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Yes, Iran was in a position to take over Iraq. In fact, the process had already started. While it is true that Iraq did indeed start the war, Saddam Hussein believed that it would be a short one and he would have Tehran, I believe, in 8-weeks or so. Things didn't work out that way. Iraq made minor advances into Iran, approx 45 miles or so, and that was as far as Iraq ever got for the next 8-years. Iran started counter attacking and began making headway. Things got real nasty for Iraq when Iran starting using 'human wave' attacks: Tens of thousands of militia, peasants, teenagers, old men, etc... that were armed with nothing but a gun (in some cases, not even that) began overwhelming the Iraqi troops in what were some pretty grotesque and bloody battles. In fact, Iran got within 13 miles of Basra, the 2nd largest city of Iraq. As it became evident to the rest of the world that Iraq was now clearly on the defensive (and the potential danger thereof), major powers of the world responded by aiding Iraq military to insure that would not be overrrun by the Iranians. To make a long story short, the war went on a total of 8-years and neither side had a thing to show for it. Saddam viewed the cease-fire as a victory for Iraq, though, because the Iranians had 'vowed' to never stop until Iraq was defeated, and that never happened. About the leaders, Bush did the right thing to do go to war with Iraq. Amongst other things, given Iraq's history of 16 U.N. violations, with a 17th failure to comply in a post 9/11 world, a full scale invasion of Iraq was the most sane thing to do. --Darin Saibal Mitra wrote: > Iran was never in a position to take over Iraq. Iran was > attacked by Iraq first. > > The thought of Iran taking over Iraq is a paranoid one. So > was the domino theory during the cold war and also the idea > that Saddam had WMD that could be deployed in 45 minutes. > > When I was in primary school our teacher discussed the > terrifying hypothetical situation of a US president going > mad. It now seems that such situations are not so > hypothetical. The impeachment proceedings against Clinton, > the election of Bush before all votes in Florida were > counted and the recall vote in California suggest that in > the US sane decent leaders are not tolerated. > > > > > Quoting Darin Zeilweger <dzepplin@charter.net>: > >>....the thought of Iran taking over Iraq and >> being in control of the 2nd largest oil supply in the > world. In >> addition, they would be sharing borders with not only > Kuwait but with >> Saudi Arabia, the worlds largest oil supply, of whome the > Iranians did >> not like -- and the Saudi's feared. > > -- > _____________________________________________________________________ > Snel en voordelig ADSL nu voor iedereen bereikbaar. > Zon Breedband Budget vanaf EUR 14,95 per maand met ZonTel. > Nu tijdelijk geen aansluitkosten. Bestel snel op zonnet.nl/breedband > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. > To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss > To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk > All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk > _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk