BAKIT MAGKAAWAY ANG IRAQ AT IRAN? | IRAN - IRAQ WAR NOONG COLD WAR ERA

In this episode, we will talk about the Iran-Iraq war that started in September 1980 and lasted for 8 years until August 1988. This war is known for its intense similarity to World War I, in which it used two types of trench warfare, bayonet charges, human wave attack, and chemical weapons. But before that, I would like to greet our comrade Raven Maglaki, Christian Aurel Saavedra, Nusanz O5, Dan Sherwin, and Paul Christophe Altavaro of Ginobatan, Albay. Since the 16th century, Iran and Iraq have had a weakness for controlling an important river, the Shatt al-Arab. This river is important because it serves as a source of travel and products from both countries, leading to the entry of the 20th century. This river became even more important because it served as an oil route from the Middle East to various countries in the region. In 1937, the ownership of the Shatt al-Arab went to Iraq after the Treaty of Sadabad was signed. The countries that wanted to pass through here had to pay a toll fee, including Iran. In April 1968, the Iranians broke their agreement with the Iraqis and refused to pay the toll fee. This incident started the gradual disintegration of the relationship between the two countries, while the relationship between Iran and Iraq improved when their leaders agreed to the Algiers Agreement of 1975. However, this peace was only for a short time because four years later, the chaos re-emerged. In 1979, the Iranian Revolution took place. Shah Pavlavi was overthrown and he was replaced by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The new government of Iran is a theocratic one, meaning that its religion and government are one. Meanwhile, the neighbor of Iraq under Saddam Hussein is secular, meaning that their government and religion are separate. Saddam Hussein is in charge of this revolution, especially when Ayatollah Khomeini's plan is to bring down their traditional enemy, the Iraqis. Because of this, Iraq was prepared for a war. Since 1975, Iran has been preparing for their showdown against Iran. Billions of dollars were spent by Iraq on the purchase of weapons from the Soviet Union, France, and other countries. Before the war began in 1980, there were 242,000 Iraqi soldiers, 2,350 tanks, and 340 combat planes. On the other hand, the Iranian army was just the beginning of their former strength. Before the revolution, Iran was considered the fifth country with the strongest military presence in the world. However, when the Iranian Revolution took place, thousands of military leaders, from generals to the lowest officers, were arrested, imprisoned, and sometimes killed by Khomeini and his cabinet members because of their lack of trust in them. Because of these military purges, the Iranian army was left out of the ranks of generals and veteran commanders, who were weakening here. To add to their strength, a new regiment was established, the two paramilitary groups in Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and the BASG. The paramilitary groups are an armed group that is not part of the official armed forces of a country. Instead, their loyalty is in their leader and political party. Because of the lack of adequate military training, these paramilitary groups carry out human wave attacks that result in a very high casualty To stop the spread of the Revolutionary Guard in Iraq and other countries, Saddam Hussein made a decision to negotiate. Saddam ordered the negotiations on September 22, 1980, their aim was to crush the Iranian army and persuade the people of Iran to revolutionize and overthrow their own government. Remember that the leader of Saddam did not plan to occupy their neighborhood. Using the MiG-23, Su-22, and Su-20 planes from the Soviet Union, the Iraqi Air Force bombed various airfields in Iran in the hope that they would run out of enemy planes before they could fly. It was followed by a massive offensive using six divisions of the Iraqi army armed with hundreds of tanks and armored fighting vehicles. The forces rapidly invaded the cities and provinces of Iran, which are closest to Iraq. As they were invading, the Iraqis expected people to rebel against their own government. However, this did not happen. Instead of rebelling, the Iraqis were overwhelmed by the silence of the Iranian people. Although the Iranian Air Force was surprised, their planes were not damaged because they hid them in hardened bunkers. The Iranian Air Force quickly recovered, where they replaced the Iraqi planes with American planes such as the F-14A Tomcat. Then the Iranians attacked the Iraqi tanks using their AH-1 Cobra gunship. On the same day, September 22, the first Battle of Khorramshahr broke out, where the battle became bloody. The battle in the city, where the Iranian defense lasted more than a month, was fierce and close. Because of the delay in this