Shahram Chubin - Iran and Iraq at War

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Iran and Iraq at War

First published 1988 by Westview Press

Published 2018 by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1988 in London, England by Shahram Chubin and Charles Tripp

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Chubin, Shahram.
Iran and Iraq at war / by Shahram Chubin, Charles Tripp.
p. cm.
Bibliography: p.
ISBN 0-8133-0734-1
1. Iraqi-Iranian Conflict. 1980- 2. Middle East
Politics and govenment1945- 3. IranHistory1979
4. IraqHistory1958
I. Tripp, Charles. II. Title.
DS318.85.C48 1988
955.054-dc19 88-5711 CIP

ISBN 13: 978-0-367-00318-0 (hbk)

Contents

1. A-1
2. A-2
3. vi
4. vii
5. viii

Guide

After all this, Khomeini comes and calls on the Iraqi people to go out on the rooftops and protest against their government. He said the Shah had gone and someone else had come. It turned out that it was another Shah, but this time wearing a turban: Saddam Hussein, Nineveh, 15 April 1980.

When a clash is a patriotic and national duty, we shall wage it in all its forms Iraq is once again to assume its leading Arab role. Iraq is once again to serve the Arab nation and defend its honour, dignity and sovereignty. Iraq is destined once again to face the concerted machinations of the forces of darkness This demands sacrifice, but you are not tired of sacrifice: Saddam Hussein, Nineveh, 15 April 1980.

An Iraqi ruler who bows to Khomeini or to anyone else will be trampled upon by the Iraqis we are not the kind of people to bow to Khomeini. He has wagered to bend us and we have wagered to bend him. We shall see who will bend the other: Saddam Hussein, Baghdad, 20 July 1980.

We are now forced to fight for peace and to bring the rulers of Iran back to their senses, so that they will establish relations of good-neighbourliness between Iran and the countries of the region: Tariq Aziz, Paris, 25 September 1980.

Despite our victory, if you ask me now if we should have gone to war, I would say: It would have been better if we had not gone to war. But we had no other choice. If you ask me now: Would you like the war to last a week or six months? I would say: We prefer the war to last a week, provided we regain all our rights But if they think we have not taken a protracted war into consideration, they are mistaken. In this protracted war, we will continue to fight until our enemy says: Yes, we have agreed to your rights: Saddam Hussein, Baghdad, 4 November 1980.

Khomeini is not a man of religion. Whoever describes him as such is fanatical, stupid and understands nothing of politics. Khomeini is a politician. When he realises he is losing more than he is gaining, he will establish peace: Saddam Hussein, Baghdad, 10 November 1982.

The rulers of Iran cannot go on with the war without the earnest backing, both in word and deed, of their supporters. Therefore, the need to influence the relationship between the rulers of Iran and their supporters, by creating differences between them on the question of war and peace is a matter of paramount importance: Saddam Hussein, Baghdad, 26 March 1983.

The damage caused by this criminal is irreparable unless he withdraws his forces and leaves Iraq and abandons his corrupt government; he must leave the Iraqis to decide their own fate. It is not a question of a fight between one government and another; it is a question of an invasion by an Iraqi non-Muslim Bathist against an Islamic country, and this is a rebellion by blasphemy against Islam: Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, Tehran, 20 October 1980.

The day we put, with the grace of God, a victorious end to the imposed war, no other country would dare attack us: Hashemi Rafsanjani, Tehran, 1 February 1985.

They want to force us to compromise so that tomorrow the reactionaries in the region can speak out against Islam and call it an unsuccessful experiment. They aim to erode the Islamic revolution through an imposed peace and drive it towards destruction: Prime Minister Mir Hussein Musavi, Tehran, 5 June 1985.

I come from Iran which has been the birthplace of the most acclaimed and, at the same time, the least known revolution of the contemporary period - a revolution based upon the religion of God and in continuation of the path of Gods messengers and great divine teachers and a path as long as the whole of human history: President Ali Khamenei, New York, Address to the UN General Assembly, 22 September 1987.

The Algerian revolution took one million lives out of fourteen million people. We are fifty million. It is still very early for us to put aside our arms and refrain from the holy defence which is one of our mandatory duties We say to the world: we want our rights and justice. Our wish is to see corruption uprooted: Musavi Ardebili (President of the Supreme Judicial Council), Tehran, 9 October 1987.

Acknowledgements

This book grew out of a research project initiated by and carried out under the auspices of the Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies, at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. The project was generously sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung whose funding has also enabled the final report to be published in its present form. The authors would, therefore, like to acknowledge with gratitude the institutional and financial support they have received during the years of the books gestation.

The authors are also aware of the debt of thanks which they owe to many individuals for the encouragement given to them while they were doing the research. In Europe, the Middle East and North America, colleagues in academic life, government officials and journalists have been unstinting of their time and help. While accepting full responsibility for what follows, the authors acknowledge with thanks the advice of others and hope that the book has benefited accordingly.

1
Introduction

The Iran-Iraq war has been the longest and one of the most impenetrable inter-state conflicts since the Second World War. In some ways it is untypical of wars in the non-industrialized world, both in its duration and in its stakes, which are less material or territorial than they are moral or ideological. In other respects, the war resembles others in the Third World, particularly in the military engagements, and above all in their planning, which has shown a distincdy unprofessional touch. Whether or not this war is a model for future wars in these regions, or registers a trend towards classic inter-state wars rather than towards low-intensity wars or seasonal engagements, cannot be answered definitively.

In certain respects, the Iran-Iraq war is clearly untypical of the sorts of wars one can expect to continue to blight the developing world, since many of its elements are country- and region-specific. For example, the ability to sustain a long and expensive war requires not only allies, but also access to hard currency that few developing states can call upon. In addition, revolutionary Irans ability to continue the war reflects not only that states extraordinary political and cultural system, but also the fact that it inherited a very large stock of arms from which it has systematically drawn in over seven years of war, without having had access to any large-scale government supplier for a major weapons system.

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