The 1980s Iran-Iraq War should have warned us not to underestimate Iran

Five weeks in, despite a shock-and-awe pounding from the world’s two best air forces, the hardline Iranian regime still stands. Not only has the regime held onto its highly enriched uranium, but it also still controls the vital Strait of Hormuz and has shot down two American warplanes.

How this turns out is anyone’s guess, but it appears that — just as in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq — the U.S. arrogantly underestimated the enemy’s resilience. 

As an example, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) rejected arguments that an assault on Kharg Island would bog the U.S. down in a war of attrition. “We did Iwo Jima, we can do this,” he boasted, referring to the brutal World War II battle to take a Japanese-held Pacific island, which cost the lives of nearly 7,000 Marines.

Did Graham, Trump, and the administration hawks know that, in the Iran-Iraq war, Iran fought and won battles just as bloody as Iwo Jima?

In 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq launched a surprise invasion of Iran. After a long and bloody war, Iran drove back the invaders, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Iranian soldiers’ lives. It did so despite the Iraqi army’s relative sophistication and use of chemical weapons, as well as support for Iraq from the Soviet Union, France and,........

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