LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Iran-Iraq War
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The Iran-Iraq War, which ended in August 1988, one month short of its eighth anniversary, was one of the longest, bloodiest and costliest third world armed conflicts in the 20th century. This volume addresses the causes of the Iran-Iraq War, unpacking the objectives of the two belligerents and examining how far objectives were matched by strategy. It assesses the war's military lessons regarding such key areas as strategy, tactics and escalation and in particular the use of non-conventional weapons. Finally, it examines the utility of armed forces as an instrument of foreign policy.
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The Iran-Iraq War was a war between the armed forces of Iraq and Iran lasting from September 1980 to August 1988. It was commonly called the Persian Gulf War until Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. The Iraq-Kuwait war, which the United States entered, later was called the Persian Gulf War or the Gulf War.
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The Iran-Iraq War permanently altered the course of Iraqi history. It strained Iraqi political and social life, and led to severe economic dislocations. Viewed from a historical perspective, the outbreak of hostilities in 1980 was, in part, just another phase of the ancient Persian-Arab conflict that had been fueled by twentieth-century border disputes. Many observers... believe that Saddam Hussein's decision to invade Iran was a personal miscalculation based on ambition and a sense of vulnerability. Saddam Hussein, despite having made significant strides in forging an Iraqi nation-state, feared that Iran's new revolutionary leadership would threaten Iraq's delicate Sunni-Shia balance and would exploit Iraq's geostrategic vulnerabilities--Iraq's minimal access to the Persian Gulf, for example. In this respect, Saddam Hussein's decision to invade Iran has historical precedent; the ancient rulers of Mesopotamia, fearing internal strife and foreign conquest, also engaged in frequent battles with the peoples of the highlands.
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Iran-Iraq War is ... noted for Iraq's use of chemical weapons and biological weapons against Iranian troops and civilians. The role of the United States in the war was important too. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran, the United States supplied Mohammad Reza Pahlavi militarily and politically. Later on (especially between 1983 and 1988) the United States sold weapons to the Iraqis. This move was largely due to America's interest in containing the revolutionary Ayatollah Khomeini. In summary the Iranians and Iraqis were both fighting each other with arms from the United States.
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[O]f the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq was obliged to extend its search for arms in 1981. By the time the war entered its eighth year in September 1987, Iraq had become the world's biggest single arms market. In addition to its purchases from the Soviet Union and France, Iraq sought to buy armaments from China, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Italy, Brazil, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Egypt, among others. The United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency estimated in 1987 that Iraq had imported about US$24 billion worth of military equipment during the period from 1981 to 1985.
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The Iran-Iraq War was fought between two nations officially vying to control a tiny insignificant province filled with Shiite dissidents. In a more abstract sense, it was a contest to become the sole despotic nation of the Middle East. Both Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini had risen to power within the year, and both were prepared to bring their country glory as the dominant outpost for tyranny.
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Iran-Iraq War