THE IRAN-IRAQ WAR: A 20th
Century tragedy facilitated by the West
How do we exorcise
the ghosts that haunt America?
In 1980 Iraqi forces
crossed into Iran with the
aim of annexing part of Iran,
a stated objective of the then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein who was
eventually recognized by the entire world as a deluded, blood-thirsty dictator.
The manner in which he was later arrested by the American forces (literally dug
up from a hole in the ground looking like an overwhelmed animal) attested to
his true nature: A vile and dangerous criminal having pity on none but himself.
Nevertheless, this awful example of a man was able to start a long, bloody war
of attrition with his eastern neighbor that lasted 8 years and resulted in some
1 million civilian and military casualties on both sides. In this war, Saddam
used chemical weapons on Iraqi civilians as well as on the Iranian military. The length and bloody scope of this
“forgotten war” dwarfs those of the American Civil War and most
other full-scale regional conflicts. How could this tragedy be allowed to
happen?
The war was supposed to
end quickly with an Iraqi victory; having a heavily armed and organized army at
his disposal, Saddam dreamed of annexing the oil-rich Iranian province of Khuzestan
that bordered Iraq.
But the Iranians resisted in spite of overwhelming odds against them; like
their society, their military was highly disorganized in the wake of the
revolution. They united against the
invaders and by their tenacity and sacrifice they pushed the Iraqi forces back
to their own borders. Saddam would not
have survived the slow but determined Iranian counter-offensive if not for the
strong and generous support by many countries in the West and in the Arab world
that hated the new Islamic regime. With its judgment clouded by the hostage
crisis and the fiery rhetoric of Iranian revolutionaries, the West believed
that the Islamic ideology would be spread like wildfire throughout the Middle East and beyond; this sophomoric miscalculation
totally ignored regional realities such as the Sunni-Shiaa
division, the fierce Arab nationalism and the Arab mistrust of Persians who were
not Semites. They and the neighboring Arab countries fearful of Iran’s ascendancy thought that Saddam was
doing them a favor by destroying Iran. These latter countries
included the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Kuwait that Saddam later rewarded by
invading and plundering it, a situation that in turn led to the first Gulf War
between Iraq and America in the 1990’s. Bloodying Saddam’s nose in
that brief war was supposed to have solved America’s
problems in the Persian Gulf region. But ever
since then, through two wars with Iraq and the significant human and financial
tolls of these, the ghosts of the countless many whose lives Saddam destroyed
(both in Iran and Iraq) have haunted
America for her involvement in the bloody Iran-Iraq conflict and the troubles
that followed it.
Ironically, the actual
loss of American lives, whether military or civilian due to Iranian involvement
(directly or through its proxies in the region) is insignificant compared to
that caused by America’s other enemies in the Arab world alone; the
civilian casualties in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack by a single Arab
enemy dwarf any and all caused by the Iranians. Far more than any actual deeds,
the hatred for Iran
and its people was (and still is) based on mere exchanges of words whose meanings are often distorted
in cross-cultural translations. Did the antagonistic rhetoric of a few in Iran hurt the
world as much as flesh wounds, lost limbs or the loss of loved ones? Did the
feathers ruffled in the West by such words or by the seizure of a few diplomats
as hostages provide sufficient justification for the loss of hundreds of
thousands of Iranian lives and millions of livelihoods? To this day, lies are
perpetuated against Iran
and its people by special interests in the West that gain from fabricating
enemies. Lies and over-reactions on all sides that ignore reality spread
ill-will and misery throughout the world and enrich a few who benefit
financially or emotionally from hatred and enmity. The deceit perpetrated by
the few spreads easily among the ignorant many. To quote Shakespeare,
“the fault lies not in our stars but in our selves.”
Much of the world
supported Saddam either to force out the Khomeini
government or for material gains (mostly selling weapons and other industrial
and agricultural goods that Iraq
needed and bought with oil money).
Throughout those years, the Iranian people had to endure hardships
unimaginable to the average American. If only to avoid causing or aiding
similar conflicts in the future, all Americans and others who respect human
rights and lives should acquaint themselves with this tragic chapter in Middle East history. For more information, you are
invited to visit some of the following sites; by simply being better informed
so as to not be swayed by lies and distortions you will help exorcise some of
the ghosts that haunt us to this day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Iraq_War
(Wikipedia entry)
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761580640/Iran-Iraq_War.html
(MSN Encarta entry)
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/ShalomIranIraq.html
(article on the role of oil and the US in the conflict)
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/iran_iraq_war/iran_iraq_war1.php
(Iran Chamber Society)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/iraniraq.html
(another perspective)
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=29540
(Saddam’s use of chemical weapons)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack
(poison gas on Kurdish villagers)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair
(Iran-Contra, an absurd byproduct)
HOME