The fluctuated competency of the Iraq army(1973-1991)

[Nodeo-Franvier]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 6d5nMQ4m_H
An excellent study on Iraq War.

It seem that in 1973 Iraq army performed admirably against Israel but by the beginning of Iran-Iraq war it became clumsy with combined arm tactic and strategy,Then after years of fighting it perform a superb combined arm offensive operation at second battle of Al-faw but in 1991 performed badly against the coalition.

What do you think contributed to this fluctuation of competency?

[Steve]

General Hamdani’s views made for an interesting read. Has he perhaps exaggerated a little the part Iraq played in the 1973 war? He may well be right about the Israelis modelling their new army on what was best about the Wehrmacht while the Arabs modelled their post colonial armies on the British army. However, based on the little I know about Arab armies I doubt they could have modelled themselves on the German army. There are various reasons one of them being a very large social gulf between officers and men in most Arab armies.

Just like Stalin in the 30s Saddam may have thought that the biggest threat to him came from the army as there was a history of coups in Iraq. He replaced competent commanders with commanders whose main qualification was loyalty to him. Saddam had no military training so may well have been hard pressed to tell the difference in peacetime between a good General and a bad General. Once the war with Iran started it was easier to see the difference. The Iraqi army gives the impression that anything other than slow and methodical was usually beyond its ability so perhaps Hamdani’s assessment of it should be taken with a pinch of salt. No doubt it would have been better without Saddam’s meddling.

Iraq received huge financial aid from Arab states and was able to purchase modern weaponry which Iran struggling with sanctions was unable to do. America also supplied Iraq with satellite imagery of the front. However, the biggest factor in Iraq’s ability to eventually throw back the Iranians may have been poison gas. Tens of thousands of Iranians were gassed with perhaps 7,500 soldiers and civilians killed. There was no condemnation of Iraq at the UN Security Council and if I remember correctly Saddam was not charged at his trial with gassing Iranians.

I recently saw a very good four part programme about the war on PBS America
https://www.pbsamerica.co.uk/series/the ... d-history/

I would not say the Iraqi army performed badly against the coalition in 1991. The allies had total domination of the sky above the battlefield plus the superiority of their equipment, it had as much chance as a snowflake in the Sahara.

[Linkagain]

That analysis sounds about right.....

[Nemmexe]

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 6d5nMQ4m_H
An excellent study on Iraq War.

It seem that in 1973 Iraq army performed admirably against Israel but by the beginning of Iran-Iraq war it became clumsy with combined arm tactic and strategy,Then after years of fighting it perform a superb combined arm offensive operation at second battle of Al-faw but in 1991 performed badly against the coalition.

What do you think contributed to this fluctuation of competency?

Good use of Arab / Ajam problem (something like arabs are better / higher than non Arabs) by Saddam. Even he called the attack " second Al-qadesie"...