The scars of the Iran-Iraq war - Beautiful Iran 11

The portraits of young Iranian soldiers killed in the war

In the morning of April 24, we took an airplane from Rasht on the Caspian Sea coast to Ahvaz in Southern Iran. It was about 700 km in a straight line.Flying over the grayish brown plateau, I saw Zagros mountains capped with snow below us. It took just one hour twenty minutes until we landed in the midst of burning desert. It seemed to be a dream flight of the Arabian Nights. 

Stepping down the ramp, we walked to the airport terminal under the sizzling sun in the blue sky. I knew it was 36℃, some15℃ higher than in Rasht. I took off my coat but stayed with a long sleeve shirts to prevent sunburn. Ahvaz is situated on the banks of the Karun River in Khuzestan province, some 150 km north of the Persian Gulf. In summer it is expected to be regularly at least 45℃, sometimes exceeding 50℃ with occasional sandstorms.

In the 19th century, Ahvaz was no more than a small borough inhabited mainly by Sha'ab Arabs. Oil was found near Ahvaz in the early 20th century, and the city suddenly started prospering.

In 1980, the next year of the Iranian Revolution, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran to annex Khuzestan Province, resulting in the Iran–Iraq War that continued 8 years until 1988. Ahvaz was close to the front lines and severely suffered during the war. 

I found a small exhibition of the war relics in the corner of the airport terminal, including worn-out military boots, helmets, rifles and other weapons such as land mines and grenades, which had been excavated from the battlefield deserts. They were rusty and decaying, but appealing to us.

Our tour guide Mr. Musa said to me, “The remains of the Iranian soldiers still are dug out on the Iran-Iraq border. The war is not yet over for us.”

In every local town we visited there were the portraits of young Iranian soldiers killed in the war. Running through the road by tour bus, we found the portraits posted high in a line at the median. A large board full of the young men’s faces was held up at the corner of the intersection. The people still mourned their death.

Most of the portraits were respectfully decorated with a design of red tulips, which are the symbol of martyrs, according to Mr. Musa. The blood of martyrs turns to be red tulipsーthe soldiers, some in teens, looked at us sadly….

Why did Saddam Hussein invade Iran? Iraq claimed the ethnic cause to annex Khuzestan, for many of the inhabitants of the area spoke Arabic rather than Persian. However, it is said that the Iranian Arab inhabitants resisted the Iraqis rather than welcomed them as liberators. 

According to the history (cf. Wikipedia), the United States supported Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War. After the Iranian Revolution and the seizure of U.S. embassy staff in the 1979–81 Iran hostage crisis, President Jimmy Carter (1924-) ordered a review of American policy toward Iraq. His National Security Advisor Zdigniew Brzezinski asked him “to begin to look more favorably toward Saddam Hussein as a potential counterweight to Ayatollah Khomeini.”

The United states provided the Hussein Administration with several billion dollar worth of economic aid, the sale of weaponry, intelligence service, military training. They were directly involved in warfare against Iran. On June 9, 1992, ABC reported that the “Reagan/Bush administrations permitted—and frequently encouraged—the flow of money, agricultural credits, dual-use technology, chemicals, and weapons to Iraq.”

As a symbolic event, Donald Rumsfeld (1932-) visited Iraq and firmly shook hands with Saddam on December 20, 1983. The NY Times reported from Baghdad on March 29, 1984, that “American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with Iraq and the U.S., and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been established in all but name.”

Saddam shook hands with Rumsfeld on December 20, 1983 

However, Rumsfeld was named as Secretary of Defense by President George W. Bush (Junior) in 2001. He planned and executed the military invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13 by the U.S. army and executed under the Iraq interim government on December 30, 2006. For the United States yesterday’s friend could be today’s enemy.

Why did such a thing happen? The answer is simple: oil.

In October 1989, President Bush (Senior) signed the directive with the lead: “Access to Persian Gulf oil and the security of key friendly states in the area are vital to U.S. national security.” It continues, “Normal relations between the United States and Iraq would serve our longer term interests and promote stability in both the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.” 

However, on August 2, 1990, Iraq launched an invasion of oil-rich Kuwait. America's expedient ally became overnight her most bitter enemy, which led to the Gulf War.

American historian Howard Zinn writes in “Terrorism and War” (2002), “You can trace everything that the United States has done in the Middle East to the concern for oilーand the profits from oil. In their candid moments, members of the U.S. government will affirm that this is their real concern…. The United States has followed this policy of keeping a very close relationship with Israel, on the one hand, and with the oil-producing states, on the otherーplaying them off against one another so that the United States can be the dominating force in the Middle East.”

The oil field in Khuzestan Province

Today Khuzestan Province is a big oil producer. During our sightseeing around Ahvaz, we often came across oil wells. Watching a gas flare associated with black smoke, I had a strange feelingーa blazing flame on the top of a towering stack overlaps a red tulip….  

If Iran had not produced any oil, no industrial countries, including the United States, those of Western Europe, Japan, and China, would not have been seriously interested in this country. My sympathies and condolences to those young soldiers killed in the Iran- Iraq war.