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The Iran-Iraq war was a surprise attack against a purged and unprepared Iranian military, with Iraq needing enormous amounts of weapons and borrowed funds from overseas. Iraq made great use of chemical weapons because Iran was close to overrunning them for much of the war. Saddam wanted to sue for peace in 1982 but the Iranians were pursuing regime change from then on, only to fail eventually, mostly due to Iraq eventually fielding greater materiel (because they could import more weapons).
The Iranians were much better at fighting the whole time, only they were cut off from buying weapons. There's only so much that being better at fighting gives you when you're up against chemical weapons and superior firepower. The Iraqis had 3:1 or more in aircraft, artillery and armour because they had more access to world markets and superpower assistance, they could buy spare parts and Iran could not.
Iran has since developed a domestic military-industrial base, something Arab countries don't/can't do.
If Iranian military capabilities are so feeble, why isn't the US winning the war? Why are US strategic goals not achieved? It was supposed to be over in a few weeks. Trump has claimed victory about 50 times by now, yet the war hasn't been won. Iran's already achieved their strategic goal, securing control of the straits of Hormuz.
Either the Iranians are capable or the US is incapable.
The US is winning, and it's barely a war. The idea that the people missing half their government and their entire military are in some sense winning is bonkers.
Neither of us knows what the actual strategic goals are, we're guessing. And sometimes wars take longer than a month or two?
Wat. Laying a few mines and boarding a couple merchant ships isn't "securing control", they don't "control" a single square inch of the Strait. Their navy has no ships left, nothing but speedboats. Their interdiction operations are basically the same as Somali pirates. They haven't done anything yet except spook the maritime insurance companies. This whole game is still in the first half, if not the first quarter.
Remember when Venezuela was going to chew up the Marine expeditionary units and we'd be in WW3 in the mountains of South America? And then that didn't happen?
Destroyed the Iranian military, yet the US is too pussy to enter the straits and make safe the seas from these speedboats and drones and antiship missiles... The USN must be real cowards and losers, quivering in fear from an enemy they've already destroyed, in your model of the world.
In the real world, if the Americans could escort tankers safely, they would. That would deny Iran their strongest card of economic warfare against the West. But the US cannot do this and doesn't even try. America cannot even protect the fleet HQ in Bahrain, they cannot protect hundreds of tankers.
Iran can find new generals and ministers, assassination simply is not a military strategy. Not once in history has a war been won by assassination.
The strategic goals are clear, regime change was the initial goal. They wanted the Iranian people to rise up, that was the point of the decapitation strike. Then to attack military capabilities such that Iran couldn't threaten the straits or Gulf energy production. This didn't work either, since Iran retains its capabilities. Then a blockade, which Iran can counter with their own blockade.
Iran controls who can enter and who can leave the straits of Hormuz, they've been charging fees. The US is losing this war.
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