Diss Information.
A surge, a crackdown, three Iraqi women to be hanged with no legal counsel, no witnesses and no defense, Iraq's VP, tortured and to be executed, a blast in two markets with over 120 dead and over 140 wounded,the continuous siege of Haifa Street, Al Adhamyia, Karrada,Al Amariya, Al Amil,Al Yarmouk...So please tell me where to begin ?
To simplify this monumental task I will start with the obvious.
A blast rocks Al Shorja and Al Haraj markets in downtown Baghdad. Over 120 killed and hundreds of injured, black dense smoke covering half of Baghdad.
The reports say "a predominantly Shia" area, I say horseshit.
Anyone who knows downtown Baghdad knows that these two souks are nothing but a mixed commercial area.
The blast happened whilst Maliki, "the shah'n'shah" of Iraq has declared not 1 minute of silence but 15 minutes of silence to reflect on the blast that rocked Samarra a year ago.
15 minutes of reflection by Maliki is a tall order indeed.
Reminds me of the reflection of Talabani, the buffoon president, when he watched the execution of President Saddam, he took one hour to reflect in his Prince de Galles suite then resumed his reflection with cigars, champagne and foie gras.
For a comic description of the new "maoist " "cartesian" pathetic, grotesque buffoon/thief/Mossad agent also known as Jalal Talabani, read the full article here.
Since am on the topic of criminals, thieves and agents, a piece of news you might have missed on your TV screen. Fox would have relayed it though, seeing the importance of the event.
None other but the crook, embezzler, CIA/Mossad Iranian agent, Chalabi was in Sadr City yesterday.
You know Sadr city. Your favorite neighborhood in Baghdad.
The one that your brilliant zion professor Chomsky praises as the grassroot movement, the new inklings of socialism in Iraq...(am laughing hard as am typing this), the final resurrection of the oppressed proletarians (from Iraq to Saudi Arabia) led by the revolutionary Muqtada the rapist, hole driller.
(By the way, football lovers will be disappointed, Muqtada frowns upon football, saying that it is a degenerate sport - I understand, he prefers his boys to engage in rape and torture, a better work out I guess. Call it an Iranian sport specially designed for Baghdad dwellers.)
Well Papa Chomsky should know all about the manufacturing of sectarianism having completed his "manufacturing of consent."
Seems that Patrick Cockburn has caught the Muqtada virus as well. He is terribly worried that the surge will decimate his favorite idol. And Cockburn assures us, that the mass exodus that all the agencies talk about, was in fact done during Saddam's reign, at least the bulk of it.
Well that is to be expected. P.Cockburn lives in the middle of the Green Zone, Hotel Al Rashid most likely. But I will blame it on his iranian translator. He maybe missed a few sentences and numbers here and there. Pity, Cockburn has not bothered to see the latest pictures from Haifa street and the latest piece of news about refugees preferring to live on borders than return to the Jaysh al Mahdi Militias. Someone please ask him to forward copies to Chomsky& sons- the anti war movement.
Ok, back to the embezzler, crook, CIA/Mossad Iranian agent Chalabi. I like that,"Three in one" but the Iraqi people got no discount on it.
Where else can one find a three in one like Chalabi?
As a matter of fact, the other gestapo sons of zion, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith shoved this 'three in one" into the corridors of the White House and he landed in Rumsfeld and Cheney's lap. The plan was being prepared as far back as the early 90's by the way. Once the plan was achieved,Chalabi kept a low profile for a while and he was replaced by Al Hakim of the Iranian Badr Brigades. Wolfowitz and Perle, gently retracted to the background - the typical way- and left the goyims,Cheney and Bush face the music alone. Nice one Israel...not bad at all.
But Chalabi has made a comeback.
As I said he was in Sadr City yesterday, surrounded by heavily armed militias courtesy of Muqtada and al Hakim ,your favorite boys.
The purpose of his visit?
Check this out:To re-open a sunni mosque as an act of good will. So they did close the sunni mosques huh? One could see scaffoldings around the mosque, a quick fix it for propaganda purposes.
Meanwhile, the other mosques in Baghdad in the "soooneeee triangle"(a very masonic symbol by the way) are under siege and used as torture centers by the same militias that were guarding Chalabi. When not used as torture centers, they are burned down, like this one in Basrah.
Al Adhamyia, Al Amariya, Haifa Street, Al Yarmouk, Al Amel and others...are still under siege and totally encircled by the American Army, the Iranian backed militias and so-called Iraqi guards.
Pity Basrah did not get a foretaste of this new spirit of tolerance that has taken hold of the Chalabis, Malikis , Hakims and Sistanis - the not so grand Ayatollah Khomeini pictures are still plastered all over the city to the dismay of the Iraqi Shias.
You may argue if this is the case, why is the U.S bullying the ayatollahs in Teheran?
I will try to make it simple for you.
Imagine a Patriarch, in something akin to a Harem. This Sultan(USA) has one official wife her name is Israel. She is the mother of his kids.
And he also has several mistresses that are "tolerated" by the wife: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan...and he also has as in every good harem, a couple of concubines:Iran, Syria.
And as you know like in all Harem stories, the concubines could bring about much mischief if they put their minds to it and they do so by making secret alliances with the wife.
And this is what happened in the Baghdad harem. Israel and Iran had a common objective in Iraq since the days of the Shah (and I would add since the days of Cyrus): Regime change in Iraq.
They were natural allies. Chalabi the three in one is a prime example of this natural alliance.
So the concubine and the Master of the House with the blessings of the wife agreed to collaborate on Iraq and continue to do so.
The Master of the house is being given a rough ride in the Iraqi Palace.
Like any macho man he cannot admit that the Iraqi resistance is giving him a hard time and that those Arabs are truly unruly, despite his surge.
An admission would mean utter defeat. So what does he do? He blames his concubine.
A bit of bullying here and there but the concubine knows it is just talk because the concubine has already received the wife's blessings.
Both the concubine (Iran) and the wife (Israel) are happy with the disintegration of Iraq. They are both partying up north with the Kurds and have hired Talabani and his lover Barazani, for a special folk dance whilst his boys clean out Kirkuk of Arabs and Turkmen.
