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A war that is, with the exception of historians and academics, largely forgotten in the West. I read this article and it's not hard to see parallels with the current situation in the ME between the semi-professional/professional armies of the region and Daesh forces they're combating.
How many soldiers go into battle with a smile on their face? How many have fond memories of a war in which perhaps a million people were killed?
Meet Mehdi Talati. Aged just 15, he took up arms after Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces invaded his homeland, Iran, 35 years ago.
The attack, on 22 September 1980, sparked the Iran-Iraq War, which did not end for eight years. Saddam had promised a whirlwind victory, but he had reckoned without the intense religious devotion of many Iranians toward their new revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.
In the autumn of 1980 one of the longest wars of the 20th Century began.
For more than seven years conscripts from both sides found themselves living in trenches under enemy fire.
Hear from a young Iraqi medic who ended up on the front line.
A war that is, with the exception of historians and academics, largely forgotten in the West. I read this article and it's not hard to see parallels with the current situation in the ME between the semi-professional/professional armies of the region and Daesh forces they're combating.
I would be hard pressed to draw a distinction between those who fought in the Iran-Iraq war and those who fought at Gettysburg, the Somme, Stalingrad or the Tet Offensive. To face the most brutal combat one has to have some supernatural faith in the cause in which they fight. I would think that a British news paper would understand that.
I just wrote the the part about the Iran-Iraq war in the book I'm writing, so I'm actually kinda' up on it.
Khomeini and his mullahs beguiled Iranians into believing they were going to heaven if they died in the 'sacred defense' of Iran. (Google the name: Ali Shariati.) Hence, the human waves of those who died and the 'survivor guilt' suffered by those who actually made it through. It is of note that before the Iranians used their children (who were dubbed the 'volunteer army' by Khomeini, or the basij), they tried to clear the minefields with animals. After the first donkey or bovine was blown up, the others refused to follow. Humans? Apparently not as smart...
The Iraqi military under Saddam was almost as wasteful with its troops as Iran was with an entire generation of children. I was in Desert Storm and remember the Iraqis who had to surrender to coalition forces because they couldn't retreat. They were out of food, out of water and had no ammunition - but they couldn't retreat because their sergeants had laced the areas behind their bunkers with mines to keep the soldiers in their fighting positions. Thousands died from our aerial bombardments before we discovered they didn't really want to fight us - they just couldn't escape. After that coalition forces stopped calling in airstrikes and just took (grateful) prisoners.
The Iran-Iraq war started as a new president (Saddam) thinking he could exploit the rocky change in government in a much larger and, hence, weakened neighbor (Iran). That failed. It went on for the next seven years because Khomeini, against the advice of his generals, thought he could begin his export of the Islamic revolution with the predominantly Shia areas of southern Iraq. That also failed.
Today, a religious fanatic (al-Baghdadi) and his followers (ISIS or ISIL, your choice) occupy territory that is essentially ungoverned by an effective national government (Syria and Iraq). The world's policeman (the U.S.) has withdrawn, even though it caused the Iraqi ungoverned space and contributed to the Syrian meltdown by not enforcing policies it had heretofore enforced around the world (no use of chemical weapons). Iran, which has made friends with Iraq's now Shia dominated government, and which was always a friend of the al-Hassad family of Syria, has stepped into the void and is assisting both, much to the chagrin of the U.S., which is powerless to intervene because it sat out the first round.
ISIS and its religious-inspired 'near war' (as opposed to al-Qaeda's 'far war') seeks to trigger the Day of Resurrection (in Christian terms, the final judgement day - or end of the world with the second coming of Christ) by engaging the west in an epic battle in the town of Dabiq, Syria.
So while the Iran-Iraq war was all about the conquest and governance of territory, ISIS is all about heralding in the end of the world.
So, forgive me (I'm dumb as a shovel, as she-who-must-be-obeyed often reminds me)... what correlations between the two do you observe?
So, forgive me (I'm dumb as a shovel, as she-who-must-be-obeyed often reminds me)... what correlations between the two do you observe?
Thank you in advance, R-3
The general ambivalence of the semi-professional (majority conscripted) forces and the opposite for those they are combating.
One side patrols/advances what have you and hopes to get back to camp without being scared ****less and in one piece and the opposition doesn't. The opponents want contact, they want to face the enemy, they have a higher cause than just survival.
