This study explores the organization, appearance, and equipment of
both sides' ground forces during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88).
Driven by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the insecurities it
provoked in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi dictatorship, the Iran-Iraq War would
become the largest conventional conflict of the period. Curiously
little-known considering its scale and longevity, the struggle between
Iran and Iraq was primarily fought along the 1,458km border in a series
of battles which, despite both sides being armed with modern small arms,
armour and aircraft, often degenerated into attritional struggles
reminiscent of World War I. Such a comparison was underlined by frequent
periods of deadlock, the extensive use of trenches by both sides, and
the deployment of chemical weapons by Iraq. Fully illustrated with
specially commissioned artwork, this study investigates the
organization, appearance and equipment of the ground forces of both
sides in the Iran-Iraq War, including Iraq's Republican Guards and
Iran's Pasdaran or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The war resulted
in stalemate with some half a million dead and at least as many wounded.
The financial costs incurred in waging such a long and debilitating war
were one of the spurs that led Saddam Hussein to invade Kuwait barely
two years later, setting in motion one of the defining currents of
recent Middle-Eastern history.