The macho Master is stuck in a quagmire and they both know it. But like any macho,he will ultimately please-He will continue his ethnic cleansing helped by both the Iranian concubine and the Israeli Wife.
And as one Iranian blogger named the "king of bloggers" summed it up beautifully well to Haaretz :"The Iranians remember that the Palestinians supported Saddam Hussein when he fought against Iran. And some also remember that Israel tried to transfer arms to Iran in the Iran-Contra episode, and that's something in Israel's favor."
He adds: "You have to distinguish between rhetoric and actions. Iran has no desire to destroy Israel. If it did, Tehran would have permitted Hezbollah to use long-range rockets against Tel Aviv in the last war. Ahmadinejad is not Hitler. The one who controls the army is Khamenei, and he is not pleased by Ahmadinejad's declarations. Iran and Israel have a common interest: They live in a region controlled by Sunni Muslims." (full article here)
The bullying of the Master is for domestic use so he can remind his dutiful kids back home that he is still in charge.
And who is Iraq in all of this ?
She is the woman who was highly coveted but difficult to approach - the "Femme Fatale" if you wish.
She had seen it before from the times of Babylon through the Moguls, the Ottomans and the Brits. She was old enough to know better. She had to be decapitated by the threes in one. The fatal blow was a must.
And as Saddam used to say:"Our nation has a message.That it why it can never be an average nation. Throughout history, our nation has either soared to the heights or fallen into the abyss through the envy, conspiracy and enmity of others."
Got it now ? A brief resume of the Iraqi political orgy.
So when I read that Saudi Arabia (one of the mistresses) is the cause of sectarianism in the Middle East, I can't but laugh. Saudi Arabia and her sisters care about their privileged positions, they care about their little thrones , they will not budge and create anything, trust me on this one.
Yet,this is what a good deal of the "alternative" "thinkers" like to push forward.
Understandably so, being the good children of Papa Chomsky. Some were even disappointed that Saudi Arabia managed to broker a truce and an agreement between the Palestinians.
They were in fact echoing Tzipi Livni concerns and anxieties, albeit from the other side of the fence/wall.
Back to Baghdad and the "security crackdown."
As I mentioned the "sunni" areas are totally under siege. I called Khaled.
He said: "They came this morning at 5.am (the US army, the Iraqi Guards and the militias.) They turned the house upside down. I have nothing to hide. The kids were scared and they would not stop crying. The fridge is empty. I can't even go out and shop for food. And to top it all off, I received a notice from my employer (a Dawah party member) stating that if I don't show up for work within the next 24 hours,he will sack me. How can I show up for work if I am not allowed to leave the house?... They are doing it on purpose. Starving us, harassing us, sacking us from our jobs, torturing us and killing us..."
Khaled,I said: what will you do with the termination notice though? It's your job, your livelihood.
To which Khaled replied "I will send it back to Muqtada, he can stick it on his ass."
And that is no disinformation.
After some dissing, we both agreed that this what you should also do.
Everytime you get some piece of news that does not fit the facts, send it back with a note:
"Stick it on your ass" and diss the information and the informant.
PS : Don't forget to tell Cockburn and papa Chomsky.
Painting : The late Iraqi artist, one of the pioneers, Ismail Fattah.
Comments
As the Baathists planned their military campaign, they had every reason to be confident. Not only did the Iranians lack cohesive leadership, but the Iranian armed forces, according to Iraqi intelligence estimates, also lacked spare parts for their American-made equipment. Baghdad, on the other hand, possessed fully equipped and trained forces. Morale was running high. Against Iran's armed forces, including the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) troops, led by religious mullahs with little or no military experience, the Iraqis could muster twelve complete mechanized divisions, equipped with the latest Soviet materiel. With the Iraqi military build-up in the late 1970s, Saddam Hussein had assembled an army of 190,000 men, augmented by 2,200 tanks and 450 aircraft.
In addition, the area across the Arvand-Roud (Shatt al Arab) posed no major obstacles, particularly for an army equipped with Soviet river-crossing equipment. Iraqi commanders correctly assumed that crossing sites on the Kharkheh and Karoun rivers were lightly defended against their mechanized armor divisions; moreover, Iraqi intelligence sources reported that Iranian forces in Khouzestan, which had formerly included two divisions distributed among Ahvaz, Dezful, and Abadan, now consisted of only a number of ill-equipped battalion-sized formations. Tehran was further disadvantaged because the area was controlled by the Regional 1st Corps headquartered at Bakhtaran (formerly Kermanshah), whereas operational control was directed from the capital. In the year following the shah's overthrow, only a handful of company-sized tank units had been operative, and the rest of the armored equipment had been poorly maintained.
For Iraqi planners, the only uncertainty was the fighting ability of the Iranian air force, equipped with some of the most sophisticated American-made aircraft. Despite the execution of key air force commanders and pilots, the Iranian air force had displayed its might during local riots and demonstrations. The air force was also active in the wake of the failed United States attempt to rescue American hostages in April 1980. This show of force had impressed Iraqi decision makers to such an extent that they decided to launch a massive pre-emptive air strike on Iranian air bases in an effort similar to the one that Israel employed during the June 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
raqi Offensives, 1980 - 1982
Iraqi Scud Missiles were continuously launched
against Iranian civilian targets
Despite the Iraqi government's concern, the eruption of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran did not immediately destroy the Iraqi-Iranian rapprochement that had prevailed since the 1975 Algiers Agreement. As a sign of Iraq's desire to maintain good relations with the new government in Tehran, President Bakr sent a personal message to Khomeini offering "his best wishes for the friendly Iranian people on the occasion of the establishment of the Islamic Republic." In addition, as late as the end of August 1979, Iraqi authorities extended an invitation to Mehdi Bazargan, the first Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, to visit Iraq with the aim of improving bilateral relations. The fall of the moderate Bazargan government in late 1979, however, and the rise of Islamic militants preaching an expansionist foreign policy soured Iraqi-Iranian relations.
The principal events that touched off the rapid deterioration in relations occurred during the spring of 1980. In April the Iranian-supported Ad Dawah attempted to assassinate Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz. Shortly after the failed grenade attack on Tariq Aziz, Ad Dawah was suspected of attempting to assassinate another Iraqi leader, Minister of Culture and Information Latif Nayyif Jasim. In response, the Iraqis immediately rounded up members and supporters of Ad Dawah and deported to Iran thousands of Shias of Iranian origin. In the summer of 1980, Saddam Hussein ordered the executions of presumed Ad Dawah leader Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqr as Sadr and his sister.