These are the correlations I see, the combatants attitudes.
The general ambivalence of the semi-professional (majority conscripted) forces and the opposite for those they are combating.
One side patrols/advances what have you and hopes to get back to camp without being scared ****less and in one piece and the opposition doesn't. The opponents want contact, they want to face the enemy, they have a higher cause than just survival.
These are the correlations I see, the combatants attitudes.
Hmmm. Okay.
I always saw the basij as victims - an entire generation of 12-16 year-old children wiped out in a war Iran could not win. They and their parents were shamelessly exploited by Khomeini for his own expansionist aims. True, they went to battle with smiles on their faces, but they had been inculcated into believing two things: Life on earth was bad, and if they died during the 'sacred defense' they would achieve martyrdom (instant paradise). So yes, they wanted to die in battle. They were even given little gold colored, plastic keys to wear around their necks, which represented their 'keys to paradise.' (They were made in Taiwan.)
Hence, my study suggests closer parallels with Jonestown - as a case of mass suicide.
And I do see some parallels with the current ISIS conflicts at that level - the foreign fighters who are coming from all over the world to die thinking they too will be welcomed into paradise as martyrs. But current reporting suggests those guys are mostly self-deluded whereas the basij were deluded by the one person they truly believed in - Khomeini.
In the U.S. we have a phenomenon known as 'suicide by cop,' which refers to someone who wants to die but cannot (for whatever reason) kill themselves. So they engineer a conflict with law enforcement that forces the police officer to employ deadly force. The kid who shot up the military recruiters in Charleston SC is an excellent example.
In the middle east, ever since late 2003, there has been 'suicide by jihad,' in which people who really don't want to live anymore go and obtain positions as suicide bombers or militia fighters for AQI and later ISIS. In fact, there is very recent reporting about how the foreign fighters are disgruntled because the Saudis are getting all the prime suicide bombing assignments.
So I guess at the cannon-fodder level, there is some correlation between then and now. Just hadn't thought of it that way.
In terms of correlation - One can also see it as both being battles between Shia (Iran) and Sunni (Iraq-in terms of Saddam's government)...almost a tribal type conflict, or between Nationalistic Arabs (Iraq) vs. Fundamentalist (Iran). You can see some of that in the current civil war. Also, at the core, it is really the battle for Middle Eastern hegemony (Iran vs. Iraq...or Saudi Arabia, Quatar, Jordan, etc. vs. Iran, Syria).
But there are many differences as well, too many - the current conflict has elements of a proxy war, foreign fighters, usage of irregulars, and guerrilla tactics vs. the localized "two combatant", world war I-type grind of the Iran-Iraq war.
Hence, my study suggests closer parallels with Jonestown - as a case of mass suicide.
God, who is publishing this, Pop-Psychology?
There are more than enough 20th century examples of armies employing amassed waves (although in the case of the Iran war the description is inaccurate) of soldiers advancing on opposing armies, (see Japan, the Red Army, or any of the combatants in WWI) without having to indulge in questionable, at best, analogies.
So here's a question that any reputable publisher should be asking right about now. How many Iranians have you interviewed for this "book." How many were veterans of the mass waves as you refer to them and have you spoken with or corresponded with any of the military leaders at the time who could layout the tactics and strategies employed? Have you been to Iran, do you even speak Farsi?
I ask because from what I've read about the war, the tactics and strategies employed were complex and ever changing as the war necessitated and the Iranians were very adept in making both tactical and strategic changes as the war evolved.
The ISIS crisis resembles the Iran-Iraq War in this manner:
Just another chapter in the very thick book of mindless middle east violence. It's really no different than any of the 10,000 years that preceded it, other than the weaponry.
Senseless slaughter has characterized the "cradle of civilization" since the beginning.
The ISIS crisis resembles the Iran-Iraq War in this manner:
Just another chapter in the very thick book of mindless middle east violence. It's really no different than any of the 10,000 years that preceded it, other than the weaponry.
Senseless slaughter has characterized the "cradle of civilization" since the beginning.
If that is the case, it pretty much characterizes the entire history of human existence. I don't see anything that sets the middle east apart in that regard.
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The Iran-Iraq war
