Oscar Lin

Prof. Jacobs
English 110
9/22/10

Persepolis Essay Assignment

The Iran-Iraq war started on September 22, 1980 when Iraq invaded Iran with an aerial

and land invasion. The president of Iraq Saddam Hussein claims that he attacked Iran because of

a dispute over a waterway between Iran and Iraq called “Shatt Al Arab.” In 1975 Iraq gave Iran

partial control of the waterway, but after the overthrow of the Shah, Iraq decided to take

advantage of the opportunity to attack and regain control of “Shatt al Arab.” In Persepolis: The

Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi depicts the war as Iran is being taken over by Iraq.

Although Iran’s military was inferior to Iraq at the time they were able to fight back and defend

themselves with certain tactics using the quantity of soldiers they had.

At first, the Iranian military were barely able to defend against the Iraq ground invasion

in 1980 due to a large part of the military structure being removed after the 1979 revolution.

Although they were suffering from poor maintenance and lack of supplies, they were able to

launch a surprise counterattack on Iraqi’s strikes on Iranian air fields. Iran was able to slow the

Iraqi army because of their air forces, which allowed them to establish their defenses and

reinforcements. As stated by Wilson “In spite of inferior technology and failure to deter the

Iraqis in open ground, their concentrations in urban areas made them a formidable foe. The Iraqis

conducted ineffective sieges around the other cities which gave the Iranians plenty of time to

reinforce” (Wilson 32). To minimize their casualties, Iraq sent their heavy weapons into cities

without infantry support. They were only able to capture one major city in Khuzestan.

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 In the book “Persepolis, The Story of a Childhood”, Satrapi mentions young men in

schools being recruited and told that the plastic keys given to them were keys to heaven and then

sent into the war to absorb enemy fire while the better trained soldiers attacked. Satrapi writes

”The key to paradise was for poor people. Thousands of young kids, promised a better life,

exploded on the minefield with their keys around their necks” which was the way they got kids

to volunteer for the military (Satrapi 102). Also older men were recruited, according to Ben

Wilson “These forces often consisted of old men and young children. The primary purpose of

this initial wave was to clear mines, breach obstacles (often by laying on top of concertina wire),

and to absorb enemy fire. Many of the Basij were found with plastic keys to heaven in their

hands, or a note from the Ayatollah giving them permission to enter heaven. Separated perhaps

by a few hundred meters, waves and waves of under-trained conscripts would storm Iraqi

defenses. Eventually the more experienced, better trained and equipped IRGC Pasdaran would

attack in an attempt to break through the lines and dislodge the Iraqis from their positions” but

soon they decided to change their strategy (Wilson 33). Instead of mindlessly sending waves of

humans to absorb the enemy fire, they thought of a more efficient way. As Wilson explains, they

were “Faced with a vastly superior Iraqi Army, the Iranians learned the value of fire and

maneuver, especially with their own armor. While not discontinuing the human wave attack, the

infantry and IRGC improved their patrolling and infiltration techniques. They began to rely on

intelligence and scouting to find the weak spots in the Iraqi lines where they would launch their

human wave attacks. They would follow an infiltration with surprise attacks at multiple points

along the Iraqi lines. Iranian attacks created confusion in the Iraqi forces causing premature or

incorrect commitment of reserves and shifting of forces” ; this allowed them to make better use

of the army and minimize casualties (Wilson 33).

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 Once Iran was successful in fighting off Iraq, they started to invade Iraq and often

supported terrorist operations to fight. The Iranians “began in a defense and counterattack to

expel the Iraqi invaders, but once the Iranian forces were successful, they continued their

conventional operations to invade Iraq. However, from the beginning, and throughout the war,

Iran employed unconventional tactics to project its power. This often included supporting

international terrorist operation like the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait in 1986 and the

coup attempt in Bahrain” (Wilson 35). These attacks eventually led the United States and

European countries to be involved in the war. The United States and European countries

“became involved in the war in 1987, in response to Iranian attacks on Kuwaiti oil tankers

traveling in the Persian Gulf. These attacks sullied Iran's international reputation considerably,

making it difficult for Khomeini to obtain arms” (“Iran-Iraq War”). From Satrapi’s point of

view she may have only seen the enemies as the terrorists for bombing the cities and using

chemical warfare and killing many people she knew.

Throughout her memoir, Satrapi tells us about her experience with the Iraqi invasion and

her objection to the fact that they recruited young men into the war. She didn’t like how they

recruited young men by giving them plastic keys and telling them that it was the key to heaven

when they die. However without doing this Iran may not have been successful in fighting off

Iraq. A huge part of Iran’s tactics were using the sheer number of soldiers they had to defend the

country because they didn’t have a well trained military after the revolution. Although this may

seem cruel it may have been the only way Iran would have been able to win the war.

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 Works Cited

Wilson, Ben. "THE EVOLUTION OF IRANIAN WARFIGHTING DURING THE IRAN-IRAQ

WAR." Infantry 96.4 (2007): 31-35. Military & Government Collection. EBSCO. Web. 24 Sept.

2010.

"Iran-Iraq War." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2009): 1. Military &

Government Collection. EBSCO. Web. 24 Sept. 2010.

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2003. Print.

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