In September 1980, border skirmishes erupted in the central sector near Qasr-e Shirin, with an exchange of artillery fire by both sides. A few weeks later, Saddam Hussein officially abrogated the 1975 treaty between Iraq and Iran and announced that the Arvand-Roud (Shatt al Arab) was returning to Iraqi sovereignty. Iran rejected this action and hostilities escalated as the two sides exchanged bombing raids deep into each other's territory, beginning what was to be a protracted and extremely costly war.
Baghdad originally planned a quick victory over Tehran. Saddam expected the invasion of the in the Arabic-speaking, oil-rich area of Khouzistan to result in an Arab uprising against Khomeini's fundamentalist Islamic regime. This revolt did not materialize, however, and the Arab minority remained loyal to Tehran.
he first day of the war
Iraqi Air Force attacking Iranian territories
on 22 september 1980
On September 22, 1980, formations of Iraqi MiG-23s and MiG21s attacked Iran's air bases at Mehrabad and Doshen-Tappen (both near Tehran), as well as Tabriz, Bakhtaran, Ahvaz, Dezful, Uromiyeh, Hamadan, Sanandaj, and Abadan. Their aim was to destroy the Iranian air force on the ground--a lesson learned from the Arab-Israeli June 1967 War. They succeeded in destroying runways and fuel and ammunition depots, but much of Iran's aircraft inventory was left intact. Iranian defenses were caught by surprise, but the Iraqi raids failed because Iranian jets were protected in specially strengthened hangars and because bombs designed to destroy runways did not totally incapacitate Iran's very large airfields. Within hours, Iranian F-4 Phantoms took off from the same bases, successfully attacked strategically important targets close to major Iraqi cities, and returned home with very few losses.
Simultaneously, six Iraqi army divisions entered Iran on three fronts in an initially successful surprise attack, where they drove as far as eight kilometers inland and occupied 1,000 square kilometers of Iranian territory.
As a diversionary move on the northern front, an Iraqi mechanized mountain infantry division overwhelmed the border garrison at Qasr-e Shirin, a border town in Bakhtaran (formerly known as Kermanshahan) Province, and occupied territory thirty kilometers eastward to the base of the Zagros Mountains. This area was strategically significant because the main Baghdad-Tehran highway traversed it.
On the central front, Iraqi forces captured Mehran, on the western plain of the Zagros Mountains in Ilam Province, and pushed eastward to the mountain base. Mehran occupied an important position on the major north-south road, close to the border on the Iranian side.
The main thrust of the attack was in the south, where five armored and mechanized divisions invaded Khouzestan on two axes, one crossing over the Arvand-Roud(Shatt al Arab) near Basra, which led to the siege and eventual occupation of Khorramshahr, and the second heading for Sousangerd, which had Ahvaz, the major military base in Khouzestan, as its objective. Iraqi armored units easily crossed the Arvand-Roud(Shatt al Arab) waterway and entered the Iranian province of Khouzestan. Dehloran and several other towns were targeted and were rapidly occupied to prevent reinforcement from Bakhtaran and from Tehran. By mid-October, a full division advanced through Khouzestan headed for Khorramshahr and Abadan and the strategic oil fields nearby. Other divisions headed toward Ahvaz, the provincial capital and site of an air base. Supported by heavy artillery fire, the troops made a rapid and significant advance--almost eighty kilometers in the first few days. In the battle for Dezful in Khouzestan, where a major air base is located, the local Iranian army commander requested air support in order to avoid a defeat. President Bani Sadr, therefore, authorized the release from jail of many pilots, some of whom were suspected of still being loyal to the shah. With the increased use of the Iranian air force, the Iraqi progress was somewhat curtailed.
The last major Iraqi territorial gain took place in early November 1980. On November 3, Iraqi forces reached Abadan but were repulsed by a small Pasdaran unit. Even though they surrounded Abadan on three sides and occupied a portion of the city, the Iraqis could not overcome the stiff resistance; sections of the city still under Iranian control were resupplied by boat at night. On November 10, Iraq captured Khorramshahr after a bloody house-to-house fight with the local people. The price of this victory was high for both sides, approximately 6,000 casualties for Iraq and even more for Iran.
Iraq's blitz-like assaults against scattered Iranian forces led many observers to think that Baghdad would win the war within a matter of weeks. Indeed, Iraqi troops did capture the Arvand-Roud (Shatt al Arab) and did seize a forty-eight-kilometer- wide strip of Iranian territory.
Iranian's holding the Iraqi Tanks back
Iran may have prevented a quick Iraqi victory by a rapid mobilization of volunteers and deployment of loyal Pasdaran forces to the front. Besides enlisting the Iranian pilots, the new revolutionary regime also recalled veterans of the old imperial army, although many experienced and well trained officers had been purged. Furthermore, the Pasdaran and Basij (what Ayatollah Khomeini called the "Army of Twenty Million" or People's Militia) recruited at least 100,000 volunteers. Approximately 200,000 soldiers were sent to the front by the end of November 1980. They were ideologically committed troops (some members even carried their own shrouds to the front in the expectation of martyrdom) that fought bravely despite inadequate armor support. For example, on November 7 commando units played a significant role, with the navy and air force; in an assault on Iraqi oil export terminals at Mina al Bakr and Al Faw. Iran hoped to diminish Iraq's financial resources by reducing its oil revenues. Iran also attacked the northern pipeline in the early days of the war and persuaded Syria to close the Iraqi pipeline that crossed its territory.
Iran's resistance at the outset of the Iraqi invasion was unexpectedly strong, but it was neither well organized nor equally successful on all fronts. Iraq easily advanced in the northern and central sections and crushed the Pasdaran's scattered resistance there. Iraqi troops, however, faced untiring resistance in Khouzestan. President Saddam Hussein of Iraq may have thought that the approximately 3 million Arabs of Khouzestan would join the Iraqis against Tehran. Instead, they joind the Iran's regular and irregular armed forces and fought in the battles at Dezful, Khorramshahr, and Abadan. Soon after capturing Khorramshahr, the Iraqi troops lost their initiative and began to dig in along their line of advance.
