13-year-old Iranian at Khorramshahr Liberation in 1982

I received this photo this morning and you may find it of interest. It is a photograph of a 13-year old Iranian solider who has captured close to a dozen pan-Arabists during the liberation of Khorramshahr:

(see also: http://kian-abdollahi.blogfa.com/post-36.aspx)

An interesting facet of pan-Arabism in Iraq was that it brainwashed Arab conscripts into beleiving that all Iranians are cowards and would simply surrender to Saddam Hussein’s forces. Pan-Arabism is the perfect case of ideology leading to battlefield defeats. One veteran mentioned that so many pan-Arab prisoners were captured during the liberation of Khuzestan that problmes had arsien to provide transport trucks for the prisoners.

Allow me to humbly share a case of media censorship during the Iran-Iraq war. A BBC report crew was interviewing a motorized unit of Saddam’s forces and during that interview a commander claimed that all Iranian jets had been destroyed and that “the last few Iranian jets are hiding from us”. A few moments later, Iranian F-4 phantoms appeated (probably with the deadly air to ground Maverick missiles). As soon as the roar of the Iranian jets appeared, the enrire crew bailed out from their tanks and took to their heels:

The reason this report was cencored is most likley due to the fact that Saddam Hussein was an ally of the west at the time, In additon, the media was attempting to portray the pan-Arabists as a very “western” and professional military force. In reality, many of the conscripts suffered from low morale as they has little incentive to fight the Iranians – contrary to the fantasy of pan-Arabism, the vast majority of the Arabs do not dislike the Iranian people and reject pan-Arabism. Arabs and Iranians in fact get along very well and mingle throughout southwest Iran and the entire Persian Gulf region.

Finally, note must be taken of the role that Iranian-Arabs played in supporting the Iranian army in defending Khuzestan and liberating it from Saddam’s froces in 1982. Below is a photo of an Iranian-Arab unit that commemorates the role of the Iranian-Arabs in the defense of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war

Iranian Arabs participating in celebrations in Tehran in September 22, 2007. Iranian Arabs were among the first to defend Iran against the pan-Arabists of Saddam Hussein – their actions in Khorramshahr, Abadan and Ahwaz bought the Iranian army precious time to organize defenses in September-October 1980. The Iranian Arans also participated with the Iranian forces in ejecting Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Iran by 1982. Iranian Arabs were also seen in a rally in front of the UAE Embassy supporting the name “Persian Gulf”.

Racialism and ethno-narcissistic movements are an outdated and discredited philosophy. One of these, pan-Arabism has been both defeated and discredited. Unfortunatley, certain elements in the western hemisphere have had the tendency to support and promote racialists in the pursuit of geopolitical and economic objectives, a process continuing to this day. While such schemes may be partly effective with post-World War One, post-World War Two and post-Soviet-era states, the same schemes are doomed to failure against historical countries such as Iran. The above-cited discussion is a case in point.