one of the most important Wars of the last 50 years is one that we don't hear about much when in 1980 two of the Middle East most powerful countries Iran and Iraq waged 8 years of some of the worst trench and chemical warfare since World War I leaving both countries devastated this is the war that fractured the Middle East into lines that still play out in nearly every conflict there today it set the US and Iraq on a path that ultimately led to the American Invasion and it defined Iran's often hostile relationship with the wider world this is the Iran Iraq war it's 1979 and Iran is in the middle of a [Music] revolution the country is coming off of Decades of being ruled by the Sha a king that the US and UK had installed in the 50s after covertly overthrowing Iran's democratically elected leader but after years of the Sha's corrupt autocratic rule a mass Uprising violently overthrows him creating what becomes an Islamic Republic headed by an Ayatollah named Rahi heni and a group of Shia religious Scholars want to impose fundamentalist rule on the country and are hostile to both the Western powers and the neighboring Soviet Union they establish a military force called the Islamic revolutionary guard which is meant to protect their hold on the Revolution and to suppress the other groups who helped overthrow the Sha the US is watching all of this in shock their biggest Ally in the region and a major oil producer has just turned from friend to Fierce enemy but the biggest Tremors of this revolution are felt in the rest of the Middle East Iran sends out radio broadcasts to Arab countries like Saudi Arabia Lebanon Kuwait and Iraq calling for people to rise up and overthrow their own rulers they're trying to export their Revolution to their neighbors to gain new allies in the region neighboring leaders most of them Sunni Muslim don't like this Saudi Arabia's King fears being overthrown just like the Sha was and in Iraq Saddam Hussein sees this Shia religious Revolution on his eastern border and worries that the Shia majority that he rules over will rise up against him too but he also sees this as an opportunity Iran and Iraq have been fighting over this border territory for years this Waterway is a critical access point to the Persian Gulf where both countries export their oil to the rest of the world in a treaty between the two back in 1975 Saddam had to give up full control of this Waterway as well as access to oil Rich regions in what was now Iran Saddam hates this treaty and is considering taking the Waterway back by force the Iranian Revolution has left the country weak and fractured heni and his revolutionary guard are still fighting other political factions for control the Iranian military which used to be funded and trained by the United States is now weak its leaders having been jailed or executed After the Revolution Iran's military would normally be able to crush Iraq in an invasion but maybe not anymore Saddam sees this as an opportunity to weaken a major rival Saddam is also writing on a delusion that he himself is going to unify the Arab world under his leadership if he invades Iran maybe the rest of the Middle East will rally behind him against this new common enemy he thinks it'll be a quick Victory so in September of 1980 he decides to prepare 10,000 Iraqi troops to cross the border to invade Iran what's about to happen here isn't just the start of a new [Music] war Saddam is kicking off a dynamic that will dominate the Middle East for more than 40 years the fight between revolutionary change and Status Quo power pausing the video to say thank you to today's sponsor who is better help if you're struggling with your mental health and you want to start therapy better help is a platform that makes therapy more accessible to people I've been doing therapy for quite a few few years now I'm a big believer in what therapy can do to reshape your mind and your reality I didn't realize that I needed therapy I don't have a 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who need it thank you better help for sponsoring today's video and being a longtime supporter of the channel let's dive back into the story The War officially starts when Saddam sends his air force over the Border in a surprise attack on Iranian air bases his 10,000 soldiers cross from Basra into Southern Iran further north Saddam opens a second front to seize strategically located border towns and put pressure on his enemy these air attacks mostly fail and Iran responds with air strikes of their own into Iraqi territory hitting oil facilities Iran still has sophisticated jets that the United States had given the previous regime this gives them an edge in the air the war quickly sucks in the rest of the region Israel is among the first it wants to keep these two adversaries occupied fighting with each other keeping both sides weak so almost immediately Israel secretly sells supplies and parts to Iran this helps the Iranian Air Force keep planes in the air now Iran and Israel are not friends but Israel sees Iraq as a greater threat here so they're willing to support Iran needs to get its military organized if they're going to fight this war so they release Military Officers that they had jailed during the revolution war tends to unify a nation and in this case the fra country of Iran is unifying around Iraq's Invasion creating this irony that Saddam is the one who actually cements H's holdon power Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also step in here giving billions of dollars to fund Iraq's War efforts they want to weaken Iran and turn back its revolution the Middle East is now dividing between on one side Arab states who are ruled by aing Sunni monarchies and strong men