Tehran rejected a settlement offer and held the line against the militarily superior Iraqi force. It refused to accept defeat, and slowly began a series of counteroffensives in January 1981. Both the Basij (Popular Mobilization Army or People's Army) volunteers and the regular armed forces were eager to fight back. Armed forces were seeing an opportunity to regain prestige lost because of their association with the shah's regime.
Iran's first major counterattack failed, however, for political and military reasons. President Bani Sadr was engaged in a power struggle with key religious figures and eager to gain political support among the armed forces by direct involvement in military operations. Lacking military expertise, he initiated a premature attack by three regular armored regiments without the assistance of the Pasdaran units. He also failed to take into account that the ground near Sousangerd, muddied by the preceding rainy season, would make resupply difficult. As a result of his tactical decision making, the Iranian forces were surrounded on three sides. In a long exchange of fire, many Iranian armored vehicles were destroyed or had to be abandoned because they were either stuck in the mud or needed minor repairs. Fortunately for Iran, however, the Iraqi forces failed to follow up with another attack.
Abadan suffered heavy damages
Iran stopped Iraqi forces on the Karoun River and, with limited military stocks, unveiled its "human wave" assaults, which used thousands of Basij (Popular Mobilization Army or People's Army) volunteers. After Bani Sadr was ousted as president and commander in chief, Iran gained its first major victory, when, as a result of Khomeini's initiative, the army and Pasdaran suppressed their rivalry and cooperated to force Baghdad to lift its long siege of Abadan in September 1981. Iranian forces also defeated Iraq in the Qasr-e Shirin area in December 1981 and January 1982. The Iraqi armed forces were hampered by their unwillingness to sustain a high casualty rate and therefore refused to initiate a new offensive.
Despite Iraqi success in causing major damage to exposed Iranian ammunition and fuel dumps in the early days of the war, the Iranian air force prevailed initially in the air war. One reason was that Iranian airplanes could carry two or three times more bombs or rockets than their Iraqi counterparts. Moreover, Iranian pilots demonstrated considerable expertise. For example, the Iranian air force attacked Baghdad and key Iraqi air bases as early as the first few weeks of the war, seeking to destroy supply and support systems. The attack on Iraq's oil field complex and air base at Al Walid, the base for T-22 and Il-28 bombers, was a well-coordinated assault. The targets were more than 800 kilometers from Iran's closest air base at Urumiyeh, so the F-4s had to refuel in midair for the mission. Iran's air force relied on F-4s and F-5s for assaults and a few F-14s for reconnaissance. Although Iran used its Maverick missiles effectively against ground targets, lack of airplane spare parts forced Iran to substitute helicopters for close air support. Helicopters served not only as gunships and troop carriers but also as emergency supply transports. In the mountainous area near Mehran, helicopters proved advantageous in finding and destroying targets and maneuvering against antiaircraft guns or man-portable missiles. During Operation Karbala Five and Operation Karbala Six, the Iranians reportedly engaged in large-scale helicopter-borne operations on the southern and central fronts, respectively. Chinooks and smaller Bell helicopters, such as the Bell 214A, were escorted by Sea Cobra choppers.
In confronting the Iraqi air defense, Iran soon discovered that a low-flying group of two, three, or four F-4s could hit targets almost anywhere in Iraq. Iranian pilots overcame Iraqi SA-2 and SA-3 antiaircraft missiles, using American tactics developed in Vietnam; they were less successful against Iraqi SA-6s. Iran's Western-made air defense system seemed more effective than Iraq's Soviet-made counterpart. Nevertheless, Iran experienced difficulty in operating and maintaining Hawk, Rapier, and Tigercat missiles and instead used antiaircraft guns and man-portable missiles.
1)the first shot was done on the 22 of september by iranians on the bordering provinces then the Iraqis responded.
2)The shah asked Saddam to extradicate Khomeini, Khomeini was expelled upon orders of the shah.
3)One of the reasons that the 1975 Algiers agreement came into being was also the kurdish question. The shah and Israel were constantly arming the kurdish peshmergas and despite the agreement, the arming did not stop. The arrival of khomeini made the situation in the north worse.
4) when khomeini came to power, after the hostage crisis was resolved, his first attention was regime change in Iraq. The Iraqis were not scared of Political shi'ism had khomeini not put on his agenda regime change as a priority- the revolution exported through najaf, kerbala and baghdad to free jerusalem.
5)on more than two occasions truce were offered by the iraqis to the iranians, and they were refused on both occasions.
I would like you all to look up what gw bushes grandfather did to Chief Geronimo's head from the grave. The bush family is an evil bunch. Look up on MSN
Prescott Bush Indian Chiefs Head Skull and Bones
a lot of good sites and
The Native American Journal
by susan bates, about seven articals down. What a history lesson of the bush clan.
Love you all
Savage
Iraqi POWs
The Iranian high command passed from regular military leaders to clergy in mid-1982. In March of same year, Tehran launched its Operation Undeniable Victory, which marked a major turning point, as Iran penetrated Iraq's "impenetrable" lines, split Iraq's forces, and forced the Iraqis to retreat. Its forces broke the Iraqi line near Sousangerd, separating Iraqi units in northern and southern Khouzestan. Within a week, they succeeded in destroying a large part of three Iraqi divisions. This operation, another combined effort of the army, Pasdaran, and Basij, was a turning point in the war because the strategic initiative shifted from Iraq to Iran.
In May 1982, Iranian units finally regained Khorramshahr, but with high casualties. After this victory, the Iranians maintained the pressure on the remaining Iraqi forces, and President Saddam Hussein announced that the Iraqi units would withdraw from Iranian territory. Saddam ordered a withdrawal to the international borders, believing Iran would agree to end the war. Iran did not accept this withdrawal as the end of the conflict, and continued the war into Iraq. In late June 1982, Baghdad stated its willingness to negotiate a settlement of the war and to withdraw its forces from Iran. Iran refused.
