6 - Pursuing the Aggressor

Summary

Chapter 6 examines the Iran-Iraq War’s second critical reversal, Iran’s shift from defense to offense following the liberation of Khorramshahr. Decades later, the Islamic Republic’s decision to continue the war and invade Iraq following the liberation of most of its territory remains a point of contention and misunderstanding. While for most outside analysts the decision exemplifies the aggression, irrationality, and ideological zeal that make the Islamic Republic so dangerous, for the IRGC the invasion was an act not of aggression but of defense. According to the IRGC authors, Iran’s decision to pursue the war’s original aggressors into their own territory was made carefully and rationally and only after the invasion was deemed necessary to restoring Iran’s national security. Dreams of marching straight through Iraq and onward to Jerusalem, though useful rhetorically to rally the troops, played no role in the decision-making process. For too long, however, such rhetoric has been taken literally. Instead of relying on the hyperbole of slogans and battle cries, this chapter utilizes the internal accounts included in the IRGC sources to rewrite the story of how and why Iran decided to invade Iraq.