Introduction
The story of Iraq and Iran stretches the span of recorded history. From ancient Babylon (Iraq), to ancient Persia (Iran), these two cultures have made their mark in the pages of world history. The attempt of this work is to present a modern history of these two civilizations, beginning with the Iranian Revolution in 1979, to the U.S. Invasion of Iraq in 2003. To understand the situation that the countries of Iraq, Iran, and of America face today we must first look back to when these conflicts first arose. That being said we could have begun a great deal earlier, but 1979 is a good place to start.
Ayatollah Khomeini & The Iranian/Islamic Revolution - 1979
On 1 February 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini arrived in Iran, with nearly 3 million people lining the streets cheering him on. Previously Khomeini had been expelled from Iran in 1964, for voicing personal attacks against Mohammad-Reza, the Shah of Iran. However, by the time of his exile, Khomeini had attracted a dedicated, loyal and well organized group of followers. During this time the Shah's popularity was diminishing. The events that would ultimately overthrow the Shah and bring Khomeini to power, began with protests and strikes over the 19 August, 1978 fire at the Rex Cinema in a poor district of Abadan that claimed the lives of 400 people. The outcry was so strong because the doors of the theater had been locked, reportedly to keep out gate-crashers, and because the fire department showed up late and bungled extinguishing the flames. Rumors spread that SAVAK (Iranian secret police) had plotted the fire.
As the protest intensified, the Shah declared martial law. Nevertheless, on 8 September 1978, thereafter known as Black Friday, a massive demonstration was held in Jaleh Square in Tehran in defiance of martial law, which turned violent after marchers called for the ouster of the Shah and the return of Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result the army fired on demonstrators, and guerillas in the crowd fought back. It was the bloodiest incident thus far, and showed that an armed insurrection was a definite possibility.
During this time Khomeini was in Iraq, and the Iranian government pressured Saddam Hussein to expel him from his sanctuary in Najaf. After Khomeini was refused entry into Kuwait, the Shah approved that Khomeini take up residence in Paris, in order to isolate the cleric. However, this “exile” proved to open stronger communications between Khomeini and his followers.
The effects of the Rex Cinema fire, Black Friday, and the removal of Khomeini to Paris brought about a more militant edge to the Shah's opposition. Also on 5 November 1978, severe rioting took place in Tehran. The British Embassy was attacked and government offices were ransacked. The next day, the Shah made a televised speech announcing the formation of a military government, with a policy of cracking down on the opposition. However, instead of arresting opponents and rioters, the government jailed former officials and the head of SAVAK. The opposition could tell that the Shah was already defeated.
Many explanations for the Shah's strange behavior have been offered. It later became known that he was suffering from a terminal cancer, so depression or medication may have clouded his judgment. In any case, the Shah's options after November were dwindling rapidly. So, on 1 January 1979, the Shah announced he was going on “vacation.” He left Iran on 16 January. Originally planning a trip to the U.S. he changed plans and went to Egypt. With the Shah's departure and the arrival of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian Revolution would soon become the Islamic Revolution.
The Iran Hostage Crisis
On 22 October 1979, the United States admitted the former Shah, then dying of cancer, to the country for treatment. This created a storm of protests in Iran. Then on 4 November 1979, a group of students affiliated with the Islamic Associations of the University of Tehran, calling themselves “Followers of the Line of the Imam,” took advantage of the situation and attacked and seized control of the American Embassy in Tehran.
Thus began the Iran Hostage Crisis, which lasted 444 days. At that time President Carter manipulated the overthrow of the Shah – contrary to the advice of Israeli intelligence, which asserted that instead of improving the country, it would give impetus to Islamic Fundamentalists. The Islamic Fundamentalists wanted to kill Egypt's leader, Anwar al Sadat for the peace treaty he signed with Menachem Begin of Israel, and presided over by U.S. President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Sadat was later assassinated in 1981 as a result. The Islamic Fundamentalists also wanted to kill Carter's chance at re-election. They felt if the hostages were released early, Carter would be put back in office.
During the time of the hostage crisis, Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980. At first glance the war was over Iraqi claims that Iran had violated provisions of the 1975 Algiers accord, which recognized the thalweg (main navigation channel) of the Shatt-al-Arab waterway at the border between the two countries. Iraq resented the agreement, which it accepted in order to stop the Shah of Iran, Mohammad-Reza, from supporting Kurdish rebels in Iraq. Iraq called for its revision shortly after the Iranian revolution in October 1979. The conflict was also believed to be a modern expression of hostilities between Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Persia (Iran), that can be traced back to Antiquity. Iraq's decision to invade Iran was also made with an eye toward building stronger relations with the United States.