In July 1982 Iran launched Operation Ramadan on Iraqi territory, near Basra. Although Basra was within range of Iranian artillery, the clergy used "human-wave" attacks by the Pasdaran and Basij against the city's defenses, apparently waiting for a coup to topple Saddam Hussein. Tehran used Pasdaran forces and Basij volunteers in one of the biggest land battles since 1945. Ranging in age from only nine to more than fifty, these eager but relatively untrained soldiers swept over minefields and fortifications to clear safe paths for the tanks. All such assaults faced Iraqi artillery fire and received heavy casualties. The Iranians sustained an immmense number of casualties, but they enabled Iran to recover some territory before the Iraqis could repulse the bulk of the invading forces.
By the end of 1982, Iraq had been resupplied with new Soviet materiel, and the ground war entered a new phase. Iraq used newly acquired T-55 tanks and T-62 tanks, BM-21 Stalin Organ rocket launchers, and Mi-24 helicopter gunships to prepare a Soviet-type three-line defense, replete with obstacles, minefields, and fortified positions. The Combat Engineer Corps proved efficient in constructing bridges across water obstacles, in laying minefields, and in preparing new defense lines and fortifications.
Throughout 1983 both sides demonstrated their ability to absorb and to inflict severe losses. Iraq, in particular, proved adroit at constructing defensive strong points and flooding lowland areas to stymie the Iranian thrusts, hampering the advance of mechanized units. Both sides also experienced difficulties in effectively utilizing their armor. Rather than maneuver their armor, they tended to dig in tanks and use them as artillery pieces. Furthermore, both sides failed to master tank gunsights and fire controls, making themselves vulnerable to antitank weapons.
Iranian Troops on the move
In 1983 Iran launched three major, but unsuccessful, human wave offensives, with huge losses, along the frontier. On February 6, Tehran, using 200,000 "last reserve" Pasdaran troops, attacked along a 40-kilometer stretch near Al Amarah, about 200 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. Backed by air, armor, and artillery support, Iran's six-division thrust was strong enough to break through. In response, Baghdad used massive air attacks, with more than 200 sorties, many flown by attack helicopters. More than 6,000 Iranians were killed that day, while achieving only minute gains. In April 1983, the Mandali-Baghdad northcentral sector witnessed fierce fighting, as repeated Iranian attacks were stopped by Iraqi mechanized and infantry divisions. Casualties were very high, and by the end of 1983, an estimated 120,000 Iranians and 60,000 Iraqis had been killed. Despite these losses, in 1983 Iran held a distinct advantage in the attempt to wage and eventually to win the war of attrition.
Beginning in 1984, Baghdad's military goal changed from controlling Iranian territory to denying Tehran any major gain inside Iraq. Furthermore, Iraq tried to force Iran to the negotiating table by various means. First, President Saddam Hussein sought to increase the war's manpower and economic cost to Iran. For this purpose, Iraq purchased new weapons, mainly from the Soviet Union and France. Iraq also completed the construction of what came to be known as "killing zones" (which consisted primarily of artificially flooded areas near Basra) to stop Iranian units. In addition, Baghdad used chemical weapons against Iranian troop concentrations and launched attacks on many economic centers. Despite Iraqi determination to halt further Iranian progress, Iranian units in March 1984 captured parts of the Majnoun Islands, whose oil fields had economic as well as strategic value.
Second, Iraq turned to diplomatic and political means. In April 1984, Saddam Hussein proposed to meet Khomeini personally in a neutral location to discuss peace negotiations. But Tehran rejected this offer and restated its refusal to negotiate with President Saddam Hussein.
Third, Iraq sought to involve the superpowers as a means of ending the war. The Iraqis believed this objective could be achieved by attacking Iranian shipping. Initially, Baghdad used borrowed French Super Etendard aircraft armed with Exocets. In 1984 Iraq returned these airplanes to France and purchased approximately thirty Mirage F-1 fighters equipped with Exocet missiles. Iraq launched a new series of attacks on shipping on February 1, 1984.
he War of Attrition, 1984 - 1987
Iranian troops under Iraqi Chemical Weapon attacks
By 1984 it was reported that some 300,000 Iranian soldiers and 250,000 Iraqi troops had been killed, or wounded. Most foreign military analysts felt that neither Iraq nor Iran used its modern equipment efficiently. Frequently, sophisticated materiel was left unused, when a massive modern assault could have won the battle for either side. Tanks and armored vehicles were dug in and used as artillery pieces, instead of being maneuvered to lead or to support an assault. William O. Staudenmaeir, a seasoned military analyst, reported that "the land-computing sights on the Iraqi tanks [were] seldom used. This lower[ed] the accuracy of the T-62 tanks to World War II standards." This was the result of poorly educated and trained commissioned officers and field commanders. In addition, both sides frequently abandoned heavy equipment in the battle zone because they lacked the skilled technical personnel needed to carry out minor repairs.
Analysts also assert that the two states' armies showed little coordination and that some units in the field have been left to fight largely on their own. In this protracted war of attrition, soldiers and officers alike failed to display initiative or professional expertise in combat. Difficult decisions, which should have had immediate attention, were referred by section commanders to the capitals for action. Except for the predictable bursts on important anniversaries, by the mid-1980s the war was stalemated.
In early 1984, Iran had begun Operation Dawn V, which was meant to split the Iraqi 3rd Army Corps and 4th Army Corps near Basra. In early 1984, an estimated 500,000 Pasdaran and Basij forces, using shallow boats or on foot, moved to within a few kilometers of the strategic Basra-Baghdad waterway. Between February 29 and March 1, in one of the largest battles of the war, the two armies clashed and inflicted more than 25,000 fatalities on each other. Without armored and air support of their own, the Iranians faced Iraqi tanks, mortars, and helicopter gunships. Within a few weeks, Tehran opened another front in the shallow lakes of the Hawizah Marshes, just east of Al Qurnah, in Iraq, near the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Iraqi forces, using Soviet- and French-made helicopter gunships, inflicted heavy casualties on the five Iranian brigades (15,000 men) in this Battle of Majnoun. Lacking the equipment to open secure passages through Iraqi minefields, and having too few tanks, the Iranian command again resorted to the human-wave tactic. In March 1984, an East European journalist claimed that he "saw tens of thousands of young boys, roped together in groups of about twenty to prevent the faint-hearted from deserting, make such an attack." The Iranians made little progress despite these sacrifices. Perhaps as a result of this performance, Tehran, for the first time, used a regular army unit, the 92nd Armored Division, at the Battle of the Marshes a few weeks later.
