r/AskMiddleEast • u/Traditional-Run5437 • 3h ago
r/AskMiddleEast • u/AardvarkClub42 • Apr 10 '26
📜TOP QUALITY POST The Iran War has brought out lots of lies and propaganda by pro-Iran people new to the subreddit against Iraq. One of these myths is how the Iran-Iraq War began. This thread, although very incomplete, should be required reading. Accept it or not, the war was Khomeini's to try conquering Iraq.
threadreaderapp.comHere is the thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1668916665550094339.html
I say very incomplete because it doesn't include more than 15-20% of what Iran was doing. I've read over 100 books and thousands of articles on the war, which not even more than a few historians have done. For example it does not include how Iran started blocking Iraqi shipping from entering the Gulf, which practically stunned the Iraqi economy and was a decisive act of war among many others. It also doesn't include Iranian reports of their own attacks bragging about achieving successful invasions of Iraqi border towns and posts and inflicting heavy casualties on Iraqis months before the war "started". It doesn't include CIA's and Carter's early involvement with Khomeini and encouragement against Iraq. And many other things. 1000s of Iraqi civilians were murdered by Iran before the war through terrorist bombings, airstrikes, and land invasions, including a couple of my relatives. Many more would have died if not for the alarm systems and bomb shelters Iraq had been constructing since the wars with Israel.
There are many books and articles over the decades that have bits and pieces about what happened, but I think the single best one is "The Gulf War: The Origins and Implications of the Iraq-Iran Conflict" by Majid Khadduri. It is to this day by far the best analysis on the origins of the war. However even this misses important details in other works like how Iran assassianted dozens of senior Iraqi government officials.
Some people like to trump up Razoux's book, and while it has some good parts, it's mostly really bad on both the political and military fronts. Many people think it's good because it's been marketed so much, but in reality is a subpar pseudofiction. I've also read papers that criticize Razoux for lying about what sources say and just making things up entirely (weirdly, he only ever does this when criticizing Iraq). Unsurprisingly, I've read before that the Iranian government helped fund his book. Touché
The point is that the beginning of the war is a lot more complex than what conspiracy theories redditors like to repeat or what Iranian nationalists famously put and maintain on Wikipedia, that Saddam woke up one morning and invaded Iran because he thought he wanted to take a bunch of oil territory or whatever (that lie has been debunked countless times since 1980). The war was effectively started by Iran in summer 1980 if not earlier, technically 1979 if you consider Khomeini's announcements of holy war against Iraq. Iraq holds the beginning as September 4, 1980, when Iran escalated dramatically by leveling 2 Iraqi cities, far more extreme than their other attacks to date.
Iran radically escalated from that point on, including the blocking of Iraq's oil exports and more attacks on Iraqi cities and on the border, and after Iraq had tried and failed diplomacy with the radical regime for 1.5 years with the UN ignoring 100s of complaints from Iraq, Iraq made a limited attack on September 22 as a last resort to force the UN to take notice and to force the radicals in the Iranian regime to finally engage in diplomacy. Iraq stopped advancing after only a few days. Iraq succeeded in getting the UN resolution on September 28, which it accepted, but Khomeini still wanted no diplomacy. Iran, unsurprisingly, rejected it, reiterating its goal since 1979 to overthrow the "infidel" regime and to take control of Iraq. Iraqi forces advanced a little further in October to build a more defensible line (remember, Baghdad is a short drive on flat ground from Iran, and Basra and Iraq's coast is in short artillery range) and then stopped advancing again. Iran refused every international resolution and peace conference, while Iraq agreed to all terms for ceasefire. From September 28 on, Iran was 100% unilaterally responsible for the war, even if it was only 85-95% responsible before that point.
The evil of Israel has clouded many people who don't know anything about the history of the Middle East, which is like 99.9% of people on Reddit and this subreddit, to think that Iran is somehow a good guy, and then have retroactively applied that to Iran's whole history, when this is far from the truth. US propaganda that in the past whitewashed Iran in order to attack other countries with lies like Iraq, Libya, etc. made this worse.
