September 22, 1980......Iraq-Iran War Begins

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_iraq_war

It has been called "the longest conventional war of the 20th century", and cost 1 million casualties and US$1.19 trillion.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980 following a long history of border disputes, demands for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime, and secret encouragement by the US administration (President Jimmy Carter, conveyed through Saudi Arabia) which was embroiled in a dispute with the new regime in Iran.

The conflict saw early successes by the Iraqis, but before long they were repelled and the conflict stabilized into a long war of attrition. The United Nations Security Council called upon both parties to end the conflict on multiple occasions, but a ceasefire was not agreed to until 20 August 1988, and the last prisoners of war were not exchanged until 2003. The war irrevocably altered politics in the area, playing into wider global politics and leading to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

The war is also noted for extensive use of chemical weapons by Iraqi forces against Iranian troops, Iranian civilians and Iraqi Kurds.



This war that at the time seemed it would go on indefinitely had a lot of American involvement. The United States openly supported Iraq and Saddam Hussein over the Iranians. The Iranians had embarrassed America with the holding of hostages at the US embassy. These hostages were released on the day Reagan took office. The US provided Saddam with either the technology or material either directly or indirectly for Weapons of Mass Destruction used by Saddam. While this was being done somewhat openly, we were selling arms to Iran. The proceeds of these sales were used to illegally support the Contras of Nicaragua. This was the Iran-Contra scandal that Reagan escaped blame for even though he personally approved the operation. Iraq’s invasion of Iran is one the reasons cited for invading Iraq. Again, we have a case of the pot calling the kettle black, and trying to tie together two wrongs to make a right.