battle, the Iranians were able to fly to confront the Iraqis. The Iranians used their planes to blow up their enemy's supply depots and oil tankers. Because of the intense attack of the Iranian Air Force, Saddam Hussein was forced to stop their advance to enter Iran, and they became defensive. At the beginning of 1981, a few months of stalemate took place where neither side could do anything to each other. Like World War I, the trenches were cut by both the Iraqis and the Iranians. But because of the very modern weapons such as RPGs, anti-aircraft weapons, and heavy machine guns, the battles became more bloody. Compared to Iraq, Iran has more people because apart from the regular army, they also have militias. Using these militias, the Iranian leader has repeatedly ordered them to carry out human wave attacks. But like World War I, many of these attacks were in vain and resulted in a huge casualty. By November 1981, after the stalemate in the battle of the beginning of the Iranians, Operation Tariq al-Quds using three army brigades and paramilitary soldiers, the Iranians recaptured the city of Bostan from the Iraqis. A few months after this in March 1982, the Iranians again invaded the capital of Colonel Adi Syed Shirazi using Chinook helicopters from the United States. The Iranian soldiers were flown behind the Iraqi front line. They quickly destroyed the enemy's artillery and headquarters. At the same time, the Basji militias attacked using human wave attacks in the front. Thousands of Iranian Basji members were wounded and wounded. But their offensive also paid off when they successfully defended the Iraqis. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard surrounded the 9th, 10th, and 1st Mechanized Divisions of the Iraqis in the city of Shush to help their allies trapped in the city. The 12th Iraqi Armored Division invaded. But they were ambushed by the Iranian Air Force using the F-4 Phantom and F-5 Tiger fighter jet where a large part of their forces were destroyed. The Iranians lost this offensive. They destroyed 400 Iraqi tanks while only 196 of their tanks were lost. Using their powerful air force, the Iranians won successive offensives. On May 23, 1982, the Iranians liberated the city of Khorramshahr. 19,000 Iraqis were left behind. The Iranians crushed the Iraqis on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Syria destroyed the economy of Iraq when it closed the oil pipeline of Iraq towards the Mediterranean Sea. At first glance, it seems that Iraq's defeat in the war is approaching. However, one event will save Saddam Hussein's government. Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini is a fundamentalist country that does not believe in kings and other monarchs. Because of this, the Arab countries are afraid that if Iran wins the war, The Iranian revolution in the Middle East will spread and result in the collapse of monarchies in the region such as Saud in Saudi Arabia, Saeed in Oman, and many others. These Arab countries are eager to support Iraq, where they spent billions of dollars. Aside from the Arabs, their ally America and European countries also helped Iraq. Billions of weapons, loans, and other aid were sent by President Ronald Reagan to Saddam Hussein. In addition, the USA also gave the Iraqi army access to their satellite intelligence. But the most notorious aid provided by the USA to Iraq is chemical weapons. With the help of other countries, the Americans sent equipment to Iraq for the manufacture of various chemical weapons such as mustard, nerve, and choking gas. In June 1982, Saddam Hussein proposed a peace treaty. However, it was rejected by Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein's declaration of indignation stopped the war. A month after this agreement, Iran invaded using Iraqi tanks that they seized from their subsequent victories. This is Operation Ramadan, their aim. Baghdad is the capital of Iraq. Using the Revolutionary Guard and Bazghi militia, the Iranians carried out successive human wave attacks. This battle was so intense that the Iranian militia was able to make Iraqi tanks and grenade launchers inside them. In addition to the invasion, these human wave attacks were also used to dry up the minefields. The young soldiers of Bazghi would first walk when the landmines were blown up, then the Iranian tanks and their regular soldiers would follow. To stop the invasion of 180,000 Iranians, the Iraqis lost their tear gas. In addition, the Iraqis also used weapons from their new allies. Using Gazelle helicopters from France, the Iraqis crushed the column of Iranian fighters. The Iranian soldiers' breakthrough only stopped when their Cobra helicopters invaded and bombed the Gazelles. From 1983 to 1984, the battles between Iran and Iraq remained bloody, expensive, but meaningless. The Iranians repeatedly invaded using their human wave attack, which was answered by chemical