In February 1984 the Iraqi command ordered the use of chemical weapons. Despite repeated Iraqi denials, between May 1981 and March 1984, Iran charged Iraq with forty uses of chemical weapons. The year 1984 closed with part of the Majnoun Islands and a few pockets of Iraqi territory in Iranian hands. Casualties notwithstanding, Tehran had maintained its military posture, while Baghdad was reevaluating its overall strategy.
The major development in 1985 was the increased targeting of population centers and industrial facilities by both combatants. In May Iraq began aircraft attacks, long-range artillery attacks, and surface-to-surface missile attacks on Tehran and on other major Iranian cities. Between August and November, Iraq raided Khark Island forty-four times in a futile attempt to destroy its installations. Iran responded with its own air raids and missile attacks on Baghdad and other Iraqi towns. In addition, Tehran systematized its periodic stop-and-search operations, which were conducted to verify the cargo contents of ships in the Persian Gulf and to seize war materiel destined for Iraq.
Iranian Artillery Battery
The only major ground offensive, involving an estimated 60,000 Iranian troops, occurred in March 1985, near Basra; once again, the assault proved inconclusive except for heavy casualties. In 1986, however, Iraq suffered a major loss in the southern region. On February 9, Iran launched a successful surprise amphibious assault across the Arvand-Roud (Shatt al Arab) and captured the abandoned Iraqi oil port of Al Faw. The occupation of Al Faw, a logistical feat, involved 30,000 regular Iranian soldiers who rapidly entrenched themselves. Saddam Hussein vowed to eliminate the bridgehead "at all costs," and in April 1988 the Iraqis succeeded in regaining the Al Faw peninsula.
Late, in March 1986, the UN secretary general, Javier Perez de Cuellar, formally accused Iraq of using chemical weapons against Iran. Citing the report of four chemical warfare experts whom the UN had sent to Iran in February and March 1986, the secretary general called on Baghdad to end its violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol on the use of chemical weapons. The UN report concluded that "Iraqi forces have used chemical warfare against Iranian forces"; the weapons used included both mustard gas and nerve gas. The report further stated that "the use of chemical weapons appear[ed] to be more extensive [in 1981] than in 1984." Iraq attempted to deny using chemicals, but the evidence, in the form of many badly burned casualties flown to European hospitals for treatment, was overwhelming. According to a British representative at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva in July 1986, "Iraqi chemical warfare was responsible for about 10,000 casualties." In March 1988, Iraq was again charged with a major use of chemical warfare while retaking Halabjah, a Kurdish town in northeastern Iraq, near the Iranian border.
Unable in 1986, however, to dislodge the Iranians from Al Faw, the Iraqis went on the offensive; they captured the city of Mehran in May, only to lose it in July 1986. The rest of 1986 witnessed small hit-and-run attacks by both sides, while the Iranians massed almost 500,000 troops for another promised "final offensive," which did not occur. But the Iraqis, perhaps for the first time since the outbreak of hostilities, began a concerted air-strike campaign in July. Heavy attacks on Khark Island forced Iran to rely on makeshift installations farther south in the Gulf at Sirri Island and Larak Island. Thereupon, Iraqi jets, refueling in midair and using a Saudi military base, hit Sirri and Larak. The two belligerents also attacked 111 neutral ships in the Gulf in 1986.
Iranian troops in their trenches
Meanwhile, to help defend itself, Iraq had built impressive fortifications along the 1,200-kilometer war front. Iraq devoted particular attention to the southern city of Basra, where concrete-roofed bunkers, tank- and artillery-firing positions, minefields, and stretches of barbed wire, all shielded by an artificially flooded lake 30 kilometers long and 1,800 meters wide, were constructed. Most visitors to the area acknowledged Iraq's effective use of combat engineering to erect these barriers.
By late 1986, rumors of a final Iranian offensive against Basra proliferated. On 08 January 1987, Operation Karbala Five began, with Iranian units pushing westward between Fish Lake and the Arvand-Roud (Shatt al Arab). This annual "final offensive" captured the town of Duayji and inflicted 20,000 casualties on Iraq, but at the higher cost of Iranian casualties. In this intensive operation, Baghdad also lost forty-five airplanes. Attempting to capture Basra, Tehran launched several attacks, some of them well-disguised diversion assaults such as Operation Karbala Six and Operation Karbala Seven. Iran finally aborted Operation Karbala Five on 26 February 1987. Although the Iranian push came close to breaking Iraq's last line of defense east of Basra, Tehran was unable to score the decisive breakthrough required to win outright victory, or even to secure relative gains over Iraq.
In late May 1987, just when the war seemed to have reached a complete stalemate on the southern front, reports from Iran indicated that the conflict was intensifying on Iraq's northern front. This assault, Operation Karbala Ten, was a joint effort by Iranian units and Iraqi Kurdish rebels. They surrounded the garrison at Mawat, endangering Iraq's oil fields near Kirkuk and the northern oil pipeline to Turkey. Believing it could win the war merely by holding the line and inflicting unacceptable losses on the attacking Iranians, Iraq initially adopted a static defensive strategy. This was successful in repelling successive Iranian offensives until 1986 and 1987, when the Al-Faw peninsula was lost and Iranian troops reached the gates of Al-Basrah. Embarrassed by the loss of the peninsula and concerned by the threat to his second largest city, Saddam ordered a change in strategy. From a defensive posture, in which the only offensive operations were counterattacks to relieve forces under pressure or to exploit failed Iranian assaults, the Iraqis adopted an offensive strategy. More decision-making authority was delegated to senior military commanders. The change also indicated a maturing of Iraqi military capabilities and an improvement in the armed forces' effectiveness. The success of this new strategy, plus the attendant change in doctrine and procedures virtually eliminated Iranian military capabilities. As the war continued, Iran was increasingly short of spare parts for damaged airplanes and had lost a large number of airplanes in combat. As a result, by late 1987 Iran had become less able to mount an effective defense against the massively resupplied Iraqi air and ground forces.
