Taking advantage of the chaotic situation in Iran following the 1979 revolution, Saddam Hussein launched a massive war on Iran on September 22, 1980, out of the blue.

Saddam invaded Iran with the intention of annexing the oil-rich parts of Iran. The Iraqi army captured some parts of the oil-rich province of Khuzestan and other cities and regions bordering Iraq. However, the Iranian military forces, initially caught off-guard, succeeded to repel the invading army, regaining virtually all the territory lost.

After failing to achieve his vicious goals in annexing the oil-rich parts of Iran, Saddam’s army invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, two years after the end of his war with Iran. The Iraqi Republican Guard captured Kuwait, a small and wealthy country with abundant oil resources, to compensate for the losses his country had suffered in the war against Iran.

Later Saddam declared Kuwait as the 19th province of Iraq.

Although the international community, especially great powers and Arab countries turned a blind eye to the Iraqi invasion of Iran and its numerous war crimes against the Iranians - ranging from the targeting of civilians with fighter jets and missiles to extensive use of chemical weapons against Iranian civilians - this time the West, led by the United States, did not let Saddam get off scot free.

The same Arab countries along with Western powers which supported Iraq with loans, military equipment and satellite data during the war against Iran immediately forged a large military coalition with a UN authorization against Saddam, pushing the Iraqi army out of Kuwait in February 1991. Later on, they adopted resolutions in the UN Security Council imposing the harshest sanctions against the country.

The attack against Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait actually set the precedent for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003 under the pretext that the Saddam Hussein regime had hidden its weapons of mass destruction.

In fact Saddam, who was intoxicated with the power of his highly professional and heavily armed military, set the stage for the misery of the Iraqi people by invading Iran 36 years ago. The crazy Saddam and his henchmen who had the whim of annexing oil rich regions of Iran started a highly dangerous game whose flames are still raging in Iraq.

Not only did Saddam impose a war on Iran and the Iraqi people, but also he caused the Iraqi people to suffer the harshest economic sanctions – oil for food - for nearly 12 years until the U.S. and Britain attacked Iraq on March 19, 2003. 

However, the saddest post-war tragedies were still to come when terrorists started infiltrating into Iraq in large numbers and, along with hardcore Saddam loyalists, turned life into a hell for the Iraqis.

Though Saddam is no longer alive, the Iraqi people are still suffering the nasty legacy of his war on Iran, now at the hands of Daesh militants whose brutalities have shocked the world.

PA/AK