who fear change and and on the other side a Shia Iran bent on Revolution on remaking the region in its image China is also watching this war they say they will maintain strict neutrality but they take the opportunity to sell weapons to both sides of the conflict they eventually become Iran's top supplier of weapons for most of 1981 the two armies are in a stalemate with Iraq holding small but important stretches of border territory the global Powers see this stalemate and try to negotiate a ceasefire hoping that this conflict that threatens so much of the global oil supply will end soon what they don't know is that this is really just the beginning Saddam agrees to the ceasefire but heni does not this war has become so useful to his goals unifying the country and keeping the military occupied so that it doesn't become a rival to his power janii needs the war to continue so Iran demands that Saddam Hussein step down they say the war will continue until his rule is ended Saddam of course refuses so Iran goes on the offensive their forces are now organized their officers have been freed from jail and they're able to recapture the territory that Saddam had taken even pushing into Iraq saddam's hopes of a quick Victory and a gain of some valuable territory are now dead so he turns to the United States for support and the US agrees to help they hope to weaken Iran and its call for anti-American Islamic revolution across the region so the US starts giving Saddam intelligence and satellite imagery on Iranian troop movement Iraq also gets another big backer the Soviet Union the Soviets are at war in neighboring Afghanistan trying to suppress another religious Uprising but they also have allies in this region so over the course of the war the Soviets become a top supplier of weapons to Iraq now remember the situation between these two it's a tense moment in the Cold War and the United States and Soviet Union are suddenly supporting the same side of this Middle East conflict both backing the country that will support the status quo nothing changing allowing their great power struggle to continue as it has but by the summer of 1982 Iran is now pushing into Iraqi territory much of their campaign focused on the city of Basra if Iran can take Basra it will cut off Iraq from the Persian Gulf preventing them from Shipping out their oil Iraqi forces are outnumbered here so they start to dig in and build trenches erecting barbwire barriers planting landmines and surrounding the city to stop Iran from taking it the fighting starts to resemble the brutal Warfare of World War I waves of artillery strikes and the Iranian military resorting to human wave attacks where thousands of boys and men charge over Open Fields leading to huge numbers of casualties Iran is not successful in taking the city but this attack does weaken Saddam showing that he's vulnerable and this is where we need to look to the north to talk about the Kurds the Kurds are a minority group in the north of Iraq they've been long suppressed by Saddam Hussein and they see this moment as an opportunity to break away from Iraq to make their own country so Kurdish forces start fighting with the Iraqi Army taking towns and Villages so now Saddam is fighting two different armies one of which lives in his own country Iran starts sending support to the Kurds who have a presence in this mountainous oilr part of Iraq if the Kurds can hold it and keep saddam's regime away from all of this oil it would have a major effect on this war this is a big deal for Saddam and he switches tactics to make sure he can control this Northern Area he escalates by using chemical weapons against the Kurds as well as the Iranians shells filled with mustard gas weapons that cause extreme burning and blindness a weapon that is illegal under international law but even still the global Powers who are supporting him mostly look the other way the US starts sending technology and money to Saddam even restoring official diplomatic ties with Iraq this allows Iraq to buy technology from the United states that helps them develop their weapons programs including the horrific chemical and biological weapons that he will soon be using on the battlefield they need him to keep fighting because this war has changed it went from protecting Saddam from Revolution to Now using Saddam to weaken Iran so they keep supporting him showing him that he can use chemical weapons without being punished the chemical attacks help push back Iranian forces and the War reaches a new [Music] stalemate 1984 is the year that the oil war begins in this conflict Iraq starts attacking Iranian oil tankers in the Persian Gulf using new Jets provided by France a new entrance to this conflict Saddam warns that he'll also attack any ship going into Iranian ports Iran retaliates by attacking oil tankers carrying Iraq's oil the oil that the entire ire Globe relies on is now at the center of this increasingly brutal conflict hundreds of commercial ships are attacked by both sides resulting in the death of over 400 civilian Sailors the US has to send in two frig and a guided missile destroyer into the Persian Gulf to escort us ships hoping that their presence will stop these attacks meanwhile Iran is making progress on the ground slowly taking territory from Iraq and continuing attacks on the vital port city of Basra it's 1985 and Saddam is about to escalate to a new extreme he starts shooting missiles and dropping bombs on Iranian cities all over the country including the capital this kills 16,000 people and leaves many homeless Iran responds striking Iraqi cities firing these massive missiles primarily at the capital of Baghdad these strike hit civilian targets like a school and a bus station