I have been tracking these trends for 6-years and I just hate to admit such an ugly truth as this... but it looks something like Armageddon really is at our doorstep.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArkBuilders_org/
Thanks
chow
I agree with some of what you say however I disagree with the term civil war. When people start saying there is a civil war in Iraq, they are actually shifting the blame away from Iran, Israel, USA onto the Iraqis themselves. This for me covers up the fact that it is in these three countries interests to see a very destabilized Iraq. all the focus remains there whilst other developments in the region can go unnoticed...get my drift ?
Could you please explain to me what is the purpose behind your posting all the historical fact concerning the Iraq - Iran war. I would be more interested in hearing your opinion on that matter.
Please elaborate.
Excerpt:
"As investigative reporter Max Fuller has pointed out in his detailed examination of information buried in reams of mainstream news stories and public Pentagon documents, the vast majority of atrocities then attributed to "rogue" Shiite and Sunni militias were in fact the work of government-controlled commandos and "special forces," trained by Americans, "advised" by Americans and run largely by former CIA agents. As Fuller puts it: "If there are militias in the Ministry of Interior, you can be sure that they are militias that stand to attention whenever a U.S. colonel enters the room." And perhaps a British lieutenant colonel as well
With the Anglo-American coalition so deeply embedded in dirty war - infiltrating terrorist groups, "stimulating" them into action," protecting "crown jewel" double-agents no matter what the cost, "riding with the bad boys," greenlighting the "Salvador Option" - it is simply impossible to determine the genuine origin of almost any particular terrorist outrage or death squad atrocity in Iraq. All of these operations take place in the shadow world, where terrorists are sometimes government operatives and vice versa, and where security agencies and terrorist groups interpenetrate in murky thickets of collusion and duplicity."
For full article see:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021307J.shtml
To sink my teeth into...
I posted the other day.
Fortunatly it must have gotten lost in the shuffle because it never made it to the board.
I won't acknowledge the ignorance of some, nor will I taunt the stupidity of others.
I've played those silly games before and really don't have time for such frivolities.
I've been on "the web" for a pretty long time. I've seen this kinda environment before.
But I suppose thats what I like about it.
Thats why I come and read.
Lot of stuff I respect here (if you are a person who needs to, please look up the definition of respect in Websters Dictionary. You still will not comprehend the meaning).
And a lot of stuff I'd love to rip open and defile viciously like the "no good, blood lusting, hate filled, ugly, belligerent, greedy, cheating, lying, stealing, murdering, raping, SHIT EATING"-by god, (literally. God DID make me) American that I am.
You know me Layla.
I've read your writings from nearly day one I believe...
You know how I feel and what my opinions are.
Where I stand on most of the issues.
I'm with you.
Keep up the good work.
You ARE and WILL continue to acomplish your objectives.
For the most part anyway... :)
Peace,
Stay safe & god bless.
Ike
Hi,
I criticized chomsky not out of some obscure conspiracy theory( am keeping those to myself for the time being) but because if you read his article closely, you will find the same jargon that Bush father and son put forward prior to gulf 1&2
Namely, the oppression of shias but chomsky is going a few miles further and has encompassed lebanon, saudi arabia, pakistan and god knows where else..next thing you will read is chomsky asking for regime changes. Last time we had one , we have seen what it produced. And trust me that is no conspiracy that is reality.
Thanks for the link, I had seen Chris article and this time I don't fully agree with him. I have seen a trend amongst authors these past weeks using the word civil war. I do not believe there is a civil war in Iraq, I believe there is an ethnic cleansing of anti occupation supporters and I believe there is an iranian puppet regime backed by the USA and its contractors plus GB and Israel responsible for this sectarianism. Anyone who has read the history of iraq, would know that shias and sunnis have intermarried and lived alongside each other for centuries.
The "Salvador Option" is a reality, and indeed in Iraq there are death squads directly created and founded by the occupiers. But the "investigative reporter" Max Fuller is a liar. His only aim is
to defend the Mahdi army and the Badr Brigades (and iran, of course). We debunked some of Fuller's lies:
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=s6068
The "investigative reporter" never replied, but he went on defending his beloved SCIRI, Dawa party and the sectarian death squads ( mahdi army and bads brigades).
For instance:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Balad.htm
As usual, Fuller manipulates and misquotes a few mainstream media pieces, in order to show that the mahdi army has nothing to do with the Balad massacre. This is simply disgusting. We published many articles on the Balad massacre, and there is no doubt about what happened. The mahdi army mass murdered sunnis, and the puppet iraqi army helped them, under the
benevolent eyes of the occupiers.
A few gems by Fuller:
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/DiyalaFuller.htm
If we want to make sense of what is happening in Iraq we need to recognize that words like SCIRI, Badr and Mahdi, together with phrases like civil war, sectarian violence, revenge killings and tit-for-tat murders all serve to deemphasize the centrality of the occupation and mystify what is a very real and deadly counterinsurgency war.
One can only assume that any detailed independent investigation would rapidly be forced to conclude that neither Mahdi nor SCIRI were responsible, but the US-installed police force were.
http://www.cryingwolf.deconstructingiraq.org.uk/sceneselection.html
Little information is available about the Badr Brigade. For a militia with such influence, they remain highly elusive, lending credibility to the Badr Organisation's own claims that the Brigade was disbanded soon after the invasion"
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Fuller.htm
The truth is that, aside from anecdotal allegations from fairly spurious sources, there is no publicly available information on the organisation or structure of either group [Badr Brigade and the Mehdi Army] and spokespersons for both of them assiduously deny their involvement. [in crimes]
a propos of disinformation...
He is not only "the embezzler, crook, CIA/Mossad Iranian agent" but a pimp of all.he is ready to sell his sister in favour of money.
The money (US$20 million)he stole in Jordan by the way;is forgiven by none other than what Tariq Ali termed "that hashemite jokker of Amman".
As for Persians meddling in Iraqi affairs,is not "their fault" it is an Emperial Hungover;ever since they lost their glory.
The Persians hated the Arabs from the days of Prophet Mohammad.And they will never stop conspiring aginst us.
It was Gods Blessings that Quran was revealed in Arabic rather than Farsi.
Well am sorry to say that Iraq is swamped by these street thugs of the Mahdi army. And I mean SWAMPED.
They violent, brutish,and present all the signs of savagery. Even amongst the so called educated amongst them, scrap the surface just one bit and you will have a dirty bag of scum in your face...
