending our land from being invaded
It's was Sunni vs Shia war. Arabs vs Persian war.
Thank you for this. I was born in Khorramshahr in 1977. This war had a massive impact on my family. I was saddened to see many Iraqi refugees in Khorramshahr and Abadan, when I last visited those town in 2006.
As an Afghan who went through the savage and brutal invasion of the Red Army of my country, I will never forget an unshakable bravado of Imam Khomeini when he was told by Kremlin during the toughest period of Iran - Iraq war: “compromise your stand on Afghanistan and we will compromised ours on your war with Iraq”, and he said NO.
I wish I could've figured out a place to mention that!
❤❤
And he was dumb to do so he gained nothing and when Taliban gain other Afghanistan they massacred Shias
@@mustafaali3333-q1m You can have a thousand differences with Imam Khomeini but if you consider him as a dumb due to standing to the brutal invasion of an independent country, then it means we shouldn’t bother if an innocent nation is brutalised and destroyed by a super power. The USSR killed 1.5 million and forced almost 7 million Afghans (almost 35% of the population in that time) to leave their country regardless of their ethnicity, religious sects etc. And just for your information, after the USSR withdrawal many heart breaking and horrible things happened but there hasn’t been any massacre whatsoever.
Actually it was more of a stalemate.
Agreed but one side lost more than the other
The owner of this channel has Persian leanings
Iraq started the war and failed to achieve any of its war aims, despite suffering enormous costs. It may not have been a victory for Iran, but it was unquestionably a defeat for Iraq.
@@wrathofachilles Now we're getting into history. The problem is iran tried to inspire Iraqi Shia revolutionairies in Iraq to ovethrow the saddam Huseein government. I wouldn't say Iraq started the war or Iran, it just happend because of different actions.
@@mohammedalsmadi680 Big statement - what makes you say that?
Amazing job brother
Thanks wrora!
Amazing video keep it up !
Thank you for the support!
Saddam was a baathist tyrant just like assad, and Khomeini was a fanatic: basically a shia version of Bn Laden. Both tyrants who made their people suffer.
You put it perfectly
as an iranian you couldn't explain it better than this
i get ur point but i would say saddam was much worse. khomeini didnt start this war and didnt drop chemical weapons on his own people like saddam and assad. comparing khomeini to bin laden is ridiculous to me
What has bldn done that’s so bad? Ridiculous comment, and how can you put saddam in the same sentence as that monster the majority of his people actually loved him unlike assad where the majority lived in fear and hated him, tell me you’re not Arab or don’t understand the land without telling me, shut up white boy
@@aooi9191 truu
Great video Tariq! Those complex geopolitics resulted in some arms sales and alliances between unexpected nations!
~Chris
Thanks Chris!
Great research. Lots of facts i didn't know, thank you for sharing ❤️
Thanks Pedro, this one took me a while. Very convoluted conflict.
Great video as always!
I love channel so much
Thank you!
I was amazed your incredible videos, great truthful history, you spent time and hardwork, Mate may I just know where you're from? Thank you very much.
Thanks for the support. I'm Afghan but spent much of my life in the UK.
Saddam didn't lose to nor win over Khomeini. The countries went back to the original borders with many casualties. It was a tragic war.
technically he distablized his country and got overthrown
That is a loss in my books
@BigBratwurstthe USA overthrew him
@@موسى_7 Hi Hope you're well. The title of the video is not accurate aa Saddam didn't lose to Khomeini.
Saddams gone so he lost
Such a great concise video, very professional voice too
There is a story I came across in the the book Web of Deceit by Barry Lando. During the Iraq-Iran War, Iraqi military officers were being trained by Green Berets Special Forces in the US in urban guerilla warfare. By the mid 1980s the war was a stalemate and the fear of the US was that the momentum was shifting towards Iran's favor; which it eventually did towards 1988 as Iran started going into Iraq, and so the idea was that in the worst case scenario of the Iranians defeating tge Iraqi army and taking Baghdad, an organized urban guerilla warfare would erupt throughout Baghdad and other Iraqi cities where the Iranian occupation would be a chatastrophic nightmare for Iran.
Fast foward to 2003 with the American War and Occupation of Iraq. A few months into the American occupation after L.Paul Bremmer fires the entire Iraqi military, the Iraqi insugency explodes and urban guerilla warfare is unleashed on the American occupation that lasts for years. And it was organized with cells throughout the country.
The same military officers who were trained by the American Green Berets Special Foces in urban guerilla warfare used these tactics against the Americans.
Fascinating, I will check it out cuz if true that's amazingly interesting!
That be an amazing story if it's true. Maybe if you find enough material, could you do a video? Just a suggestion. By the way, truly enjoy your videos and they greatly inform me about the Middle East.
The dumbass thing the us have ever done 😂
Excellent video thank you !
Having studied this war for many years I can say this is all correct. Millions of lives lost billions of dollars spent and the end result was a stalemate.
What’s funny is that thanks to a domino effect, plus America, Iran got everything they wanted in the war
I think I agree but could you elaborate?
I think you should thank Israel too.
@@HikmaHistory basically the Americans instigated saddam to attack Iran but covertly supported Iran as well in order to force khomeni to covertly collaborate with the west in its designs for the middle east. In 2003 the Americans simply served Iraq (which hosts a large no. of shia religious shrines) on a platter to iran by invading the country. We don't know what the Americans got in return for that. But 1 thing is becoming quite clear that iran and the west including Israel are actually partners. And the verbal khurafaat they say to each other is just optics to deceive people.
