What the Iran-Iraq war can tell us about the US-Israeli war on Iran

The article compares current U.S. and Israeli strategy toward Iran to Saddam Hussein's miscalculations during the 1980 invasion of Iran, suggesting Trump and Netanyahu harbor similar illusions about the potential outcome of confrontation with Iran. The piece draws parallels between Hussein's assumption of a quick victory over a weakened Iran and present-day assumptions about the feasibility of a decisive military campaign against Tehran. The analogy warns that underestimating Iran's capacity for sustained resistance and overestimating the speed of military success could lead to prolonged conflict rather than the swift resolution policymakers envision. Hussein's eight-year war against Iran became a costly stalemate that drained Iraq's resources and destabilized the region, a cautionary precedent for weighing the realistic costs of escalation with Iran today.