The Iran-Iraq War Explained
The Iran-Iraq War wasn’t just a fight between two rival countries, both wanting the resources and power of the other. This war reshaped the entire middle east, setting up a dynamic that persists to this day: Iran fighting for revolutionary change, Saudi Arabia fighting for the status quo, and both sides fighting through their neighbors and allies, making wars worse and creating instability in their wake.
Correction: 17:33 They mistook it as an Iranian F-14. The Shah of Iran intended to buy F-16s, but the order was never completed.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/7PNCdOQvrRM
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
– VIDEO CHAPTERS –
- 00:00 Intro
- 05:43 From Blitz to Quagmire
- 08:15 The World Intervenes
- 12:35 A Global Economic War
- 13:33 A New Middle East
- 17:01 Conclusion
Decided to put yt redirect, just in case other expires link expires, like before.
Check out all my sources for this video here: https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa0FLMnI1d0F3SnhydjlaWWhBeTVvb0V6eFlpd3xBQ3Jtc0tscDdtT2NiOVFaZlB6cThSRXlwN3R1SEdTcFpLallYZ3NBbUNGbDhVd2lLTnFzNGkwUkl0RGxiS2VTQzdKUVJJa3lRXzJ0S3Bhakx0eGY2WHJCdG92cG9SaGpOTHBfMzcwbFE3ZHluLVBBaElHS1U3NA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fdocument%2Fd%2F1-a-iQ65nhPkn72m1eHh3u1s2YSL-tEaDiPZB8GlmKHA%2Fedit&v=7PNCdOQvrRM
My Sources for Iran Iraq War
0:00 INTRO
1:11 The Iranian Revolution of 1977-79 was the first in a series of mass popular civil insurrections which would result in the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in dozens of countries over the next three decades. Unlike most of the other uprisings that would topple dictators in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and parts of Asia and Africa, the result of the Iranian struggle was not the establishment of liberal democracy but of a new form of authoritarianism. However, except for a series of short battles using light weaponry in the final hours of the uprising, the revolutionary forces themselves were overwhelmingly nonviolent. The autocratic monarchy of Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi faced a broad coalition of opposition forces, including Marxists and constitutional liberals, but the opposition ultimately became dominated by the mullahs of the country’s Shia hierarchy. Despite severe repression against protestors, a series of demonstrations and strikes over the previous two years came to a peak in the fall of 1978, as millions of opponents of the Shah’s regime clogged the streets of Iran’s cities and work stoppages paralyzed the country. The Shah fled into exile in January 1979 and exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile to lead the new Islamic Republic.
https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/iranian-revolution-1977-1979/ — 1:36 The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the ideological custodian of Iran’s 1979 revolution. Charged with defending the Islamic Republic against internal and external threats, the corps has gained an outsize role in executing Iran’s foreign policy and wields control over vast segments of the economy.
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/irans-revolutionary-guards — 2:08 Iran beamed Arabic-language radio broadcasts into Iraq that called on Iraqis, including members of the military, to rise up and overthrow Saddam Husayn.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26932953#:~:text=Iran beamed Arabic-language radio,to go beyond just talk. — 2:30 2:35 2:42 3:00 Analysis taken from interview with Dr. Mohammad Tabaar, Texas A&M University
Starting at 20:46
https://app.trint.com/editor/cNOee-MeQfWf1Vn2b4NHQg — 3:10 Interview with Dr. Mohammad Tabaar, Texas A&M — 3:15
Through the 1960s and 1970s, the embrace between the shah and Washington grew ever closer. With commercial ties expanding steadily, Iran’s great leap forward had direct beneficiaries in the United States. The floodgates opened—especially for military hardware—after the price of oil quadrupled in 1973. The shah launched a big-budget defense buildup, purchasing more than $16 billion in arms from the United States between 1972 and 1977, on top of approximately $3 billion per year in bilateral civilian trade.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/1979-iran-and-america/ — 3:20 Interview with Dr. Mohammad Tabaar, Texas A&M — 3:30 https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p4013coll2/id/1334/download#:~:text=In his attempt to expand,boundaries imposed by Western’%20powers. — 3:43 Analysis taken from interview with Dr. Mohammad Tabaar, Texas A&M University
—
5:43 CHAPTER 1 From Blitz to Quagmire
— 5:54 6:05 Page 2
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/publication/Iran-IraqWar_Part1.pdf
— 6:10 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/10/17/iraq-and-iran-center-attacks-on-each-others-oil-installations/d14c6e8c-99b3-458f-b708-b4011ec691d4/ — 6:15 Over its lifespan, more than 5,000 F-4s were distributed across the globe- including Iran. During the Cold War, the U.S. sought out allies in the region in order to form a better counter to the Soviets.