attack and Scud missile bombardment of the Iraqis. Despite all this, each side was unable to advance at all. At this point of the war, the outcome of the battle in Hempapawid was reversed. This is because the former powerful Iranian air force was no longer there, while the Iraqi air force continued to strengthen due to the continuous influx of aid from various countries. From 1985 to 1986, the Iraqis invaded. The Iraqis tried to reclaim the occupied territories of the Iranians in their offensive from 1984, but they were defeated despite the many weapons from other countries. When their invasion was defeated, the Iraqi air force again carried out a city bombardment. They besieged 30 cities and provinces of Iran, most of which were besieged by civilians. Instead of chasing the Iraqi planes using their limited aircraft, the Iranians focused on the places where enemy planes were passing through, and here they placed barrages and ambushes. When the Iraqi planes passed through here, they were bombed by surface-to-air missiles and ambushed by Iranian planes. Because of this fierce defense, the Iraqis were forced to stop the planes from flying in Iran and instead they just used their Scud missiles to deter the Iranians. What the Iraqis don't know is that Iran is also secretly supported by the Americans. During the Lebanese Civil War, Lebanese rebels staged 104 foreigners, including some Americans, to help Iran. To save their lives, Ronald Reagan of the USA agreed to secretly send weapons to the Iranians, such as man-portable anti-air weapons, anti-tank missiles, and many more. At the end of 1986, the Iranians gradually pushed the Iraqis out of their country. To make life difficult for the Iraqis, Iran supported the rebel Kurds inside Iraq. The Kurds then occupied the supply hubs, headquarters, and other soft targets inside Iraq, which made life difficult for the Iraqi soldiers. In 1987, the Iranians launched an offensive to take over the city of Basra in southern Iraq. The Iranians did not know that a few months before their invasion, the Iraqis were already preparing. Trenches, minefields, and barracks were built around Basra. The Iraqis assured that the barracks they were going to build were against the Iranians' human wave attack. The Battle of Basra was the largest battle in the war, where 40,000 Iranians and 10,000 Iraqis were wounded in almost four months of battle. Despite the heavy casualties, the Iranians were defeated. Because of this great defeat, the morale of the Iranian army and their militia groups plummeted. Almost no later Iranians volunteered to fight in 1987, while many conscripts of the Iranian army fled. For ordinary Iranians, the war should stop because apart from death and destruction, their economy is also in decline. On the other hand, the Iraqis are also slowly feeling the problem. Their country owes a lot to the countries that helped them. In mid-1988, Saddam Hussein declared that if Ayatollah Khomeini did not recover, they would use weapons of mass destruction on Iranian cities. This was followed by chemical attacks in the town of Osh Navi, which killed 2,000 civilians. Iranian leaders noticed that the United Nations and the international community did not care about the war crimes of Iraq, so they thought the war was over. Ayatollah Khomeini took the United Nations' Resolution 598 with a heavy heart, which established a ceasefire and a return to their pre-war borders. Despite Iran's acceptance of the ceasefire, the Iraqis continue to use chemical weapons on Iranians. Formally, the war ended on August 3, 1988 with the arrival of U.S. peacekeepers in the region. A sad story happened to the Kurds who helped Iran. After the war, Saddam Hussein severely punished the Kurds, where they invaded their homes using their full strength and chemical weapons. It is estimated that less than 100,000 Kurds, soldiers or civilians were killed in this short campaign. After the investigation by the United Nations, their results were controversial. According to this, Iraq is not guilty of the war. The Iran-Iraq war is the most bloody conventional war since World War II. On the part of the Iranian military, 600,000 were injured and permanently wounded. On the other hand, Iraq was hit by 500,000. Even so, the civilians of both countries are the most affected by the war. Hundreds of thousands of them were injured and lost their homes. After eight years of war, the problems in the region are still not over. The financial problem faced by the Iraqi government will push Iraq to surrender Kuwait in 1989, which will start a new war, the Gulf War. Iran, on the other hand, will plant a bad feeling in the countries of the country that will result in a bad relationship with the international community until now. We still have a lot of history to talk about so make sure to click the like and subscribe button. Again, I am Sir Ian and let's study history together!