Verily in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest
الا بذكر الله تطمئن القلوب
دلها آرام گيرد با ذكر خدا
"Holy Quran ; Surah ra'ad [The Thunder](13), Ayeh 28"
[link]


'iranian soldier'; pic isn't mine i just want to make it.
.will be Scrap.
*

->Iran-Iraq War, armed conflict that began when Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980 and ended in August 1988 after both sides accepted a cease-fire sponsored by the United Nations (UN). The war was one of the longest and most destructive of the 20th century, with likely more than one million casualties.

- & there is some informations about that are,
i think it can be useful, specially some of its parts about some cother countries are s0 intresting!

>> INVASION AND COUNTERATTACK

Iraqi troops invaded Iran along a front some 500 km (300 mi) long. Numerous and well-equipped Iraqi forces overwhelmed the small Iranian border units and advanced into southwestern Iran. With the far side of the Shatt al Arab thus secured, Iraq captured the southern border city of Khorramshahr in the oil-rich Khūzestān province and began besieging other towns along the frontier. However, the Iranian resistance was stiffer than Iraq expected. Using its superior naval power, Iran quickly mounted an effective sea blockade. Standing up to Iraq’s larger air force, the Iranian air force issued retaliatory raids that checked Iraq’s advance on the ground. In January 1981 Iran launched its first counteroffensive, but Iraq decimated the assault. The war entered a protracted stalemate.

The stalemate did little to encourage either country to engage in diplomatic dialogue. The Iraqi government accused Iran of being bent on regional domination, while the Iranian government called for revolution in Iraq. Briefly in 1981 Iraq stopped fighting and expressed some willingness to consider a cease-fire, but Iran rejected any attempt to stop the war while Iraq occupied Iranian territory. Thereafter, the Iranian leadership staked out a very firm diplomatic position, claiming that it would never accept negotiations with the Iraqi government.

As the stalemate continued, Iran was able to mobilize irregular forces (groups not normally part of the army but drafted and armed in response to a crisis), including the Revolutionary Guard, an ill-trained but dedicated core of fighters. By early 1982, the struggle for political power in postrevolutionary Iran was resolved, allowing the government to pursue a more coherent war policy. Iran seized the initiative with several offensives that pushed Iraq out of much of Iran and brought the fighting into Iraqi territory. Throughout the summer and fall of 1982, Iranian attacks along the border focused on splitting the south of Iraq, where the majority of the Shias lived, from the north and capturing the southern Iraqi city of Al Başrah.

The Iranian offensives of 1982 set a pattern that continued for the rest of the war. Exploiting their superiority in numbers, Iran sent its Revolutionary Guard on the attack, supported by regular military forces. Outnumbered Iraqi forces inflicted heavy losses on the Iranians but ultimately fell back. As soon as the initial Iranian thrust had exhausted itself, however, the Iraqi army exploited Iranian disorganization and lack of equipment to retake much of the lost territory.

As the war continued, Iraq’s defense grew increasingly desperate. Probably as early as 1983 the armed forces used poison gas against Iranian troops. Iraq also widened the war to civilian targets, launching missiles against Iranian cities, bombing Iranian oil installations, and attacking Iranian shipping in the Persian Gulf. Iran responded with attacks against civilian and economic targets in Iraq.

>> DIPLOMACY AND INTERNATIONAL INVOLVEMENT

The diplomatic situation mirrored the battlefield. Iraq had initiated the war with the conviction that a weak and isolated Iran would surrender and accept border modifications. The Iraqi leadership undoubtedly hoped to constrain and perhaps even bring down the Iranian revolutionary leadership. As the war progressed, however, Iraq scaled down its aims drastically. While it continued its harsh criticism of the Iranian leadership (and sometimes of the Iranian people) and supported dissident Iranian groups, Iraq accepted the idea of a cease-fire and negotiations concerning the border dispute.

The Iranian leadership probably perceived the Iraqi diplomatic retreat as a sign of further weakness. After evicting Iraq from most Iranian territory by 1982, Iran was reluctant to end the war until Iraq acknowledged that, as instigator, it bore full responsibility for the war’s disastrous consequences. Iran continuously rejected a cease-fire on terms that Iraq could accept, demanding huge reparation payments and an end to Hussein’s rule before it would stop fighting. These conditions effectively killed any hope of a peaceful resolution.

