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6 - Pursuing the Aggressor

Iran’s Invasion of Iraq

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 October 2021

Annie Tracy Samuel
Affiliation:
University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
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Summary

Chapter 6 examines the Iran-Iraq War’s second critical reversal, Iran’s shift from defense to offense following the liberation of Khorramshahr. Decades later, the Islamic Republic’s decision to continue the war and invade Iraq following the liberation of most of its territory remains a point of contention and misunderstanding. While for most outside analysts the decision exemplifies the aggression, irrationality, and ideological zeal that make the Islamic Republic so dangerous, for the IRGC the invasion was an act not of aggression but of defense. According to the IRGC authors, Iran’s decision to pursue the war’s original aggressors into their own territory was made carefully and rationally and only after the invasion was deemed necessary to restoring Iran’s national security. Dreams of marching straight through Iraq and onward to Jerusalem, though useful rhetorically to rally the troops, played no role in the decision-making process. For too long, however, such rhetoric has been taken literally. Instead of relying on the hyperbole of slogans and battle cries, this chapter utilizes the internal accounts included in the IRGC sources to rewrite the story of how and why Iran decided to invade Iraq.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War
Faith, Firepower, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards
, pp. 128 - 148
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Pursuing the Aggressor
  • Annie Tracy Samuel, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
  • Book: The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War
  • Online publication: 08 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777674.009
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  • Pursuing the Aggressor
  • Annie Tracy Samuel, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
  • Book: The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War
  • Online publication: 08 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777674.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Pursuing the Aggressor
  • Annie Tracy Samuel, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
  • Book: The Unfinished History of the Iran-Iraq War
  • Online publication: 08 October 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108777674.009
Available formats
×