The Iran–Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History

Great book, detailed history, although there is not much said on behalf of Iranian side and is mostly based on Iraqi documents.

Excellent book and it arrived in days.

Clear, concise and well written. I think Cyrus in his review sums things up nicely and I'd only disagree with him on the quality of the maps that cover too large an area whereas key conflicts were centered in limited geographical areas that don't show up well on the maps; however, this conflict wasn't like WWII, a war of movement, so my gripe about the maps is rather inconsequential. A lot of research went into this book and it is assembled in a most readable fashion. As I recollect, during the eight years this war ran there was virtually no US coverage of the conflict so this book fills a large void for those interested in events in the Middle East. Verbatim transcripts of Saddam's war councils with his military leaders provides a unique insight into how he viewed himself as a leader - a most grandiose vision - and how he "justified" his various barbaric acts that included lavish use of chemical weapons. As the book covers, one of the key reasons Iraq prevailed was it had continuing access to weapons from the outside world, Iran had virtually none, and the Gulf States, mainly Kuwait, lent Iraq around a billion dollars a month to continue the conflict. At war's end Iraq was bankrupt and owed tens of billions to its backers. One theory (not propounded in the book) explaining Saddam's subsequent invasion of Kuwait was his believe there was a vast treasure trove of gold in the Kuwait central bank; allegedly the first in during the invasion were helicopter-borne troops who landed on the roof of the central bank to seize the goodies, only to find out most of the country's reserves were held in foreign banks.

Thanks

Product as expected, great stuff! Thank you.