International reaction to the Iran-Iraq War was remarkably muted, at least at the outset. Although the United Nations Security Council called for a cease-fire after a week of fighting and renewed the call on later occasions, the initial call was made while Iraq occupied Iranian territory. Moreover, the UN refused to come to Iran’s aid to repel the Iraqi invasion. The Iranians thus interpreted the UN as subtly biased in favor of Iraq. Outside the UN, other governments took few constructive steps to end the fighting—which was unusual for a war of such proportions. The international silence was partly caused by Iran’s international isolation and the mutual hostility between Iran and the West in the wake of Iran’s Islamic revolution. Further, Iran did not actively seek international support, wanting to remain free of relationships that might make it beholden to other nations. Iraq, expecting an easy victory against a vulnerable opponent, also did not seek international support in the early stages of the war.

Only within the Middle East did either side seek to win diplomatic support. Most Arab states regarded Iraq warily but were even more frightened by the prospect of a victory by the revolutionary Iranian regime. Slowly at first, then more quickly after 1982, most Arab states—especially Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the other states of the Arabian Peninsula—aided Iraq militarily and diplomatically. Iran had few friends in the region: Syria, a longtime rival of Iraq, stood out in the Arab world for its support of Iran, and at times Libya offered its support.

As the war wore on and Iraq failed to persuade Iran to accept a cease-fire, Iraq sought increasingly to internationalize the conflict. It first made clear that it would accept international mediation, casting pressure on Iran to do the same. Iraq also attacked Iranian shipping; this brought Iranian reprisals against not only Iraqi shipping but also the shipping of Iraq's backers (such as Kuwait). Western powers, including the <United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), were eventually drawn to the Persian Gulf to protect the valuable shipments of oil from the Middle East.

The prolonged fighting forced both sides to search desperately for military equipment, even if it meant dealing with former enemies. At the start of the war, Iraq had no diplomatic relations with the United States due to its friendly relations with the USSR and its longstanding conflict with Israel, the main U.S. ally in the Middle East. As the war continued, however, Iraq toned down its rhetoric to gain American support. The United States responded by giving trade credits to Iraq and supplying the Iraqi armed forces with intelligence information through Saudi Arabia. Equally important, the United States dropped objections to efforts by its allies, especially France, to give weapons and other supplies to Iraq. The United States was motivated in part by a desire to back its friends in the region (most of whom supported Iraq), and in part by its fear of the broader consequences of an Iranian victory. Iraq also relied heavily on the USSR for military supplies..

Iran was also willing to accept support from its former enemies. Since Iran’s military had been built under the rule of the pro-American shah, most of its equipment was of American origin. So while the new revolutionary government was hostile to both the United States and Israel, it needed American spare parts. Israel could supply some of these and chose to do so early in the war. Israel was anxious to undercut Iraq, a potential Arab adversary. Equally remarkable, the United States government opened a secret channel for selling arms to Iran in 1985, even as it urged other governments to stop all military sales to the country (see Iran-Contra Affair). American motives seemed designed partly to induce pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon to release Americans held captive there, and partly to improve relations with Iran. Profits from the arms sales were channeled to right-wing guerrillas in Nicaragua, known as contras, to supply arms for use against the leftist Nicaraguan regime. The exposure of the secret policy in 1986 greatly embarrassed the government of U.S. president Ronald Reagan.

>> MOUNTING LOSSES

As the war continued, Iraq, no longer believing it could achieve the sweeping victory it had hoped for at the outset, concentrated more and more on simply preventing an Iranian victory. Nevertheless, by 1986 Iraq's condition grew increasingly desperate. Its ability to hold its defensive positions was threatened by Iran’s willingness to suffer enormous casualties. Iran sent massive numbers of older men, children, and sometimes women as human “waves” against Iraq’s better-equipped forces. Although thousands upon thousands of these poorly armed forces were slaughtered with each assault, the Iranian government continued to send them to the front. With its larger population, Iran seemed confident that it would ultimately prevail. Iraq also mustered civilians not normally called on to fight, and by the mid-1980s its population was severely strained.

In 1986 Iran captured the Iraqi gulf town of Al Fāw. Iraq responded with more effective techniques—especially the use of massive amounts of poison gas—to thwart Iran’s frontal assaults. Iraq also stepped up its attacks on Iranian cities, oil installations, and shipping, drawing severe Iranian reprisals against Iraqi oil production and shipping that prompted more American activity in the gulf. Although clashes between American and Iranian forces fell far short of full-scale battles, the American presence nevertheless brought an end to Iranian superiority over Iraq at sea, giving Iraq time to resupply its weaponry and stop the Iranian ground advance

<> On August 20, 1988, both sides ceased fighting in accordance with the terms of Resolution 598.
-Culpable; Iraq-


Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005.

(another submit about that war is here: [link] )