@@HashiramaSenyuexcept america is suppprted by nearly entire middle east state turkey and saudi alone doing more than iran not to mention gulf states and it because by that time they hate sadam for invade quwait america actually ok (at least tolerate) saddam in charge of iraq but it was saudi who pressure america to help quwait ofcourse arab monarch the reason iran able to gain much influence simply american backed government is unpopular in long term specially their first agenda is privatization of iraqi economy wich most of populace see as balatant stealing and without scular baathist (or other to replace them) as powerfull player and iraq themself didnt have powerfull goverment and fell into chaos with rise of isis, most shia population ofcourse look for iran and iran simply use this for their regional intrest like everyone else
@@HashiramaSenyu You're my new favorite schizo.
Saddam’s decision to launch a war against Iran was not rooted in his desire to defeat the Ayatollahs and invade Iran; rather, it was a calculated move to solidify his authoritarian grip and cement his one-man rule over Iraq.
💯
Yes because the Southern Shia Iraqis were always a threat being they had the largest population within Iraq.
Shia Sunni and Kurds being main groups but there was also a large population of Christians
The war was forced on him by Iran. They were shelling and attacking by air way before the full scale escalation
@ghostirq Saddam didn't respect the 1975 algiers agreement, which ceded half of shatt al arab to Iran. The war was necessary for saddam to cement his one-man demigod rule.
@@JustCallMe-Moe that’s not what the conflict started over. Ayatollah was in Iraq before the Algerian deal and he was part of the deal. That’s why he was exiled to France and considered Saddam and his party to be a foe. He started shelling and sending fighter jets into Iraq after he took over
Iran came out stronger after the war and rebuilt beautifully, with thriving cities today. Meanwhile, Iraq never fully recovered. It’s still not a free country and is largely influenced by Iran. Saddam faced a humiliating death, while Khomeini was honored with an unforgettable funeral. Tyrants always meet a bad end.
Proud to be a Shia Muslim! ❤️
Saddam's humiliating death is saying the shahada? Big, big difference between Saddam who died a martyr and Khomeini and his successor, who allied with Israel and America.
@dragon888193ftw he was a secular dude who posed himself as muslim he didnt even recite the shahdah and was killed. Lol!
Khomenei never asked for America or Israel's help. Those 2 countries played double games like they do now
Beautiful
It was a draw technically
has IRAN learnt anything from IRAQI-US war?
is Iran BEST buddy with Russia yet?
still insist on helping muslims in Georgia against Russia?
Your whole country is at risk now....
First I am hearing Saddam lost this war? I’m not saying he won, but I’ve never heard Iraq lost either
Clickbait
Interesting.
It’s a shame the Iranian monarchy fell. It’s also a shame that corruption was rampant which also led the rise of Khomeini.
The monarchy failed to do one thing, “Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once”. The western culture was too much. If he wanted western culture, he’d have to implement bit by bit.
Greatest tragedy. Two great nations fought and only israel and the USA won
One sad episode in the history of the Islamic Ummah
Clearly Umma isn’t a thing
@@Hermesborugerdian Ok berg.
@@maquacr7014 More like -ian.
@@Hermesborugerdian Ok stein.
Imam Khomeini was a great leader chosen by his people, his version of governing 'islamic republic' was voted for by 26 million out if 32 million Iranis. He took Iran out of humiliation and subjugation and poverty into what Iran is tiday, A super power. This is the view of an afghan living in the west.
1. Iran under the shah had frequently harassed Iraq in the 1960s as they sought to grab the entire contested border area. To make matters worse, Iran under the shah , actively armed Kurdish rebels in Iraq to weaken Iraq. This caused immense resentment in Iraq - amongst Shias and Sunnis.
2. So Saddam sought to avenge these things in 1980 on seeing that Khomeini was threatening the whole world: US hostage crisis, threatening Sunni Gulf countries with ‘pious Shia revolution’ , arming shia militants in Bahrain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc.
3. The Iran Iraq war at the ground was not shia-Sunni conflict: Iranian Sunnis in oil rich Kuzestan fought brilliantly against Iraqi occupation, and even surprised khomeini amd his shia clergy. Similarly Shias in the Iraqi army fought against iran.
4. Iraq offered a cease fire in 1983 seeing that Iran was more resilient than he calculated but Iran refused and saddam then lost it going bezerck. And then the west stepped in with arms sales, other Sunni countries pitched in as they had seen how shia militants in their countries had been armed and funded by Iran in the zeal of spreading the shia revolution overseas.
Not true Iran started that.
"They tried to overwhelm them with Shia (sheer) numbers" - best unintentional pun ever.
Unintentional?! I'm offended good sir.
So in Iran - Iraq war, the world care more on losing some oil field rather than losing human lives?.
People always say "saddam lost bc he couldnt gain any iranian territory", okay then did iran overthrow the iraqi government?? Did they capture basra at all from 1982-1988?? The iraqi army literally maintained control over the shatt al arab all the way until 1990 and khomeini himself literally admitted that he was displeased with iran accepting the ceasefire and that he was happy for all the iranian "martyrs" but unhappy that he was still alive. Its simple, iraq invaded in 1980, iran kicked out iraq in 1982, iran invaded iraq in 1982 and continued to do so until 1988, and the iranian army got kicked out from iraq in the tawakalna ala allah operations, that is why iran lost, respectively. The only reason iran is a regional power in the middle east today is bc saddams regime was ousted from power in 2003, so iran becoming a regional power has nothing to do with the iran iraq war at all, that war was when iran lost
God bless our martyrs of Iran, i owe my life to them and they are deeply loved by me
Who controls Iraq now?