Former U.S. administrations supported the Shah of Iran, hoping that this monarchical government could effectively squash any Soviet expansionist intentions in the region. For this reason, the U.S. delivered a total of 32 F-4Ds, 177 F-4Es and 16 RF-4Es to Iran.
Once the 1979 Islamic Revolution disposed of the Shah and transferred power to the Islamic fundamentalist regime that remains today, the U.S. obviously regretted these previous transactions.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/why-iran-still-flies-ancient-f-4-phantom-fighter-made-usa-207582 — 6:38 Israel secretly sold Iran 250 spare tires for American-built F-4 fighters in October to help Iran in its war with Iraq, Carter Administration officials and diplomatic sources said today.
They said, however, that the Israelis delayed any further military deals with Iran at the request of the United States, which was trying to gain the release of its hostages.
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/08/22/world/israel-is-said-to-have-sold-iran-f-4-tires.html — 6:45 Soon after taking office in 1981, the Reagan Administration secretly and abruptly changed United States policy and allowed Israel to sell several billion dollars’ worth of American-made arms, spare parts and ammunition to the Iranian Government, according to former senior Reagan Administration officials and Israeli officials.
The flow of arms began only a few months after the American hostages seized at the United States Embassy in Teheran in 1979 were released on Inauguration Day in 1981. The United States specifically authorized Israel to make the sales to Iran for a period that by different accounts ranged from 6 to 18 months. But the United States watched them continue after that, even as the Reagan Administration aggressively promoted a public campaign, known as Operation Staunch, to stop worldwide transfers of military goods to Iran. First Evidence of Link
Occasional published reports since 1981 have linked Israel to the sale of some American-made arms and spare parts to Iran in the early 1980’s, but no United States Government authority for those sales has been publicly demonstrated before now. The change in policy came before the Iranian-sponsored seizure of American hostages in Lebanon began in 1982, eventually leading the White House to trade arms for hostages in the Iran-contra affair.
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/08/world/iran-pipeline-hidden-chapter-special-report-us-said-have-allowed-israel-sell.html — 7:10 Interview with Dr. Mohammad Tabaar, Texas A&M University — 7:20 Kuwait has agreed to loan Iraq another $2 billion to help finance its war against Iran, raising the total amount of loans extended to Baghdad by the conservative Persian Gulf states to at least $16 billion since the onset of the conflict 15 months ago.
There are conflicting reports of just how much Iraq has borrowed since the war began. But press reports in Bahrain said Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar together had lent $14 billion during the first seven months of the war.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/12/21/gulf-arabs-place-reins-on-iraq-while-filling-its-war-chest/f99361f1-f9b8-47d2-9c97-f7058c3dc83d/ — 7:47 Of the four options of selling only to Iraq, only to Iran, to neither, or to both, Beijing opted for the last, although by any standard it contradicted its rhetorical insistence on a peaceful and speedy end of the conflict. Regular Chinese arms supplies to Iraq and Iran began in 1981-82, covering more or less the same weapons: hundreds of fighter planes, tanks, artillery pieces, and armored personnel carriers, and thousands of missiles of different kinds. In the 1980s Iraq and Iran became China’s leading arms market, valued at US$7-7.5 billion, around 55 percent of all Chinese arms agreements and nearly 70 percent of Beijing’s total arms deliveries.6 To be sure, Beijing consistently denied selling arms to Iraq and Iran during the war. To some extent, it was right. As early as 1987, I pointed out that Chinese arms to the two belligerent states had been sold indirectly. Unclassified trade statistics published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as in Chinese customs and trade statistics revealed the incredible swell in Chinese exports to Jordan, a small and underdeveloped country of 2.4 million. The value of Chinese exports to Jordan jumped from practically nothing to about US$1.32 billion in 1982, to US$1.53 billion in 1983, and to US$1.26 billion in 1984. Overnight Jordan became China’s fourth export market preceded by such economic giants as Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States and still outranking Singapore! There is no doubt that Jordan provided a clearinghouse, and partly also a channel, for the Chinese military supplies to Iraq (it is interesting that Jordan’s import statistics by no means even come close to China’s export statistics and reflect a huge gap).
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/resrep11967.10.pdf — 7:52 During the past six months China has become the largest arms supplier to Iran, delivering at least $300 million worth of missiles and other military hardware despite U.S. efforts to stop the shipments, according to administration officials.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/08/26/china-now-largest-supplier-of-arms-to-iran-us-says/f069ce5d-a77c-4877-9a5b-a8bfc77c5de2/ — 8:10 On 11 November, Mr. Olof Palme, former Prime Minister of Sweden, was appointed as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Iran and Iraq and shortly thereafter…
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.