Iraq/Iran Quiz

Persians

• Iran used to be called Persia

• Iranians are not arabs, they are persians; they do not like to be put in the same category just because they both originate from the middle east

• Originate in Zagros mountains; population mostly lives in mountains

• Iran is geopolitically self contained, difficult to traverse/control, and made up of multiple different ethnicities with Persians making up the majority 61%

Nationalization of oil industry

• Partnership with Great Britain

• GB in Iran struck a deal to dig for oil; the British had the much better deal (GB helps to pull oil out of the ground and gets the majority profit).

• 1908; first oil field in mid east (Iran)

• AIOC: anglo Iranian oil company, changes name in 1954 to British Petroleum

• Mossadegh

• Elected and wanted to nationalize the oil industry and remove GB, results in Gb losing its investment

• Leads to Operation Ajax

Mohammad Mossadegh

• First ever democratically elected; 1953

• Very popular! Cover of Times Magazine as man of the year

• Attempts to nationalize AIOC and remove GB from Iran

Operation Ajax (1953)

• Eisenhower sends Kermet Roosevelt to be CIA leader of Coup of Mossadegh = Operation Ajax

• GB comes to US under Eisenhower and says Mossadengh is a communist to try and get the US to invade and do a coup so GB can control oil again.GB tried the same thing to

• US under Truman; he said no and the US would not invade a democracy

• However Eisenhowever says he will

• Has large budget for this which was given to Roosevelt by the US government who gets money from taxpayers…

• Stage 1: Propaganda; US starts propaganda campaign saying Mossadegh was communist (people believed this because Mossadegh had just nationalized oil industry)

• Stage 2: Shah denounces; US supports and backs Reza Shah and convinces him to go for leader, military partially sides with him and believes mossadegh is a communist; Shah signed decree discrediting/denouncing Mossadegh from office

• Stage 3: Pay mobs; the CIA hires mobs which leads to street fights and 300 casualties

• Stage 4: Shah is back: American backed general takes control as Shah, Mossadegh steps down and Reza Shah takes his place, gave foreigners contracts to have access to oil in Iran

• Shah became a brutal dictator

• Many americans still don't know about this

• US overthrows democratically elected leader and puts dictator in place

Kermit Roosevelt

• CIA agent that led Operation Ajax

Blowback from Ajax

• Hostage Crisis

• Ayatollah rises to power

• Creates islamist theocracy

Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

• US backed general that denounced Mossadegh and gained power of Iran through US

• Extremely violent and brutal ruler

• Friendly with US; good for women, westernize, wear jeans

• Takes money for himself

• Iranians don't benefit from oil

• Industrialization was beneficial in some ways but also produced social inequalities

• Dictator

• Viewed as successful and did more coups of democratic leaders (until 1979)

• US biggest ally in middle east; US sold Iran its first nuclear technology and now say Iran cant have them

Savak

• Secret police of Reza shah

• oppressive

Basij

• Recruited young boys/teens as martyrs and sent them into war on the front lines barely armed (Iraqi soldiers wouldn’t shoot at little boys with no weapons running at them).

• Keys to heaven; little kids were given a key when they went to war and it was advertised that they would go to heaven for becoming a martyr

• Iran shias; first ever to do suicide bombings

• Human waves; children on front, second lines of soldiers would shoot/take weapons

• Effective but terrible

Iranian Revolution (1979)

• Shah is overthrown during revolution, forced into exile

• He is given refuge in the US (Jimmy Carter was president); he originally said no, but was pressured because the shah apparently had cancer

• Iranians upset by this because they think the US will back the Shah again and put him back into power

• Shah leaving Iran opens a power vacuum…

Iran Hostage Crisis (1979)

• Happened because the shah was in the US

• Iranians overtook the US embassy in Iran and held the workers there for 444 days

• Hostages were never killed/tortured

• Held to ensure the US would not back the Shah again

Ayatollah Khomeini

• Khomeini = first -> Khameini = current

• Came to power post Iranian revolution

• Ayatollah is a title; Iran/Islamist

• Nothing happens in Iran without approval of ayatollah, total control

• Iran is currently a radical theocracy

• Iran could have been stable democracy today if US had not overthrown democracy

• Women lost rights; education, clothing, jobs, veiled

Islamist theocracy (iran)

• Current state of Iran

• Extremely unstable; islamist president using the religion to justify actions

• There is a president but he does nothing; ayatollah has all power

• Quran is basis of law (interpretation)

Role of women

• Shah (pre 1979); women had lots of rights; Shah was big of westernization so women were educated, could wear whatever, had jobs, and pretty much all rights

• Ayatollah (post 1979); severely oppressed; veiled, no longer educated, no jobs, very heavy restrictions

• Opinions; some women protest who want change and liberation; some want to return to conservative values

Arabs

• Iraq

• Differs from persians

Kurds

• Ethnic group that makes up 10% of Iran

• Iraq has 3 major ethnic groups; sunnis, shiites, and kurds are the other

• Minority

• non arab ethnic group; fighting for autocracy within Iraq for years and have begun attacking Iraqi targets; Iran also had population of kurds and did not give them self rule, yet helped the kurds in Iraq

Saddam Hussein

• Sunni leader of majority Shia Iraq country

• Hated; executed because he used chemical weapons against his people

• Under him, iraq invaded iran and kuwait

Why did Iraq invade Iran?