Unfortunately, just calling oneself a muslim or a christian or a jew for that matter, dooes not forcibly make one...And who backs those street rapists thugs who mutilate women after raping them and who gouge eyeballs out and drill in skulls...none other than Iran...
My contempt for these so called iraqis is as grand as my contempt for the american occupiers.
Just the thought of either of them makes me shudder....
It is true;The Mahdi militias and other militias now numbering 32 in Iraq belong to Lumpen Proletariat -- The "dangerous class".
It is in their weakness as a class which is being exploited by British and American Imperialisms with their collaborators in Iraq.
Because “The lumpen proletariat is that sector of the population that, having been denied a legitimate way to make a living, resorts to the illegitimate: i.e. thieves, fences, drug pushers, numbers men, gamblers, pimps, prostitutes, loan sharks, beggars, thugs, etc.”
The war in Iraq as Samir Amin puts it; is “ This war is not just against Iraq, not even just against the Arab peoples, or against the people of the region. It is also not a war against Muslims. It is a war against mankind”.
The Imperialists already know that they had lost a war in Iraq, therefore they are ready to use/buy or cajole the pimps of Chalabis,Al-Malkis,Al-Hakims and loan sharks to spill the blood of Our Iraqi brothers and sisters.
Samir Amin says “the Iraqi people are nationalistic”, and “The so-called specialists on Iraq in the U.S. establishment cannot comprehend this. They overplay the differences among the Shias and the Sunnis. Of course there are differences among them, but they count for nothing in the face of an imperialist military invasion. Fundamentally, people believe that the Americans have no business to be in Iraq”.
We street Arabs are not amused by the blood being spilled in Iraq. From, the blood of the President of a free country to the blood of an innocent girl in Faluja.
Guerilla warfare based on secular principles and against British and US Imperialisms is the solution.
The true Iraqi people know, that the foreign hoodlums in Iraq fear Progressive Iraq. Arab Street are fighting for Iraq to revenge for the innocent blood of Iraqi people. And not for the glory of being buried in Arlington Cemetery.
The donkey looks like he is continuously frowning, i wonder if that means he doesn't approve of everything but himself.
You have the only site I'm aware of where the Words themselves make the brilliant Art fade in semi-insignificance.
see:
Video: George Galloway's speech to the UK Parliament on Iraq:
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/171/41/
You wrote:
"I disagree with the term civil war. When people start saying there is a civil war in Iraq, they are actually shifting the blame away from Iran, Israel, USA onto the Iraqis themselves"
I entirely agree,provided you do not leave out the U.K on the list of the conspirators.
Personally I would put them in the following order: ISRAEL,UK,USA, IRAN.
Thank you, Layla. You are a gift not just to the people of Iraq but to all of us who visit you here.
I love Iraqi art.
I am aware that I don't mention GB often and I have often wondered myself why this is so...
I think it is because I associate american and british foreign policy to be one and the same.
I feel english politicians have lost all independence of thought and are just reflections of big brother.
Layla, your articles are so full of truths that, at times, it is hard for people in America who have been conditioned to "news sources" like CNN and FAUX to read and understand the truths in the articles.
Just finished reading " The Uncensored Manifesto Part IV" . The truths in that manifesto hit the reader like a fist to the face.
Writing that contains that much truth will never see the light of day in the American MSM; we are too occupied with the scores of last night's "Big Game" and being fed nauseous details about whether or not Paris is wearing undies or sordid details about the tragic death of a former stripper.
America is a nation of thieves, liars and murderers that hide behind their flag. We wax poetically about bringing democracy and freedom to the world, then go about slaughtering third world peoples like it was no more than harveting wheat.
And don't count on the so-called Democrats to do anything to stop this madness. Americans are under the delusion that we have two mainstream parties: The Republicans and the Democrats.
WRONG. There is one party, the War Party with two wings; the Dems and Republicans.
And both are in servitude to the criminals in the White House and the Zionist Likud party of Israel.
ISRAEL WILL FIGHT TO THE LAST DROP OF AMERICAN BLOOD
Make no mistake about it; the current Middle East turmoil is a war against Muslims and Islam.
North Korea was only included in the original "Axis of Evil" so the true aim of the wars would be obscured. It's the Crusades all over again.
This Arab Holocaust will benefit Israel by giving that nation of thugs more land and water resources and the USA, by using 9/11 as an excuse to dismantle the Constitution and steal the oil resources of the Middle East.
To say we are a nation of hypocrites is an understatement.
We are a nation of fat, indolent, stupid and pathetic war criminals only caring about our immediate needs.
Our motto should be: "I don't care how many Muslims we have to murder as long as gasoline stays below $2.00 a gallon."
America was built upon the death and suffering of others. Whether it was the Native Americans whose land we stole--all proper, of course, with the white man treaties--or the blacks who we stole from their homeland and used for slaves for 400 years.
The original colonies in New England were founded by religious extremists and the ones in the South by criminals. Criminals kicked out of their coutnry of origin and shipped to America to be rid of them.
These two groups of people met in Washington, DC and the government we have today is a reflection of that: Populated by thieves and religious fanatics who have no qualms about murdering people and stealing their wealth.
To wash away their guilt, they go to church on Sunday and pray louder than anyone else in church.
Since there seems to be no way to stop the current madness engulfing this nation, the only hope is that America, burdened by debt and nonstop wars, will collapse from within, much like the old USSR did after it tried to support both the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and meet the peoples needs back home.
Even though i live in America, i hope that some type of financial calamity hits this country and knocks it to its knees.
That way, Americans will be too occupied with living from hand to mouth--appropriate, since we have been responsible for forcing that way of life upon a majority of the world--to go running around the world sticking our noses--and guns--in other peoples business.
Take care and stay safe.
Greg Bacon
RR 1 Box 3518
Ava, MO 65608
I think you are really one of the very rare ones in the u.s (there are a few others too) that has been able to grasp and see through the bullshit...Take care.
If only there were a more Americans with your intellect and able to see through the misplaced patriotism promoted by your politicians.
I will even go a step further and propose that the US government has taken over the Mafia because they are acting in precisely the same way.
Watch the Godfather trilogy again and tell me the difference between the Corleone family and the Bush administration.