I believe the Iraq-Iran war started due to both reasons..... Saddam had reasons to attack due to his hostility to the Shiite Muslims in the South of Iraq, with Iran being the center of the Shiite comunity, I tend to think that Iraq was worried that their influnces would cause popular uprisings, so he wanted to supress them. The US backed the Iraq war by giving Iraq aid money.......Not sure how much per year though. It wasn't a lump sum of cash, just some over a few years. The money was then used to purchase the gear needed to goto war (French and Soviet gear). The US backed the war due to Kohlmenhi's hatred of the West, namely US. He disposed of the pro-west government that was in power and alied himself with muslim radicals against the US....Most of Irans weaponry was US before the revolution (they still have some US F-14 Tomcats, M-60s and M-48, but don't work due to parts wearing out)...And all the while Iran did this, Saddam became west-friendly to get the aid needed to declare war. The US did not give Iraq chemical weapons. The government allowed the Iraqis to purchase items needed to build the culture labs needed without much concern..Wheather or not the US realized that they'd use them to bomb the Iranians, I don't know. However, the US was not the only country to help the Iraqis.....The French had a big part later in the war by selling the Iraqis magnatrons for developing their nuclear weapon program in the late 80s and early 90s.

The Iran-Iraq war was started over a dispute between the Shatt-al Arab waterway, an important oil shipping route running through the southern border between the countries. Iraq attacked to regain rights of usage which it had been denied and began what seemed as thnough it would be a victory, almost leveling the city of Abadan. Eventually, Iranian forces began to regain their composure from the surprise attack and forced Iraq out, agreeing to a ceasefire in 1989. America gave it's support to Iraq because it was still trying to destabilize theocratic Iran and force out Khomein'i.

Iran was a major US enemy at the time, we were the "Great Satan" in the eyes of the Mullahs. That is why the US supported Hussein. Not because he was a great guy, but because at the time we considered the Mullahs to be worse. In retrospect it appears that they weren't, but their hatred of the US at the time was only recently surpassed by Ossama Bin Laden. The leaders of Iran still have an axe to grind against the US, and Israel. BTW, the US gave some money to Iraq, as well as intelligence, but didn't directly help their WMD program.

My understanding of the reasons for the Iran-Iraq war are from a book by author Dilip Hiro. He argued that Saddam began that war on his own initiative. The Iraqis invaded a part of Iran that is populated mostly by Sunnis. The objective was to get the Sunnis to rebel against Iran and create a Sunni dominated state of their own. (Khorsamabad may be the region or major city of that area. I can't remember right now.) Of course the Iraqi invasion was Not successful. Though Saddam and Iraq are to blame for beginning the war both Iraqis and Iranians must share equal guilt for failing to stop that bloddy 8 year long conflict.

We helped Iraq. We also helped Iran. We helped Iran more, and it got Reagan in a bit of trouble, and kicked off Ollie North's career as a reporter while it ended his career as Pentagon black bag man. This was the "Iran-Contra" scandal. Remember? It was the "Iran-Contra" not "Iraq-Contra" scandal, because the weapons were going to.. yes, Iran. To all the lefty-loons who are now bitching over US aid to Iraq in 79-86, where were ANY OF YOU then? The Lefty-loons were bitching then about aid to IRAN not IRAQ. Perhaps the greatest Clue as to US policy regarding Iraq back then- remember our very quiet reaction to the Israeli bombing of Osirac nuclear reactor. Oh, yeah, we got mad at the Israelis for that. I think we suspended deliveries of donuts for at least 2, possibly 3 days. Shame, shame, Israelis, we can't have you flying around bombing Iraq's reactors, wink wink nudge nudge. Doesn't ANYBODY remember these things?

Good points Sgt Obvious. Yes, it is incredible how (liberal) people conveniently forget certain events and stress the importance of other events. The only assistance the US gave to Iraq's WMD program was a small sample of low-grade anthrax culture which the Iraqis claimed was to be used to develop antidote for anthrax. Maybe a bad move by the US in hindsight but not a deliberate attempt to further the Iraqi WMD capability. The US DID protest loud and long against the Iraqi use of chemicals and poison gas against Iranian troops (and later against Kurd civilians). Not surprisingly Saddam and the Iraqis basically ignored the American protests. The opinion of most experts at that time was that the US was hoping Iraq and Iran would destroy one another. In fact that war did sow the seeds for Saddam's eventual downfall.

Although the Americans did also supply Iran, it wasen't authorized by as many high-level officials as Iraqi aid was. That aside, the reason Iran didn't end the war was because they though they had Iraq by the throat and wanted revenge for the killing and pillaging Iraqi soldiers did (Similar to WWII, generals were calling for the complete razing of Berlin in revenge for the some 20 million killed.) Eventually, Iran must've realized it bit off a tad more than it could chew, backing down enough to sign the peace offer Iraq had proposed earlier.

Why is it that over a year after Bush has called Iran a part of the "axis of evil" that nobody in Iran has come forward with "official documents" from the alleged "Iran-Contra" or "October Surprise" scandals that would prove embarassing to the US and Reagan-Bush supporters? Is it because Iran has no idea what American liberals like Gary Sick were talking about?

The iran vs Iraq war depleted Saddam resources severely. I believe that if that war had not been fought the gulf war would have been alot more costly and bloody to the coalition. The problem with the Iranians in that war is they managed to force the iraqi's out of Abadan and back into Iraq but only at enormous cost. they used human wave tactics to overwhelm Iraqi positions. The Military units conducting these human wave assaults were called the Pasadran and Basij. The Pasadran was the royal guard while the basij were poorly equipped civilians(basically moving targets for the iraqis to shoot at). It is believed that between 600,000 to 1 million people died in this war some people estimate many more died. The battles were often very bloody with 10's of thousands dead on both sides. This war was fought intially over the shat al arab waterway but also to help Saddam Hussein towards his goal of a pan arabic nation.

I think American_Infadel is right, yet a little bit wrong. I think america made a stupid decision giving Iraq all of those chemical weapons to Iraq, et they[Iraq] needed help. Un-Fortunately, now we're in a war with them and I want to know what will STOP the war.