Contrary to U.S. intelligence estimates, Iranian forces did not collapse as projected, and Iraq's assault quickly bogged down. Instead of destabilizing the new regime, Iraq's invasion ended up helping it consolidate power as Iranians rallied to the defense of their country. The Carter administration made it clear that it was not after a decisive Iraqi victory. Instead, it initially saw Iraq's invasion as a way to pressure Iran to release the U.S. hostages prior to the November 1980 U.S. presidential election. So, in the first of many double crosses, after initially encouraging an Iraqi invasion, Carter and other officials began signaling Iran that the U.S. was prepared to help its war effort if it would release the embassy personnel.
On October 18, Carter said that Iraq had gone beyond its initial goal and that the U.S. wanted “any invading forces withdrawn.” Ten days later, Carter stated that if the Americans were released, the U.S. would airlift $300 - $500 million worth of arms to Iran which had already been ordered and paid for by the former Shah. Nothing, however, came of this proposal because of secretive meetings and dealings – not in Baghdad or Tehran, but in Washington.
The actions of an organized group of individuals inside and outside the elected government of the United States concocted an alternative and private foreign policy with Israel and Iran without the knowledge or approval of the Carter administration. Their goal: to ensure Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election over incumbent Jimmy Carter.
During the summer of 1980, candidate Reagan's campaign feared Carter was about to pull off an “October Surprise” release of the hostages, which might well guarantee his reelection. So, Reagan's top advisers made a secret agreement with the Islamic Republic: if Iran continued to hold the hostages through November's election and Reagan won, he would lift economic sanctions imposed by Carter and allow Israel to ship arms to Iran. Reagan did win, and on January 20, 1981, just moments after he was inaugurated, Iran released the hostages.
The Iraq – Iran War: 1980 – 1988
The Iraq-Iran War was one of the longest and bloodiest conventional wars of the 20th century. American intervention in it was one facet of a U.S. response to the shocking turn of events in 1979. Washington's goal was protecting the Gulf's pro - U.S. oil sheikdoms. As a target of opportunity, Iran looked vulnerable. Its ties to the United States were destroyed and international isolation was increasing due to the hostage crisis and the Islamic Revolution. If, however, the United States and Iraq thought Iran would fall easily, they were badly mistaken.
In the first days of the war, Iraqi forces captured many Iranian cities, but the Iranian navy and air force struck back at targets in Iraq with much success. On September 28 the U.N. Security Council called for a cease-fire. The Iraqis realizing they were in for more of a fight than they anticipated, were considering the cease-fire, but Iran totally rejected it. In January 1981, the Revolutionary Guards of Iran were augmented by a militia called The Vahid-e-Basij-e Mostazafan. This was the first step in creating what Khomeini called an “Army of Twenty Million” men and women to assure the victory of the Islamic Republic.
In September 1981, the Iranian army drove Iraqi forces back across the Karun River. And in March 1982, the Basij and Revolutionary Guards launched a surprise attack on Iraqi positions, inflicting heavy casualties and pushed the Iraqis almost back to the border. Iraq immediately signaled it was ready to withdraw its troops and end the war. Iran responded with an offensive that pushed back the Iraqis even further.
Iran had taken the war into Iraq aided by hundreds of millions of dollars in arms that were secretly shipped from Israel as part of the Reagan hostage deal. The fall of Basra could have destabilized nearby Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, upset the regional balance of power, and undermined U.S. “credibility” in the region. So, in June of 1982 president Reagan, “decided that the United States...would do whatever was necessary and legal to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran.”
In 1982, Iraq was removed from the State Department's list of alleged sponsors of “terrorism.” This made Iraq eligible for U.S. government-backed credits and so-called dual-use-technology, which could be used for either civilian or military purposes. In 1983 the U.S. launched “Operation Staunch” to stem the flow of arms to Iran, the next year, it added the Islamic Republic to the State Department list of “terrorist” states.
The U.S. program of arming Iraq was facilitated by Donald Rumsfeld. In December 1983 and again in March 1984, Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad as president Reagan's special Middle East envoy to assure Hussein of U.S. support and its readiness to restore diplomatic relations, which Iraq had broken after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Back on the battlefield, faced with relentless fighting from Iranians on the ground, Iraq attacked oil installations and shipping to Iran. One reason Iraq concentrated its air force on Iranian shipping was that the two sides had agreed to a U.S. - brokered agreement not to attack major population centers. The accord was broken in March 1985 as the “war of the cities” began. Iraqi aircraft bombed Tehran and other cities across Iran, while Iran shelled Basra and fired surface-to-surface missiles at Iraqi cities.
In February 1986, Iran staged another major offensive that succeeded in crossing the Shatt-al-Arab waterway and capturing the Faw peninsula. In his New Year's speech, Khomeini proclaimed that the “Year of Victory” was at hand. However, Iraq's superior air force stepped up attacks on Iranian oil installations, shipping and economic infrastructure. As a result the war was becoming sever and started to gain attention on the political and international scene.