This post focused on the Iran-Iraq War but that was just one of many aggressive policies and actions by the Islamic Republic regime in its history.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/WaffleMinistry567 • Mar 19 '26
Disinformation about Iraq and Palestine history, knowingly or not, will especially result in a ban. This repeats a previous mod post linked in the body text. These two states are the target of more false propaganda and disinfo than any other in the MENA, if not the world.
Fake news and trolling have never been allowed, but for years, Iraq and Palestine have been the target of more propaganda and lies about their history and present state than almost any other in the world and on this subreddit, where lots of paid bots from countries like Israel, Iran, and others have swarmed for years. This is why these two states are called out in particular.
If you don't know what you're talking about, don't say it. Don't think you're smart by saying often repeated but long debunked lies and propaganda used to justify the killing of millions of civilians. You're likely wrong, and all you're achieving is support for some of the worst killings and destruction of the last century whether or not you realize it. Many of you say how much you hate US and Israeli policies and actions, but by repeating their lies, you become their biggest supporters.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/mimi_slut1 • 3h ago
Entertainment Thoughts on Rabbi Mizrachi seething about the prettiest Jewish girls sleeping with Palestinian Muslim Men? 😂
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r/AskMiddleEast • u/Traditional-Run5437 • 13h ago
Entertainment What do you think of FIFA expanding the numbers of team competing in the world cup from 48 to 64? Honestly, I am in favour.
Honestly, I don't know why people(mostly europeans) are against it. Expanding to 64 will solve the mathematical problem created by a 48 draft in the group phases. Also still less then 1/3 of all teams member of FIFA will make it to the tournament. I don't see it as a big of an issue tbh.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Cheap_Dragonfruit552 • 1h ago
📜History Stupid turkroachs eat big bread, have they not heard of small bread?(Diyarbekir Eyalet.ottoman era)
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Main-Doughnut6222 • 13h ago
🏛️Politics I'm genuinely worried about where this regional crisis is heading
I'm genuinely worried about this crisis and the shortages it could cause across the region. The ceasefire or MOU has failed, Iran and the US don't seem willing to come back to the table, and the US has a long history of negotiating in bad faith.
What frustrates me most is the unfairness of it all. The countries paying the highest price are often the ones that had little or nothing to do with the conflict. Meanwhile, the US is largely insulated from the consequences, while people across West Asia, South Asia deal with deaths, economic hardship, displacement, and instability.
I'm sick of the role the United States and Israel have played in destabilizing the region. Time and again, ordinary people in developing countries are the ones left to suffer while powerful states avoid the worst of the fallout.
I just keep wondering when there will ever be any accountability for the devastation that's been inflicted on millions of people.
Thanks for reading my rant.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Happi-Always • 1h ago
💭Personal Advice with career path.
Hello everyone,
I’m asking on behalf of my brother, who lives in Nigeria. He has experience operating heavy equipment and is currently looking for job opportunities in Qatar or Saudi Arabia.
For anyone who works in the heavy equipment/construction industry in either country:
Is this a viable career path for someone coming from Nigeria?
Is there currently demand for experienced heavy equipment operators?
What is the usual process for getting a job and work visa?
Is it better to apply directly to companies or go through a recruitment agency?
What should he be careful about when looking for jobs from Nigeria?
Would you recommend that he pursue this opportunity? Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Decent-Condition-827 • 21h ago
🗯️Serious Why does Reddit have so many Zionists?
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Inevitable-Meet-5267 • 17h ago
🏛️Politics Israel selling U.S. tech to China?
I recently came across some old news articles about how Israeli officials were caught in a scandal which involved the sale of America tech to the Chinese government.
Since then, I have come across articles of the same thing happening as recently as the 2010s, and have heard from others that this happens/has happened a lot more often, and that it just doesn’t get reported.
So does Israel really sell U.S. tech to China? how deep of an issue is i?
r/AskMiddleEast • u/izpo • 15h ago
🗯️Serious why the USA military has bases in Jordan?
I read in news that the USA and Israel is using Jordan airspace and military, but what was the offer that Jordan could not refuse?
r/AskMiddleEast • u/woody898 • 1d ago
Controversial Why are arabs (apparentlt) crashing out on Ibrahim Traore? 🤔
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Zealousideal-Bid8243 • 21h ago
Iran Anyone else near Hamedan felt the blast?
