Causes Of The Iran-Iraq War

With nearly thirty years having passed since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, a more complete set of reasons for the war is finally emerging. To look at this war through our lens allows us to more easily examine the events leading up to this conflict than if we were to look at it while the war was still ongoing. Our hindsight provides us the ability to see details from the time that perhaps were not as evident as during the war, and also to see the mistakes in rationale and judgement made by both sides as they planned for the war and responded to other events of the day.
There is no question in my mind as to why Saddam Hussein would invade Iraq - his goal was to “claim Iraq’s place as leader of the ‘Arabian Gulf’ and protector of the Arab world” from the Iranians (Dodds and Wilson 2009:4). With Iran having just lost its place of prominence in the Arab world (specifically with Western countries) after the Iranian Revolution, Saddam Hussein saw an opportunity to take down the once preeminent power in the region as a display of Iraqi superiority. He expected to easily gain significant amounts …show more content…
Looking back, we can see the causes of this war were many different things - some of which were actions taken by Saddam Hussein and Iraq and others by Iran and its Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini. Had Iran not fallen out of favor among Western countries (ie never gone through its revolution), had Iraq not wished to raise its status among nations in the region, or had the Iranian revolutionaries not scared the leaders of Iraq into thinking that the Shi’a population would rebel, the Iran-Iraq War may never have happened. Yet, all these events did take place, and the Iran-Iraq War did occur, but we as a people should learn from the past to avoid the same mistakes, and work towards a brighter, more peaceful future for the