Khomeini agreed to the seize fire only after US Navy shutdown the Iranian civilian airliner thinking there is no limit to American strategy in not allowing Iran to win !
I‘m half Irani and half Iraqi. I like both countries but I prefer Iraq.
Like preferring mom over dad? 😁
@@Payamjafarian I really like both of my parents. They’re divorced. My mother is Iraqi. Back then I preferred my father because I often went to work with him, but now I live with my mother and do more things with her.
@@danim8414 you are anyways the light of my eyes brother, I have the same story as u actually. I was just stuck in Iran. 😅
@@Payamjafarian 🤝
Why do you prefer Iraq?
I fear that other countries are becoming divided by massively wealthy elite and poor
Just to show the interconnectedness of this war, 20:10 in the photo with Khomeini is my grandfather (the one with the white turban). He was born in Iraq, studied in Iran, believed in the exportation of the revolution, became the official Arabic translator for Khomeini in exile in France, then fled to the UAE when Khomeini put his older brother, Ayatollah Shoberi Khaqani under house arrest in Qom.
This is how complicated this conflict was on personal level for Iraqis and Iranians. Many people want this conflict to be described in numbers and figures and opposing ideologies, while it is, as a matter of fact, a conflict between two countries that shared cultural and historical similarities for centuries, often intermarried between one another and influenced one another.
Ps. I’m an Iraqi citizen, born, raised and living in Iraq.
Great video as always, but I must disagree when you say that the US was Iraq's "erstwhile ally". The US never had any illusions about Saddam's true nature and was merely trying to check Iranian power and stop the spread of the revolution. To call the US an Iraqi ally is a stretch.
I get where you're coming from. I was trying to allude to the fact that the US gave very real material aid to Iraq during the war with Iran. I know that doesn't necessarily make them allies in the traditional sense but then you have to be careful - were the US/Britain not allies with Stalin's USSR during WWII? Obviously we saw what happened after and even during WWII it was obvious that it was an alliance of convenience but I would say they were still allies.
How Iran rallied after a chaotic year long revolution was nothing short of a miracle
I was in high school at the time and saw the horrors of both Islamic countries fight each other, specially the chemical weapons that where used!!!!
Saddam had the support of all the powerful western countries and used every weapon including chemical weapons on the Iranians but lost horribly. This shows that having all financial and military support doesn’t mean you can win.
1) no he didn’t. Only country he was dealing with was the USSR doing arms deals.
2) Iran is 3x bigger than Iraq and has 3x the population
3) the full scale escalation started to stop the Iranian shelling not to take over.
No side really won, sadm wanted peace since 1982 but khomeni wanted to conquer Iraq but he failed to due to the strength of the Iraqi army.
Lol
true, khomen got repelled around 1987 to inside of his borders you can see it on the map channels lol
@@lambert801 He is right.
saddam started and didnt achieve any goal, could conquer one cm.
It was saddam who started the invasion and didn't gain shit lol
It was Khomeini who was forced to accept the ceasefire while some Iran’s territories was still under Iraq occupation.
Talks about american and british weapons show's a soviet tank and a soviet mig21.
You understand I'm limited by what's available on Google, right? The purpose of the visuals is to give the viewer an understanding of the audio narration. Inshallah in the future when I become much bigger and I can dedicate more funds to each video, I will aim to make every visual synchronise accurately with the audio.
@@HikmaHistoryquit making excuses! You failed us Hikma. Lol. Jk. Love your channel. Of all the channels on TH-cam I'm most excited to see your channel grow.
Alternative timeline
Iraq: Hey, how about we solve our problems diplomatically?
Iran: Good idea. Let us focus on peace and development as well
Iraq: Nice. Now we sign trade agreements.
Iran: Don't forget to keep those extreme ideas to a minimum
Now both regimes avoid a pointless war and maintain close ties to each other with despite differences
The complex interplay between regional and geo politics are factors whose consequences still affect both nations & the region to date.
Leaders across the region have been unable to leverage geopolitics to their advantage.
And instead are used as pawns by the bigger world powers.
What about the Saudis and some of the Khaleeji states?
@HikmaHistory If anything the Khaleeji states have been pivotal in the regions political power play:
As trusted agents of West.
Propping up financially, politically & militarily governments allied to them also opposition groups.
It's their financial muscle that has given them significant regionally. Prior to the discover & exploitation of their crude oil resources. The Khaleeji States weren't considered much of a factor in regional politics.
The title is already wrong💀
Care to explain?
@@pyrowar7199the conflict started to stop Iran and that’s what happened
@@ghostirq How did it stop Iran? Iran is still a theocracy and Iraq is basically a puppet to Iran
But whomst drunk the cup of poison?
If it’s one thing neighbors of Iran learned in those 8 years, it’s don’t attack Iran when Iran is attacking itself
I hope they dont blame me for the war
can you make a video on mustafa barzani
Him specifically? Probably not. Kurdish movement for self-determination - definitely yes!
you made a lot of videos on many important leaders of middle east so i would love it if u make one on him considering that there are rarely any videos about him in english and your content is great so i assume you would attract many kurds to your video.
Thanks for pointing out that Saddam lost. People who say the war was a tie don’t understand the conflict.
Iran was fighting Iraq backed by the Europe USSR US and the Gulf getting their territory back and surviving is a win.
Lol bro both countries got wrekt. The only way Iran stayed in the fight as long as it did was it sent millions of underage children to the frontlines to engage Iraqi troop positions. Cannon fodder.
Ultimately the war was a tie because everything went back to ante bellum. But if you delve deeper, Iran winning is a lot easier to argue than Iraq winning.