with hundreds of casualties civilians on both sides are now caught in the crossfire of this brutally escalating War their cities and their homes are not safe so many flee these events leave an entire generation scarred by the trauma of war and a disdain for the outside powers that have ripped their country apart and speaking of outside Powers this is when the US starts double dealing they start selling missiles to Iran which gives Iran an edge against Iraqi forces who the US is also supporting behind all this is President Ronald Reagan who wants to use the money from this deal to fund an anti-communist militia group in Nicaragua it's all supposed to be a secret but will eventually come out and be known as the Iran Contra Scandal meanwhile Kuwait is asking the US to be more aggressive to protect their oil tankers Iranian attacks on their their ships have started to take a toll the US is getting more involved in the war their presence in the Persian Gulf is growing they start putting American flags on Kuwaiti tankers to deter Iran from attacking them and then in March of 1988 Iran partners with the Kurdish fighters to take over the Iraqi town of halabja the Kurds know that this is going to set Saddam off and they brace themselves for a brutal retaliation but what comes next is worse than anyone could have prepared for the Iraqi Army drops bombs and artillery shells containing deadly chemicals blanketing the entire town with a cloud of deadly gas that sinks into homes and buildings and the underground shelters where many were hiding for protection it's a brutal attack that kills over 5,000 Iraqi Kurds mostly unarmed civilians and it was a part of a broader campaign that Saddam was now waging to Wipe Out the Kurdish people entirely he now had what he believed was a justification so the Iraqi Army starts going Village to Village dropping chemical weapons on civilians and executing any survivors this resulted in an estimated 50 to 100,000 deaths in what has now been deemed as a genocide one of the many war crimes committed by Saddam Hussein the US knows this is happening and yet according to now public doc documents the official government line was to turn a blind eye to blame everything on Iran saddam's horrific war crimes project a new fear onto the civilians in Iran who now worry that a missile loaded with deadly gas could land on their cities many flee to take shelter in the mountains and by now after 8 years of devastating War Iran's economy and social order is frayed their leader ayatollahi is feeling the pressure to end this war more than a million lives have been lost in this war all sides are looking for a way out and the UN Security Council is pressuring the parties to accept a ceasefire then in July of 1988 a US ship in the Persian Gulf shoots down an Iranian passenger jet killing all 290 civilians on board the US shakes it off as an unfortunate accident saying that they mistook The Airliner for a hostile F-16 fighter jet they pay compensation to the victim's families and President Reagan sends a letter apologizing but the government never formally apologizes and the captain of the ship who did this later received a medal which fed a deep suspicion in Iran that this attack was deliberate that it was a scheme to coers them into accepting peace fear of more American attacks along with a new offensive by Iraq pushes the Iranian Force to withdraw from the country and both sides finally accept a [Music] ceasefire the war is finally over and after all of this the borders were unchanged from before the fighting but in some ways this was really just the first round in a larger conflict that has continued through to today a war for the future of the Middle East one that the United States is deeply involved in but that most expresses itself as a cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran who now fuel Civil Wars around the region in Lebanon Syria and Yemen backing their own proxy Fighters and making these conflicts worse but another major takeaway here is that this war defined Iran's relationship to the rest of the world especially the United States Iranian hardliners came to feel confirmed in their belief that they could never trust an outside world bent on Iran's destruction and seemingly unconstrained in their violence leading some leaders to conclude that only nuclear weapons could Stave off disaster from the outside Saddam Hussein's Iraq emerged battered by this war humiliated by this failure against Iran he faced growing internal resistance from his people which he suppressed with more and more violence he also came out of this with huge War debts to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia angry that his allies had build him to fight a war on their behalf a few years later Saddam invades Kuwait seeking its oil taking the spoils that he felt he was owed and this is when his one-time backer the United States quickly turns against him expelling him from Kuwait and beating him back in a swift 43-day Victory cutting him off from the world economy and turning him into a pariah an enemy a decade after Saddam had gassed his own people the US finally blamed him for it turning it into a byword for his cruelty and the centerpiece for their demand that he step down a few years later George W bush would site these weapons of mass destructions the ones that he would never find as a reason to invade the country to topple Saddam Bush's war room was filled with the same officials who had covered for Saddam and his war crimes in the first place and making it so crystal clear that even though this war between Iran and Iraq ended decades ago the Middle East we see today is built off of what happened during those eight brutal years [Music] [Music]