The Peace on The Horizon - 75 Years after The World War 2 in the Middle East (124)

 

(Japanese Version)

(Arabic Version)

 

(contents)

 

Chapter 5: Two calendars (Gregorian & Hijri)

 

124 Iraq invasion of Kuwait & Gulf War (AD 1990-91, Hijri 1410) (1/5)

The Iran-Iraq war, which began in the year 1400 of Hijri, i.e. 1980 AD, was a war of attrition. The battle had been seesawing onshore. Iraq bombed Iranian oil loading facilities offshore in the Persian (Arabian) Gulf. As a counter-attack, Iran bombed Kuwaiti oil tankers sailing over the Persian Gulf and hinted at the blockade of the Holmes Strait at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. But in 1988 two countries finally ceased the fire according to the UN mediation. There was a famous episode that Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran lamented that the acceptance of the ceasefire was more painful than drinking poison.

 

The Iran-Iraq war forced great sacrifice to Iraq. Iraq faced the crisis of the state. However, Hussein was a tough dictator to deal with crisis. He rushed to retain the power taking advantage of crisis. He took authoritarian politics with his two sons. He compelled loyalty to his subordinates. He oppressed the Shiites in the southern region and the Kurds in the northern region respectively. Hussein and his faithful subordinates were Sunni minorities. They were aware that if they lost power the harsh retaliation would blow them away. That is the reason why his subordinates swore absolute obedience to his orders and repressed rebels. It might be reasonable that the absolute dictatorship is robust.

 

(To be continued ----)

 

 

Areha Kazuya

(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)