Geopolitical Origins of the Iran-Iraq War- Article Review Essay

Geopolitical Origins of the Iran-Iraq War- Article Review - Essay Example A different group contends that this dispute was a pretext for the escalation of hostilities of other sorts, all of which were non territorial. In this article the writer outlines the causes of the Iran-Iraq war conflict he even examines each and every factor with reference to their geographical position. In the first paragraph of the article the writer described how and when the war started and what were the factors involved in the war. According to observes the war was started by Iran and Iraq was the aggressor in this war all the time. To give an idea how aggressive Iraq was, the writer mentioned that between March 1979 and September 1980 it had experienced 434 attacks by Iraqi artillery, infantry, and armored forces as well as 363 violations of its airspace. Iraq asserted that it had suffered 544 violations of its borders and airspace during essentially the same period. (J. M. Abdulghani, Iraq and Iran: The Years of Crisis (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 200.). As the war continues both countries are involved in the propaganda, sabotage, terrorism. Iraqi forces penetrated deep into Khuzistan and captured a strip seventy to one hundred miles wide along the western border of the province. Khuzistan is significant because its ethnic composition is primarily Arab and it contains the prin cipal oil reserves and refining operations in Iran. The writer mentioned that this war continues in five phases; the first was the Iraqi offensive that began on 22 September 1980 and ended by March 1981. The second phase consisted of a year-long stalemate during which Iraq held approximately 14,000 square kilometers of Iranian territory but was unable to advance. The third phase, beginning in March 1982, was marked by an Iranian counteroffensive that drove Iraqi troops from the occupied territory and even penetrated a short distance into Iraq. That counteroffensive was spent by late fall