Absolute rubbish. Iraq never lost. Saddam crushed khomaini. Iran is a massive country compared to iraq and for iraq to go toe to toe with iran, that alone tells you that iraq won the war u idiot.
@HikmaHistory
It wasn't a tie considering the state of the belligerents 40 years later
USSR was the only one trading weapons with Iraq. EU didn’t do anything and the US was passing satellite images to both sides. The conflict started by Iran and dragged by them for 8 years
Never forget: iraq traded fn fal rifles for irish beef, our army got badly needed arms, iraqi people got meat to eat, everyone won in this deal
This happened to weaken both countries. The aftermath was that Iraqi military broke down facilitating the 2003 US and allies invasion.
As for Iran, Iran learnt its lessons from this war and began developing their own missiles with the help of North Korea, Russia etc. . All in all I think this war just stopped industrialization of both countries enormously.
No one won, but Iraq having 3 times less the population of Iran actually suprised
Iraqi military didn't break down as a result of Iran Iraq war. Infact, both Iranian and Iraqi militaries became aware of modern warfare and gained tons of experience.
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, subsequent American response and sanctions on Iraq weakened Iraqi military.
Also, Iran got Soviet missile technology from Libya. Iran reverse engineered Soviet tech. China, North Korea, India and Pakistan did the same.
You missed the part where America told Iraq to invade Iran and promised saddam Kuwait
What do u mean by US vilified Iraq? Didn’t US turn on Saddam & trashed him after he invaded Kuwait?
You think superpowers sided with countries out of principle rather than self interest?
Iraq was supposed to fight US enemies, not US allies.
@@maquacr7014USA is not the world GOD!! And so you think Middle East people care about what US wants? Haha. They are not afraid of USA. Trust me I’ve been to IRAQ.
The stalemate only began in the third year and when IRGC took over the decision making. Even though the war lasted for eight years, most of the decisive operations and intense fighting occurred up to June 1982, a pivotal point in the war, when twelve armored divisions of the Iraqi forces were either annihilated or crushed and were forced to retreat to pre-war borders. The defeat caused the shocking events within the Iraqi camp following the conviction of Iraqi top military commanders in the court martials of July 1982.
Up until this point in the war, it was Iran’s regular army, the remnant of the Shah's army after the revolution, who led and did bulk of the fighting, and managed to preserve the pre-war borders while maintaining superiority on the ground, air, and in the Persian Gulf, in addition to holding a staggering amount of Iraqi prisoners of war (only the last operation in June 1982 led to the capturing of around twenty thousand Iraqi PoWs).
At this point Iran had the upper hand for a peace treaty, and even could have captured the Iraqi city of Basra, which did not materialize since the regular army opposed it as an act of aggression, but the revolutionary government in Iran had other plans for the war going forward.
Also iraqi infastructure was still intact to an extent after the war, the only thing that wasnt was the iraqi economy, however both were destroyed after the 1991 persian gulf war
Why did king Zahir Shah succeed in winning over both moderates and islamists but Mohammad reza pahlavi didn't
LONG LIVE IRAN 🇮🇷❤️
Saddam lost to Khomeini? Are you okay buddy? As an Iranian, I would say that Saddam won by tearing up Algeria accord he agreed upon with the Shah. Khomeini said he lost by drinking from the poison chalice. I think you are an Afghan Shia by defending and glorifying Khomeini.
Afghan yes, Shia no.
@HikmaHistory see buddy! You don't have to know the person making the videos to understand their mentality. It's time for shias, sunnis and ismailis to stop glorifying safavid, ghaznavid and the hashashin genocidal maniacs. It's time to find our identity in our common shared values and free ourselves from the legacy of these murderous bastards over the past millennium. What's happening in Afghanistan today is exactly the legacy of Mahmud Ghaznavi. If you only knew what horror the ghezelbash inflicted on our people by chopping up children and adults whilst they were alive, drink their blood and eat their flesh.
Saddam lost, because the war put him in debt, which led to the invasion of Kuwait and subsequent destruction of Iraq. Divine revenge against the man who created a war between Muslims.
Saddam lost ! Iran was on the offensive for 7 years.. first 1 year only Saddam and Iraq advanced
@@GerrardSlater in a war, you don't determine a winner by the number of rockets fired. You have the same mentality of the mullahs regime in Tehran. In the first air attack, Iran lost most of its fighter jets. Khomeini facilitated an eight year arms sales to weapons manufacturers and assisted the state of Israel by being a proxy for them to fight the first ever person who directly shot rockets towards Israel. Not to mention Israel being successful in expanding territory by Khomeini distracting the entire world. So keep getting drunk on your Shi'ite ideology buddy.
Saddam should have never trusted america and britain. He should have learned from the native americans who said they "talk with forked tongeus"
No one trusted anybody, everyone know that the idea was to stop Iran.
He was soviet backed for the most part.
More like, shouldn't have trusted the soviets, who, suprise, suprise, no longer exist 😅
Try France and the Soviets
I have a better takeaway: he shouldn't invade people who are on God's side, and he shouldn't make Muslims kill Muslims
Materially both lost and gained nothing. Both countries failed to occupy any territories. Iran was on defence under Iraqi offence first 2 years of the war, Iraq was on defence for 6 years under Iranian offence later. Both lost materially, Iraq was on a huge debt, and Iran collapsed economically, therefore accepting ceasefire (while Iraq was planning for biggest offence, after Iranian offence failed).