1. Iran is unstable, Hussein (appointed to power) wanted to take advantage of this

2. Iran is primarily Shia; Iraq has 3 major ethnic groups (Kurds, sunni arabs (hussein), and shia arabs); Hussein is afraid of Shia uprising because it was destabilize his country

3. Oil; waterways, territory

What were the global sides of the war?

• Iraq is aggressor but Arab nations secretly support Iraq; Sunni countries worried that Shias in Iran would create threat to Shias

• US sided w/ Iraq and gave Hussein weapons; because Iran HATES US, so US cant let them win

Key events of Iraq/Iran War

• Iran encourages Shiites in Iraq ro rise up against Hussein (basij)

• Iraq initial blitz failed, Hussein poor leadership

• Oil field destroyed; hussein used chemical weapons

• US accidentally shot down Iranian civilian plane IR655 (1988); all passengers died

• Ceasefire in 1988 organized by the UN

• No territory change post war; 1 million casualties

Iran/Iraq War

Iraq invades Iran, extremely brutal war

Persian Gulf

• Major gulf/water way

• Good for exporting oil

Shatt al-Arab waterway

• Fought over territory between Iraq/Iran

• Iraq's only access to water (to persian gulf)

• Bottleneck point

• Near major oil mines

First Gulf War (1991)

• Iraq agrees to withdraw troops from Iran and share shatt al arab waterway; ends the Iran/Iraq war

• 2 years post war (1990) Hussein invaded Kuwait; many arabs sided with Kuwait, fellow Sunni nation

• US and allies engaged in military action to restore nation of Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded in a dispute over land and oil reserves

• Saddam (Iraq) attacked Kuwait; UN called for withdraw from Kuwait and Iraq refused declaring it was annexing Kuwait

• UN passed resolution 661; trade/financial sanctions of Iraq cutting Iraq off from marketing world

• Under George H.W. Bush (1924) US organized coalition of countries to help Kuwait

• Operation Desert Storm; offensive campaign to get Iraq out of Kuwait; defeated within 100 hours

President George HW Bush (Sr)

• Should the US remove Hussein?

• He said no; it would go against UN mandate, the way we want to present ourselves internationally; some administration disagreed and wanted to remove Hussein

• speech

Operation Desert Storm

• For the first time, US troops land on Saudi Arab soil to prepare for attack on Iraq

• Iraq (Hussein) used foreigners as “human shields”

• US and allies initiated Operation desert storm; Iraq defeated in 100 hours

• Iraq set oil fields on fire in Kuwait as they retreated

sanctions; weapons inspectors

• Post war, Hussein was forced to comply with UN weapons inspectors to ensure that he was not making mass amounts of nuclear and chemical weapons

• Periodically he would comply, then throw inspectors out

Iraq War (2003-2011)

• Post 9/11; US invades Afghanistan

• US citizens were told Hussein had links to Osama Bin Laden and that he was harboring large amounts of WMD

• Rest of the world did not approve of this, meaning US makes unilateral decision (wrong one)

• US and allies attacked Iraq, claiming that is had WMD

• George W Bush (jr) as president; rehired some of his fathers administration who believed they needed to take out Hussein

• Post 9/11; US terrified of threat of WMD, believed Hussein was harboring them, US tried to form coalition but UN said no

• US and British coalition invaded Iraq; ended Hussein dictatorship; US did not leave Iraq immediately because it had no gov/leader

• US started to isolate the Sunni; internal issues

Significance of Iraq War

1. Rise of ISIS: Bush (Sr) quote; all his fears came true (occupied Iraq for period)

2. You have to be cautious when deciding to invade countries

Operation Iraqi Freedom

• Part of Iraq war

• US invasion plan of Iraq

• Initial invasion was success but sectarian violence flared without a stable government, lack of security opened up a power vacuum

President George W Bush (Jr)

• Agreed to invade Iraq; something his father was strongly against

WMD (weapons of mass destruction)

1. Biological weapons (disease)

2. Chemical weapons (gas)

3. Nuclear weapons

• Believed that Hussein was harboring large amounts of WMD (why US invaded Iraq), however this supposed stockpile was never found

Iraqi sectarian civil war (2006-2008)

• US trying to allow Iraq to set up a democracy (good for Shias who are majority population), results in whole country falling apart

• Majority shias want democracy; tension between Shia, Sunni, and Kurds

• ISIS filled instability/power vacuum (took over huge sections of Iraq)

Rise of ISIS (how it formed)

• Iraqi military officers decide they do not want sunnis in military so make it very difficult for them to participate and get other jobs

• Most people in ISI are former Iraqi Sunnis who are angry about not having position in government

• 2007/2008 Iraq Civil War

• Grew out of power vacuum from US invasion in 2003 

• Iraq, under US supervision, implements democracy, leading to Shia control of Iraq

• Disaffected Iraqi Sunnis, who had been leading government and military officials

• Had been allied with Al Qaeda; but since they targeted fellow Muslims, Al Qaeda declared them too violent

• Withdrawal of US troops in Iraq and chaos of Syria leads to opportunity

Rise of ISIS (Arab spring)

• 2010; pro democracy movement to rid mid east countries of dictators that have been there for a long time

• Tunisia, then egypt, then libia, then Syria

• Syria falls into civil war; Iraq/Syria unstable = power vacuum

ISIS

• = Islamic State of Iraq & Syria

• Islamist group; terrorist, goal is to create caliphate (sunni) and restore the islamic empire

• Sold oil on black market for funding; controlled cities

• Not as much a threat now