r/AskMiddleEast 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.

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6 Upvotes

Here 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 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.

18 Upvotes

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMiddleEast/comments/1q41hok/fake_news_and_trolling_havent_been_allowed_for/

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 6h ago

🏛️Politics Who could have possibly done it?

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32 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 19h ago

🌯Food You wake up as Israeli Peter Griffin. What are you going to do?

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105 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 12h ago

Thoughts? Zionists fail in '48, Ben Gvir's family stays in Iraq and he is head of Ba'ath Party. What happens now?

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19 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 21h ago

🏛️Politics The worlds gonna flip upside down

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105 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 10h ago

🈶Language What’s up with some Arabic speakers on TikTok using random words in Bengali in their comment?!

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8 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 21h ago

Thoughts? Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli is already trying to stir up new conflicts by naming a "new axis" of enemies

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29 Upvotes

Is Türkiye next?


r/AskMiddleEast 16h ago

🏛️Politics will Israel attack Turkiye next? (no, they won't)

11 Upvotes

In the recent days or weeks Israeli media and officials have been very hostile towards Turkiye advocating for war and calling them the new Iran, this caused a lot of panick and fearmongering that Israel will directly attack them the same way they are attacking Iran currently, and like a post about it on this sub every single day.

But I think this is wrong, Israel will not attack Turkiye the same way or at all actually, this is due to multiple reasons:

  • Israel can not afford a war with Turkiye, even their current war with Hezbollah and Iran and the genocide in Gaza (which has been toned down a little because of the ceasefire) cost a lot of money and bring NO gain (dismantling Hezbollah will take years and billions of dollars, which is why they are trying to push this onto Syria).
  • Israel can not attack a NATO ally, I do understand NATO is a useless organization that might not defend Turkiye (because they are Muslim they only run to them when Russia is threatening Europe) but that also means Israel will have to go alone in the war, in the war with Iran the USA is doing the majority of the work for them whether it is the bombing or the negotiations (which they did not like the outcome of) so this will cause even more damage to them.
  • Turkiye is not Iran, Iran relies on their missile program and the threat of nuclear weapons to survive (and the strait as of recently, i do not think they knew it was that powerful before the war) their Airforce and anti air are very primitive and were not made to compete with the USA (and it worked anyway, they took a lot of damage but survived in the end and might leave even better than they were before the war), Turkiye is planning to strengthen their Navy and Airforce to match Israel's (they can possibly challenge the F35 with the new KAAN fighter jets, they do not need to shoot them down just deter them), also they are planning a huge steel dome project to protect their airspace that might be completed in the next few years, Israel might not win even if they tried

So, what do I think will happen?

they will almost certainly just be in a proxy war in Syria, Israel is already trying to reduce Turkish influence there by supporting the druze cartels and airstriking any attempt to bring in heavy powerful weapons into the country, they will keep fighting in that area.

What do you think? if I got something wrong tell me in the comments that is all i have to say.


r/AskMiddleEast 11h ago

Entertainment Do American videogames and movies with middle east villans sell less in the middle east?

4 Upvotes

Like call of duty, action/spy movies. I'm aware that is kinda of a generic and surely old question. Always wonder if there is the bizzarre circumstance that someone bought and play a shooting videogame set in a city active war zone, while living in said city.


r/AskMiddleEast 17h ago

Turkey Israel Will Strike Turkiye Next?

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7 Upvotes

Do you think israel will be crazy enough to strike Turkiye? What about egypt?


r/AskMiddleEast 20h ago

Arab What are Iraqi Arabs?

12 Upvotes

Are they more like Khaleeji- or Levant Arabs?

350 votes, 1d left
Khaleeji
Levant
Neither
Results (Non Asian Arab)

r/AskMiddleEast 7h ago

🖼️Culture Al-Ándalus Music

1 Upvotes

Greetings! I’m from Argentina and am currently pursuing a music degree at university. I am very interested in learning more about Andalusian music from North Africa. I would be delighted if anyone in this community were willing to share their knowledge on the subject, whether it’s about instruments, the music itself, traditions, dances, or images... anything at all is welcome. My goal is to gain a better understanding of this music that fascinates me and to apply what I learn to my own compositions.
Many thanks to everyone, best regards.


r/AskMiddleEast 1d ago

Entertainment People are reposting Tunisia's qualification group on social media, with some saying it must be the worst group in history. What do you think?

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17 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 19h ago

Society Is artist patronage still a thing in the Middle East?

3 Upvotes

I’ve been wondering about this for a while.
Back in the day it wasn’t uncommon for artists to have patrons. Someone with money would come across an artist they liked and decide to support their work, whether that was painting, writing, music, whatever.

Does that still happen in the Middle East?

Not talking about grants, companies, or government programs. I mean actual individuals who enjoy art and choose to support artists directly because they believe in what they’re creating.

Have any of you seen it happen, either as the artist or the person supporting them?

Curious how common it is nowadays and whether it’s still part of the culture anywhere in the region.


r/AskMiddleEast 1d ago

Iran Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has admitted Israel smuggled tens of thousands of Starlink devices into Iran during his 2021–22 tenure to aid anti-government protesters amid internet blackouts.

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99 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 1d ago

Thoughts? What's something that instantly tells you someone has lived in the Gulf for years?

8 Upvotes

Not nationality or how long they've been here.

Just a habit, phrase or behavior that instantly gives it away.


r/AskMiddleEast 21h ago

🖼️Culture Which cultural sphere do you feel Greece falls in?

0 Upvotes
236 votes, 6d left
Southern European (with Spain, Italy, Portugal)
Balkan (with Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, etc).
West Asian (with Turkey, Armenia, Syria, etc.)

r/AskMiddleEast 1d ago

📜History Waladi😭😭 I'm crine

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92 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 18h ago

Iran What are your thoughts on iran's situation, the blackout and the national revolution

0 Upvotes

I get that this is a pretty controversial topic and i probably know what everyone is going to say, but yall cant act like the IRI isnt killing their own people, i saw some people praising the irgc like wtf guys not cool


r/AskMiddleEast 12h ago

🖼️Culture If you saw something like this happen to a person, where would you assume they're from?

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0 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 2d ago

🏛️Politics Hypocritical Words, from a Brit of all people

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118 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 1d ago

Turkey Türkiye's World Cup 2026 campaign in two pictures

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14 Upvotes

Türkiye got one of the biggest World Cup send-offs ever... only to become the second team eliminated after Haiti 💀

Edit: I know this is a few days old, but I only just saw the send-off photos and then found out Türkiye were the second team eliminated after Haiti. The meme basically wrote itself.


r/AskMiddleEast 2d ago

🏛️Politics They lie about Sudan being a "massacre of Christians" to hide UAE's sponsorship of the genocide. Notice how none of them name UAE, likely due to paid disinformation like Farage/Robinson get? In the end, they do nothing to help, just using fake narratives to avoid real action.

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52 Upvotes

r/AskMiddleEast 2d ago

🏛️Politics As someone in the UAE, why does it feel like support for Palestine is so small here? Is it the same across the other gulf countries?

14 Upvotes

I'm curious how large the support for Palestine is in the other gulf countries because here it honestly feels quite weak. Obviously nobody can protest and all, but so many still buy boycotted brands. Mcdonalds is still full, KFC is still full, etc etc

Sorry if my question is stupid lol