Khomeini wanted to spread Islamic revolution throughout the middle east, Iraq was the first and biggest target. Khomeini wanted the Shia of Iraq (Shia is the majority of Iraq already at that point) to side with Iran and revolt against Saddam’s Sunni dominated regime. Khomeini basically main goal of the war was to overthrow Saddam’s regime, and replace it with Iranian proxy.
Saddam on the other hand wanted to smash that, the main reason on why he invaded Iran is because so that Shia Iraqis won’t be inspired by the Islamic State ideology, and so that the revolution won’t enter Iraq. He thought also occupying Iranian province Ahwaz was a bonus to the goal.
The invasion lasted 2 years successfully for Iraq. The UN wanted them to accept ceasefire by 1982, which Saddam agreed to, but Khomeini refused. Because Iranians became united under one goal at that point, to defend their soil from Iraqi aggression.
Both countries gained support internationally. Iraq gained support from Soviet Union, Germany and France on weaponry, Gulf countries financially, and US by satellites. Iran gained both financially and weaponry support from China, Japan, North Korea, Israel, Libya, Syria and even USA during Iran-Contra Affair, and Iraqi Kurdistan region in Northern Iraq supported Iranian armies as well. Iraq also had mercenaries from some other Arab countries as well.
The war destined to be a stalemate. Iraqis claimed victory because their defence succeeded, and Iranian offences failed (1982-1988). Tehran was on their worst period of absences, also 30% of Iranian population moved out from Tehran. Baghdad on the other hand was on pure joy in the end of the war.
In conclusion: Both lost materially, Iran lost more on both materially and casualties, Iraq won morally because their actual goal was to counter Iranian islamic proxy and offence. Iranian succeeded defending their soils but failed to occupy Iraqi soil and didn’t win anything materially as well. Khomeini kept the Islamic regime in Iran but failed heavily by trying to overthrow Saddam’s Sunni regime in Iraq.
In my opinion, no winners. Most of the western analysts claims that neither side won, while some analysts claimed that Iraq was victor of the war, because of overwhelming successes in the end. But this war also led to Iraq invading Kuwait, which also led to fall of Iraq.
The words "human capital" are the most dehumanizing/objectifying words you can ever use to talk about populations.
I see where you're coming from but it is a very useful term.
@HikmaHistory what about human life? That's what people have always said until we all started talking like the monopoly man running a corporate conglomerate! For real I never heard human life referred to as "human capital" until a year or two ago! And now I hear it a few times a week.
@@danielwatcherofthelord1823 I share your disgust with the normalization of profit-oriented thinking in everyday life and the resulting dehumanization. However "human capital" is an economic term widely used since the 60's with its own meaning, it's not the same as human life. When a country suffers from brain-drain, there is a loss of human capital but not human lives for example. It was not only about populations dying when he used the term, lots of young Iranian men had fled the country to not become a part of those "human-wave attacks". It's an important part of the socio-economic implications of the war for Iran and I think it was perfectly reasonable to talk about it.
The tragic loss of human lives on both sides is another topic altogether and was mentioned briefly about 20 seconds earlier.
I wonder what would have happened if the us supported Iraq. I knew the Iran was shaky after the revolution but I didn’t understand just how shaky. I am of the opinion that had Iran fallen it might have lead to a different early 21st century.
Please don’t post historical videos when you don’t do your research. He was in Iraq first before he was exiled to France because of the Algerian deal and from that point he considered the ruling in Iraq to be a foe. When he took control he was shelling towns by the Iraqi border and the first captive was an Iranian pilot near Baghdad not even the border and that was few days before the full scale escalation. Saddam tried to complain about Iran to the UN and nobody did anything so he resorted to full scale.
Because American democracy intervened
One no one lost. 2 considering Iran is much bigger ,and the question was there since 50s during kingdom era and it was clear Iran wants to expand and British moves , Iraq weakened Iran and stopped a potential attack. That is a massive achievement and it strengthened Iraq military with tone of experience. Iran loses are almost 3 times that of iraq. Iraq got out with a stronger bigger military. The tie in itself was a marical.
Iraq focused on capturing some land that had oile in the south that has arabs too.
However if they changed their strategy properly and actually go after the capital and government itself they could have won and taken all of Iran. That is especially if Iraq worked and asked with Islamic language getting macineries from across Muslim world.
Saddam wasn’t worried about an Iranian invasion, he was worried they would train, fund, and arm Iraqi Shi'a who could take the fight on domestically - then join with Iran politically.
He was aiming for Tehran - he didn’t get bogged down in the border provinces for fun, but no one can take Tehran by air assault…
Had he left them alone for a bit longer, Khomeini’s purge of the Air Force which had literally started that week would have either
a. kneecapped itself, or
b. kicked off military counter revolution given a lot of the officer corps were NOT that keen on new regime
Instead, Saddam couldn’t help himself and completely united nearly all factions in Iran to join the patriotic fight against the invaders, something that happens 95/100 in times of invasion, even when huge domestic turmoil.
His absolute failure to achieve anything like air superiority in opening days of the war absolutely stuffed up everything that followed. There was no way he could replicate the opening of thr 6 day war because while he had good planes, he didn’t have the intelligence or the logistics and the dispersal of the targets was over massively bigger area and each sortie was tons longer in distance than Israel had to contend with.
There’s no way the rest of the gulf states were going to get involved. Saudi hated and feared Iraq, and while they needed Iraq as a buffer against Iran, having a combined Iran-Iraq would have been their worst nightmare. Egypt and Syria were too far away to help and already had their hands full.
