Posted on 08/03/2019 5:20:49 AM PDT by NorseViking
Iran’s focus on building a powerful ballistic missile arsenal, which the Americans, Saudis and Israelis, among others, see as a major threat, has its origins in the 1980-88 war with Iraq in which major cities were subjected to merciless missile and air strikes in which thousands of civilians were killed or wounded.
The so-called War of the Cities involved five periods of systematic and intense bombardments with missiles, aircraft and even long-range artillery from February 1984, when Saddam Hussein ordered indiscriminate attacks on 11 Iranian cities, through February 1987.
The objective was to inflict large civilian casualties to demoralise the infant Islamic Republic but the Iranians, despite being outgunned, became more determined to exact revenge and so was born the ballistic missile industry that worries the Americans so much.
The Iranians had few weapons with which to retaliate with the same intensity as the periodic raids mounted by the Iraqis, who had been aided by the United States. Eventually they acquired a handful of Soviet-era R-17 (Scud-B) short-range ballistic missiles from Russia and Libya and began blasting Baghdad and Iraqi cities.
They began developing their own Scud production lines and created an entire industry from scratch, an enterprise that has become a predominant element in Tehran’s dealings with the West.
“The wartime need for ballistic missiles, as well as Iran’s historical enmity with Israel, led Iran to develop its own missile industry,” observed Kyle Mizokami, a US defence expert. “The lack of accuracy of the missiles made cities the easiest targets and both Iranian and Iraqi civilians bore the brunt of the crude missile campaign.”
The Iranians never forgot their sense of helplessness against Saddam’s military machine and their inability to retaliate with long-range attacks on Iraqi cities.
(Excerpt) Read more at thearabweekly.com ...
Everything that happens in war creates an immediate and, mostly, effective counter. It’s the physics of war. For every weapon there is an equal and opposite response. I wonder what Obama’s reliance on drone strikes has spawned. We won’t know for certain until the next war, where we will likely not be prepared to deal with that response. One thing that happened as a result of the US Navy wiping out half of the Iranian fleet (during “The Tanker War”) in an afternoon is Iran now has an estimated 2000 small water craft designed for swarming attacks. If you don’t think that would be successful look at what happened when one boat blew up next to the USS Cole. Also, in the most expensive war game to date, a US Marine general playing the Iranian side sank 16 US ships and the aircraft carrier.
The objective was to inflict large civilian casualties to demoralise the infant Islamic Republic but the Iranians, despite being outgunned, became more determined to exact revenge and so was born the ballistic missile industry that worries the Americans so much.
Saddam didn't learn the lessons of WWII, when the British thought that indiscriminate bombing of German cities would demoralize the German population. It had the opposite effect.
bkmk
The only aid they received from the US was they were given the locations of Iran's nuclear research sites and possibly surface to air missile sites. The weapons Iraq used were French and Soviet.
I believe Saddam’s biggest mistake was to engage a larger country in a surprise attack. They easily defeated Iranian forces within their reach but couldn’t own the strategic depth anyway giving Iran opportunity to think ways out.
If Saddam allowed Iran to mobilize prior he could have had its military destroyed in a few decisive battles prompting mullahs to surrender or beg for peace on Saddam’s terms.
That. Iranians believe the Soviets and East Germans flew Iraqi bombers during the war although I don’t believe it.
“The weapons Iraq used were French and Soviet. ”
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They upgraded soviet-made Scud to extend the range.
Perhaps at the very start. After Stalingrad most had figured out that the war would not be won and the blanket bombings of the cities did demoralize the population. But between the relentless propaganda and the risk of "getting disappeared" by the Gestapo these sentiments were not widely vocalized. As such things go in totalitarian dictatorships.
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