Then, in November 1986 news of secret arms deals between Iran and the United States became public. When it was reported that Reagan's team secretly offered Iran arms in exchange for releasing the American hostages, it made the U.S. the laughingstock of it Arab allies, who America had previously pressured not to supply weapons to Iran.
This was also bad news for Iran, because the only way for America to redeem itself in public opinion was by taking a tougher stance against Iran. Iran's installation of Silkworm missiles capable of attacking American warships in the Strait of Hormuz and its mining of the Persian Gulf to damage ships carrying goods for Iraq provided a perfect reason for America to toughen up on Iran. This also worked out for Saddam Hussein, who had plans for bringing the war to an end by internationalizing it.
On July 20, 1987 with support from the United States and the Soviet Union, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 598 calling for a cease-fire. It was accepted by Iraq, but not from Iran. At the same time Iran's economy was collapsing and enthusiasm for the war had diminished. As Iran's military equipment was being depleted, Iraq's was being freshly rearmed. The United States was determined for Iraq to prevail against Iran. Finally and reluctantly, Khomeini agreed to U.N. Resolution 598. He informed the nation on July 20, 1988 that it was a decision “more deadly than drinking poison” but which was necessary “to save the revolution.”
The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait & Gulf War I: 1990 – 1991
The Reasons for Invasion
After the Iraq-Iran War Iraq found itself indebted to a wide range of creditors. Given the debt repayment burden (amounting to over 50 percent of Iraq's oil income in 1990), the massive costs of reconstruction, the continuing weakness in the price of oil and a military and a civil import bill which far exceeded Iraq's projected oil revenues, a more drastic solution was needed. It was in these circumstances that Iraq tried to increase its oil revenues by seeking to persuade OPEC to raise the price of oil. Saddam Hussein looked to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to help save Iraq from its financial crisis in a number of ways.
They were supposed to co-operate in maintaining a high price for oil, through restraint of their own production and pressure on others. They were asked repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, by Iraq to declare that the $40 billion in financial aid they gave to Iraq during the war with Iran should be considered a grant and not a loan. Iraq also suggested that they should contribute to Iraq's economic reconstruction. The disappointing response received by Iraq from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait led Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait to control the oil fields.
In the early morning hours of August 2, 1990, six elite Iraqi Republican Guard divisions crossed into Kuwait. Four hours and 75 miles later they entered the capital, Kuwait City, and by morning had effectively taken over the whole country. Iraq's invasion meant that, at least momentarily, it's debts to Kuwait were canceled, its border issues were solved, it had deep-water access to the Persian Gulf, and it now controlled some 20 percent of world oil reserves. In a speech on August 10, Hussein justified the invasion as a blow against the legacy of British colonialism.
The Invasion of Iraq by the United States
Washington demanded war, not peace. The last thing President Bush wanted was for Iraq to negotiate its way out of Kuwait with its military intact, its political clout increased, and its weak neighbors intimidated. By September 1990, the U.S. leadership had decided to act.
Between Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and the end of the Gulf War in late February 1991, the U.S. rejected at least 11 peace proposals from a variety of countries, including Iraq. The day after its invasion, Iraq offered to withdraw if it wasn't condemned or attacked, and announced that Saddam Hussein would meet with King Hussein of Jordan, President Mubarak of Egypt, and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on August 5 to resolve the crisis. The U.S. immediately, and forcefully, blocked the meeting and wanted its Arab clients not to deal with Hussein. On January 12, 1991, congress voted to give Bush the authority to use force against Iraq. The war began on January 16, 1991 with an unprecedented bombing assault code-named “instant thunder.” The U.S. also used depleted uranium shells in Gulf War I. After the war Iraqi doctors were reporting a surge in cancer deaths and birth defects. What happened in the Gulf War was a form of nuclear warfare.
Disarming Iraq
By the summer of 1991, Iraq admitted it had a nuclear weapons program. Within 6 months of the end of the Gulf War, Iraqi weapons programs were being discovered and destroyed. From 1991 to 1998, UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission) sent 500 teams staffed by nearly 3,500 inspectors. These teams examined some 3,400 sites and destroyed billions of dollars worth of weapons and equipment. The inspections did succeed in largely disarming Iraq.
Oil-for-Food
After the Gulf War Iraq found itself under sanctions. The UN attempted to alleviate some of the hardship suffered by the Iraqi population by offering the Iraqi government the opportunity to sell $1.6 billion worth of oil in 1992 to pay for the import of food and medicine. However, Saddam rejected it. Only in 1996 did the Iraqi government agree to the terms of the UN allowing Iraq to sell $2 billion worth of oil every 6 months for the purchase of supplies for its population. The UN would increase the amount of oil to be sold over the next few years after 1996.