This is absolutly a wrong take sure there were arabs on living on the coast of persian gulf in iran but saddam expected them to join them instead of fight it was some arabs themselves who bought time for irans military to get ready for a counter attack second both sides lost iraqs economy was in shambles after the war their industry was kapput and that paved the way for the invasion of kuwait because they needed a coast money and oil irans airforce wich was all basically top tech f-14 phantoms wrecked the iraqi airforce before it even got Airborn
@@bernardkealey6449 Iranian airforce was trained by USA. No way Iraq was going to establish air superiority.
India couldn't do that with Pakistan in any of the conflicts either with the exception of 1971 when Pakistan was under sanctions.
@mindblower5043 it wasn't battle harden yet plus we talking about religious Muslim fokes. Those are additional forces to confuse and out stretch the enemy forces and concerns.
Not to mention u did not read what I said correctly. It was his gole and streagy wrong which give the wrong outcome. The capital is not far away from the north of Iraq. The entire strategy needs to be changed and should been all out from get go.
The thing is he underestimated them.
Please read propoly before typing.
@@jajatodo2072 Iraq got out of the war stronger. Their industry was mostly intact. Gulf War what destroyed Iraq. Iraq military needed 5 years ie 3 more years to catch a break and heal.
Iraq got out off the war stronger than before and stronger position than Iran.
You’re missing the Israeli part. Israel was heavily involved in Iran be it industry, defence, agriculture, sewage to all the way to training Iran’s military and airforce which paved the way for Iran to defeat Iraq despite having everyone’s support. Israel also the was the only country to actually support Iran despite the new regime’s hostility towards Israelis but the Jewish state hoped that it’ll keep the window of cooperation open but it was unfortunately not true. Israel not only armed Iran but also carried out airstrikes to destroy Iraq’s nuclear ambitions forever and both countries shared intelligence to counter Saddam’s regime. Both countries cooperated closely to contain Arab nationalism. Iran also supplied oil to Israel during the OPEC’s oil embargo.
I specifically spoke about Israeli aid to Iran. Around the 13/14 minute mark.
Hell of a docco, thanks for making it! A very important part of recent Iranian and Iraqi history. A great follow up would be to cover how Iran and Iraq became friendly after the American forces left , leading a complete reversal of the situation in the 1980s
Iran vs Iraq, was the Russia vs Ukraine of the middle east
Care to explain?
Way overestimate on Israeli help to Iran. Check your figures.
Shah forgot who put him in place and started barking at his owners and that let to his removal…
Hi Hikma. Do you understand the contradiction of your presentation? Mohammed Reza Shah sought to modernize and develop Iran ... Iran has a Shah, a King. You do understand that the industrially developed countries in the world all have modern democratic republics with the Rule of Law. Do you understand your statement contradicts logic? Or are the Middle Eastern people as lost as the people of Communist China and Communist Cuba. The fighter jets and tanks you presented are not bought from America. You just showed Soviet made fighter jets and tanks. The warship you displayed was not available at the time of the Shah. That warship is a US built warship in the early 2000s. Do you understand that what you have presented is misleading if not a lie? The Shah did purchase American fighter jets and tanks. Yes, the Shah of Iran was well equipped with US made weapons of mass destruction at the time of the 1980s. Iran was well equipped for a Middle Eastern country. The countries of the Middle East were and still are not capable of producing modern weapons of mass destruction. The countries of Middle East can only buy such weapons from developed countries like the US. The Iranians and Iraqis cannot make poisonous gas. The Iranians and Iraqis cannot make nuclear weapons. Communist China, Syria, and Libya cannot sell modern mechanized weapons to Iraq or Iran because they cannot make these things. Why would Israel sell weapons to Iran? Aren't the two mortal enemies? Yes, maybe Ronald Reagan would sell weapons to Iran to get American Embassy hostages back. That is possible, but as soon as the hostages are returned to the US I am sure Ronald Reagan would arm the Iraqis. A lot of what you have presented is not possible. Iran, Iraq, Communist China, Libya, Syria, ... cannot make modern weapons. These are pre-industrial societies. It is questionable Israel can make modern fighter jets. Israel can make assault rifles but why would the Israelis arm the ultra-Islamic Iranians?
That's a lot to respond to!
1 - Democratic Republics are not the only industrially developed countries in the world (China & Saudi).
2 - Weapons-wise, the purpose of my videos is to give visual aides for the narration (so the visuals obviously have to be close the thing I'm talking about but not always exact - because I have limited resources, I can't just buy every relevant photo/video). But when exactly did I use the 2000 US Warship, time-stamp?
3 - China absolutely can make mechanised weapons (even if they or the Syrians couldn't, it doesn't make a difference because they could just sell weapons they bought from the Soviets to the Iranians).
4 - Israel feared Iraq. Geopolitics is not as simple as 'I don't like so I won't work with you' - it's too complex for that.
5 - America sold weapons to both Iran & Iraq for very different reasons. This might be contradictory but I assure you, in geopolitics this is very normal.
this hikma history dude clearly on that ayatollah payroll 👀
You also lied about MEK by stating that they collaborated with Saddam against Iran during the Iran - Iraq war.
1. When the Iran-Iraq war started and Saddam invaded Iran, the MEK mobilized all its members and sympathizers to fight against Iraq and sent its fighters to the front line which promoted Khomeini to react negatively and to order the Iranian army to shoot them in the battel field.