I'm about 10 km from Nojeh Air Base. Earlier today, I heard a very loud boom. My windows rattled and even a loose metal door inside the house shook for a few seconds. The house itself doesn't seem damaged.
Did anyone else in the area experience the same thing?
War is interesting. The authorities pretend like nothing happened.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Tktk4701 • 1d ago
🏛️Politics Why is the new Syrian government is anti Iran but still a friendly with Russia?
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Fabulous-Head-2438 • 1d ago
Thoughts? Do middle eastern men like African women?
I’m so curious on whether middle eastern men like African women or not. My type is middle eastern men and it’s so easy to make friends with the middle eastern boys but it’s so hard to date them or wtv. (For info, I’m Kenyan, and Tanzanian. I’m 16, female. I’m a very sociable person and talk to anyone and everyone whenever and wherever. But I’m mostly looking for the dating experience, but I’m hearing bad things about the Arab boys, idkkkk.)
r/AskMiddleEast • u/PATRl0T • 19h ago
🖼️Culture I want to learn Sorani Kurdish. I didn’t post this in Kurdish subs because a lot of them are pretty extremist,so I figured I’d ask here instead If there are any Kurds here, I’d really appreciate it if you could recommend some good resources something comprehensive, my goal is to become fluent
I speak Arabic, so the alphabet and some vocabulary will be easier for me to pick up.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Hamedthi • 2d ago
Society Thoughts on this take
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Hes completely right. Alot of banger takes coming from him lately
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Decent-Condition-827 • 1d ago
🗯️Serious How many Hamas fighters have died in Gaza?
r/AskMiddleEast • u/InstanceMoney • 1d ago
Iran Trumps keeps changing the death toll of the protesters in Iran so lets look into how much he has changed those figures.
I went and pulled out every instance where Trump talked about Iran protestor deaths and put them in chronological order. If this isnt allowed delete this mods.
Feb 20 - 32 000
Feb 24 - 32 000
Feb 27 - atleast 32 000
Mar 3 - 35,000; then “much more than 35,000"
Mar 15 - atleast 32 000
Mar 16 - 32 000
April 21 - 42 000
April 30 - 42 000
May 1 - 42 000
May 5 - 42 000
July 8 - 54 000
July 13 - 52 000
July 14 - 52 000
July 20 - 52 000
Iran has confirmed 3500 deaths from those protests, which was also infiltrated by mossad, and for those that dont know it was a very violent uprising. IRGC cops were getting killed by protesters and government officials getting killed by protesters too.
Trump is using these numbers as a propoganda tool to kill more Iran's, which is absolutely nuts. " they killed 50 thousand people so we need to kill them too" proceeds to kill more civilians. What is this world.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Dismal-Ad8382 • 2d ago
🗯️Serious I despise the behavior that argentina's football team and their fans often have, but saying this is disgusting
r/AskMiddleEast • u/ready7s • 1d ago
🏛️Politics I'm so worried abdul elsayed might lose the election due to the aipac funding his opponent. what can we do?
his opponent is getting massive funding. htis loss qill be way more devastating then thomas massie. he is extremely promising for the pro palestine future ij the us if we are to have any chance in neutralizing israeli influence even somewhat in the mid to long term future. if u are american (i know there arwe many dual national people here) this is his donation link. https://abdulforsenate.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com i dont know how they find out if non americans donate though but technically u are not supposed to donate to an election campaign but we all know zionists play dirty all the time so cant blame if non americans do donate.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/SnooDonuts6494 • 2d ago
🗯️Serious Hamood Habibi meme
I'm a moderator on a subreddit. Someone posted an image of the Hamood Habibi meme, and another user reported it as racist. I'm trying to decide whether the image itself is generally regarded as offensive or whether it's only offensive in certain contexts. I'd appreciate your perspective.
r/AskMiddleEast • u/zs94026 • 2d ago
🏛️Politics What‘s or opinion on women‘s rights issues in MENA countries? How is it in your country? What contributes to it?
r/AskMiddleEast • u/Minivampiretaco • 3d ago
🗯️Serious Footage has documented a new Israeli settler attack on the Palestinian village of Al-Tawana in Masafer Yatta, south of al-Khalil, where settlers set fire to a mosque, a home, and a vehicle, while damaging additional property.
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