The United States and the Iraq Sanctions: 1990 - 2003
The story of the sanctions imposed upon the Iraqi people tells how the United States government took unbelievable measures to prevent humanitarian goods from entering Iraq. Some of the United States' justifications for the sanctions were unfounded and disputed by the international community, and to a great degree there was simply no justification at all. The sanctions were imposed on Iraq from August 1990, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and concluded after the second Persian Gulf War in May 2003.
The cause of the collapse of every system needed to sustain human life, and what maintained that state of crisis for over a decade, was the destruction from the bombing in 1991. Because of the sanctions the inability of Iraq to import goods that might have allowed the country to rebuild its infrastructure, the economy collapsed and crippled Iraq's capacity to produce oil and generate income.
All three U.S. Administrations (George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush) blamed the harm done by the sanctions on Saddam Hussein in several ways. One, that Saddam Hussein's regime wasted money on building palaces that could have gone to food; that by invading Kuwait, Iraq brought the sanctions on itself; that the sanctions would have been lifted if the regime had cooperated with weapons inspectors; that Saddam Hussein himself probably had billions of dollars and chose not to spend it on his people; that the Iraqi government was smuggling oil and getting kickbacks, and that the Iraqi government was using income from the Oil-for-Food Program to buy arms and luxuries for the elite. The United States maintained that, consequently, there was no reason to remove the sanctions because any damage done was by Hussein's policies not the sanctions.
Despite the claims of the United States and others, the Iraqi government took several important measures to meet the needs of the Iraqi people. The most effective of these efforts were in the area of food, health care, and infrastructure repair. The Iraqi government can truly be criticized for certain measures that did worsen the situation for the Iraqi population. At the same time, however, the Iraqi government's capacity to respond to the crisis, and to mitigate the effects of the sanctions, were crushed by the government's lack of cash and the emotional distress that occurred on many levels.
One of the main goals of the sanctions was to diminish the Iraqi state's income by blocking oil exports. While Iraq was allowed to import humanitarian goods from 1991 to 1996, it could not export oil to generate funds to pay for them. From the end of the 1991 war until 2003, under both democratic and republican control, the overriding concern regarding Iraq was the potential military threat presented by Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power.
The sanctions not only crippled the economy but also caused much suffering and great death tolls among the Iraqi population, many of them children. In May 1996 Madeleine Albright was interviewed by Leslie Stahl for 60 Minutes, and Stahl asked about the sanctions: “We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children that died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?” Albright replied, “...we think the price is worth it.”
In the Fall of 2002, others in congress criticized the sanctions. Representative Bobby Rush, a democrat from Illinois, argued that: “Despite the president's proclamation that America is a friend of the Iraqi people, we cannot insult the American people by ignoring the fact that U.S. - led sanctions have created a hotbed of disease and extreme poverty in Iraq, and war will only plunge the Iraqi people deeper into death and despair.”
The U.S. Invasion of Iraq: Gulf War II - 2003
The secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, argued that since Saddam Hussein was still in power, sanctions hadn't produced results and military action was needed. At the end of the debate, congress supported the U.S. attack against Iraq even in the absence of Security Council authorization. Over the course of the sanctions regime, throughout all three U.S. Administrations the consistent goal up to the time of the U.S. invasion in 2003 was to keep Iraq from rearming by bankrupting the state, and to reduce Iraq's society and economy to the most primitive conditions possible and keep it in that state indefinitely.
Many believe that the sanctions imposed on Iraq violated international law. Denis Halliday, the former humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, called it genocide, and one legal expert maintained that “U.S. officials, in initiating and working tirelessly to maintain a program of comprehensive multilateral sanctions against the country and people of Iraq...have committed genocide.” The collapse of Iraq's industrial capacity, and the economy as a whole, triggered massive unemployment, the disappearance of Iraq's middle class, and the standard of living declined to an extreme level. Just to be able to eat, engineers drove taxis and families sent their children to beg on the street.
The United States succeeded in using the Security Council, and binding all UN member states as well, first in order to impose its own agenda – regime change – in violation of the council's resolutions, and arguably the UN Charter; and then to unilaterally impose its own standard – compromising the basic means to sustain life in an industrialized nation for an entire civilian population – in enforcing the measures the Security Council imposed.
The policies and the acts of the United States towards Iraq in the 1990's and 2000's have wrought pain, suffering, destruction and death to the people of Iraq. And the reason for bombing Iraq in 2003 was expressed by George W. Bush during a political rally held on 20th November 2002. He said, “There is a universal recognition that Saddam Hussein is a threat to world peace. There's clear understanding that he must disarm in the name of peace. We hope he chooses to do so. Tomorrow we'll discuss the issue. We'll consider what happens if he chooses not to disarm. But one thing is certain; he'll be disarmed, one way or the other, in the name of peace.”
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