2. MEK fought Iraq for over 2 years until such time that Iraq retreated from all Iran's territories in 1982.
3. When Iraq called for ceasefire and offered to pay war reparations to Iran and Iran refused and Khomeini declared that this war would continue until we conquer Jerusalem, MEK stated when peace is achievable, we should avoid war and stop further bloodshed that had cost both sides greatly and that based on Khomeini's declaration of conquering Jerusalem, this war is not in the interest of Iranian people rather is in the interest of ideology of Khomeini, which is exporting Islamic revolution, thus this war is no longer justified and will become a never ending war which again based on Khomeini statement that if the war with Iraq continues for 20 years he is willing to scarifies the country for 20 more years, then Iran was headed towards a complete destruction and destruction of the region which would eventually bring Israel to the fight if Iran was able to advance towards Israil. Which as we saw MEK was right about that as Iran never gave up the idea of annihilation of Israel and conquering Jerusalem which finally led to the current events in Palestine and Lebanon.
4. MEK realizing after the statement by Khomeini that he wants to continue the war for another 20 years and was talking about the 20 million mobilized civilian paramilitary forces which we now know them as Basig, to step forward to conquer Jerusalem, is becoming an official agenda for the regime and the defending against an invading Iraqi forces are no longer the issue, sought to stop the regime from its war mongering agenda and went to meet with Saddam and singed a ceasefire agreement with Saddam to show to the Iranian people that peace is within reach and achievable and from now on it is Iran that is the invading force and instigator of the continuation of the war and is sacrificing the entire nation for Khomeini's destructive agenda and this war has no legitimacy and has to stop.
5. The devastation that will be caused by Iran wanting to continue the war for 20 years or more promoted the MEK to stop the regime's war machine by creating an organized insurgency against the regime forces and to that effect they established the first ever National Liberation Army of Iran as the military arms of the MEK and National Council of Resistance as the political coalition of Iranian anti regime parties and organization of Iran to combat Iran's appetite and ability to continue the war and started a worldwide campaign to overthrew the Islamis regime in Iran.
6. MEK moved its organization to Iraq after a negotiation with Saddam that their sole intend, and activities will be to stop the continuation of war by fighting the regime forces along the iran-Iraq borders in order to weaken the regime from the inside (as they still had a lot of supporters and well-organized movement inside the Iran) and from outside by armed resistance. And made an agreement with Saddam that they will not in any shape or form collaborate or fight alongside Iraqi forces for as long as they remain inside Iraq and allowed to continue their fight to oust the clerical regime in Iran. And MEK succeeded in its mission to finally stop the war in 1988 by weaking Iran's military forces since they had support from inside Iran and specially among the Iran's Kordestan people and some of their organizations and border cities where Khomeini was forced to accept the ceasefire and said he had to agree to the ceasefire for the reasons that he cannot reveal, and that he drank the poison of peace. Later on a few prominent Iranians officials including the Iran's then President Rafsanjani and also the commander of revolutionary guard and other government official confessed that the poison was the MEK's National Liberation Army that Khomeini had to drink.
7. Factors that made MEK a force to reckon with to stop the Regime's war machine and ultimately force the regime to accept the ceasefire and the UN resolution 598 were a). MEK had broad support in Iran, b). 10s of thousands of Iranians joined the MEK fighting forces along the border from inside Iran as well as Iranian diaspora from around the world, like what we witnessed with Afghan men going back to borders of Afghanistan from Europe to fight the Russians, c). during the MEKs operations against the military bases of the regime inside Iran many soldiers either did not fight the MEK and surrendered as they considered the MEK forces as a insurgency forces against the theocracy regime in Iran and freedom fighters to end the war, d.) many of the soldiers from Iran's military during the war either surrendered to MEK or during the MEK attack on Iran's military bases left their posts and joined MEK and went back with MEK to their barrages inside Iraq, e.) MEK was able to take 100s of millions of dollars' worth of military hardware and tanks and ammunitions back to their bases in Iraq after attacking Iran's military depos like what we saw happened in Syria in the last month or so that toppled Assad's regime - to name a few - which made Iran's regime very scared and to stop the MEK they decided it is to their best interest to accept the ceasefire and close the border to MEK and force Saddam to withdraw its permission for MEK to use Iraqi soil to launch operations against Iran and for the UN to deploy a peace keeping forces to the border areas and to delegitimize MEK's operation and its insurgency forces.
There were reports that the MEK fighters grew to more than 30,000 men and women fighting forces during that time. Also during some of the military operation by MEK inside the regime military forces some members of the media were invited by MEK and accompanied the MEK forces and reported the operation live in some instances as i remember watching them. These videos and reports are still out there for anyone to find and watch.
8. UN and the US and all the international organization after the fall of Saddam including the Iraqi Kurds have not found any evidence that MEK had collaborated with Saddam during their time in fighting the regime inside Iraqi soil and during the integration and tribunal of Saddam's military generals and political officials there were no findings and or confession by any of the Iraqi officials that there ever were any collaboration between the MEK and Saddam government.
9. Furthermore, Saddam's lawyers in France in an interview and conference stated that they were approached by Iranian officials and were offered millions of dollars to somehow bring MEK name into the equation and implicate them in being a Saddam collaborator which Saddam lawyers refused and made an official statement about that. I have the facts and the statement and video interviews of the Sadaam lawyers stating these facts and can provide them to you.
And many many more facts that points to MEK's independence and not being a collaborator of Saddam which will necessitate hours on end discussion.
So for you so inaccurately and bluntly and without any proof implicating MEK as a collaborator of Saddam is appalling and speaks to either your bias or ignorance or perhaps rendering favoritism to Iran clerical regime. So you need to make an official apology to MEK and set the records straight now. capisci?
Iraq started the full scale not the conflict
He didn’t lose it.
Saddam offered peace in 1982. Iran refused and wanted to topple saddam. Spent the next 6 years trying to invade iraq and failed while also losing hundreds of thousands. If the war ended in 82 iran would have won but by 88 its actually iraq that came out stronger militarily
Iraq didnt achieve even one of its goals
You can't invade and then claim you want peace. That's like hitting someone and asking them not to respond. If you choose aggression, expect to get hit back. The only way to stop aggression is with force. You don't seem to understand that a promise to keep the peace, from a proven aggressor, is not something you can rely on.
Don’t forget America considered Saddam as friend during this!!
« Friend » not really, more like they didn’t want to see Iraq fall under Iran. But saddam was more of a soviet backed dictator
Is that why they were backing Iran ?
SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS F'ING COOL!!!!
JUST LIKE YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN WHEN HE TURNED ON RUSSIA!!!
What role does the nation of Islam and Luis Farrakhan have with Iran iraq?
That's a good question.
Is Louis Farrakhan really Saddam Hussein's boss
How dare Narrator say Iran started this particular war
Did I say that?
@HikmaHistory in an early section you did
Yeah no one took the W in this shit. Saddam and Khomeni were both stupid af for letting this drag on.
Saddam wanted peace, Khomeini is the one who rejected the peace offer
@@SVegito Saddam, as always, started a war he couldn't finish.
For dragging it on I agree. But the war was very helpful to Khomeini for strengthening his regime's grip on Iran.
It's not K's fault that Iraqis supported a tyrant and were not pious and loyal to God
@@موسى_7 As a result of what you're saying, many more were killed in this brutal war. Khomeini should've accepted the ceasefire offer
You lied sir about the actual events that led to Iran and Iraq war either intentionally or out of ignorance. First off as the reason why Saddam attacked Iran you stated that it was due to Saddam feeling threatened by Khomeini's vision challenging his power. Although that vision was a concerned not only to Saddam but also to the entire region (which it turned out to be true as Iran pushed on to export its Islamic revolution throughout the region and to that effect Hezbollah was bourn) but there are few significant events that you have missed to mention.
1. Before the Iraq attack on Iran, Khomeini issued a fatva on Shia Muslims rising up against Saddam
2. Khomeini planed Saddam assignation and used its embassy in Iraq to carry out such assignation on Sadaam and his center of power and to that effect Iran orchestrated the attempted assignation of Saddam foreign minister by the name of Tariq Aziz, which failed, and the Iran ambassador fled Iraq after that
3. Khomeini issued another fatva and asked the Iraqi military to oust Saddam.
4. Khomeini like Shah used the Kurds to start armed insurgency inside Iraq to sow chaos and undermine Iraqi government control over parts of Iraq.
5. Khomeini dismissed and refused to recognize the Iraqi goodwill delegation to meet with him to set aside their differences offering cooperation and friendship before the start of the war
6. Iran State media were ponding Iraqi airwaves with anti Sadaam propaganda calling on Islamic revolution under the leadership of Khomeini in Iraq
7. Iran was using the Shia clergy to mobilize against Saddam in Karbala, and Najaf
8. Iran had started limited border incursions into Iraqi soil mostly in Kurdish region and occasional firing of artillery rounds into Iraqi border areas.
9. Khomeini declared Saddam the corrupter of the earth and based on Islamic decree fighting Iraq and Saddam became a religious duty.
And a few other things which were all the reason Saddam saw no choice but to retaliate as he saw a call for war by Iran had already started.
The first captive was an Iranian pilot that was downed near Baghdad few days before the full scale escalation. I can give you his full name but I don’t know if you will find anything in English
when you fight for right cause like defending your country religion ideology thereis no space to lose
What? Bro who told you all of this?! Your goddamn genius if you think any of this is true😂😂😂
So in short.... Both leaders were bumbling fools
How?
Saddam was fighting for USA n UK n look where that got him n Iraq
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ISRAEL SUPPORTIN IRAN
gotta repay the debt that my boi Cyrus the Great paid all those years ago
AAAAAAAAA
The guy who runs this account is a khomeini fanboy 😂😂
cope
Partai Ba'ath Iraq 🇵🇸 : Shia 😡, Sunni 😊
Partai Ba'ath Syria 🇵🇸 : Shia 😊, Sunni 😡
Sadam & Assad sama2 berkuasa 24 tahun. 🤔
The Shia that weren’t happy under Saddam were Iranian followers. Assad and his father are not Ba’athist nor they are Syrian. Just using them to gain control
Arabs surrender
Persians win.
No one won
Rashidun Caliphate would beg to differ...
@@HikmaHistory The collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate by the hands of Iranians (Buyids, Samanids,...) would beg to differ...
Ppl here blame sadam and the ayatollah. 😂 foolishness. Its a border between cultures religions and empires. Of course there will be fighting at some point.
Both despicable and hateful leaders
There is no difference between Sunnis and Shiites inside Iraq, whether Sunni or Shiite rule, the important thing is that he is an Iraqi patriot.
Yeah?
Saddam made iraq a developing nation until 91 when the 45 nations decided to end his invasion and sanction him
Shias have ruined Iraq
Even after the sanctions have been lifted
@@arifahmedkhan9999 There is no difference between Sunnis and Shiites, we are one people
The distinction was very important to Saddam. Hm.
@@arifahmedkhan9999💯💯💯 the shias worked with the crusaders at one point, have always been backward snakes
@@رضا-د6ه8تhahahahahah keep lying, completely different religions, taqqiya mutah and so many other things are far from the teachings of Islam, difference is sunnis call themselves Muslim no one says Sunni, shias say we are Shia, a clear distinction because they’re different, enough with the lies
Muzs love wars but are always so bad at it 😂
paj@@t singh spotted😂🤡