pg. 82

during the course of the war both sides escalate this tactic, causing greater destruction, large numbers of casualties , and more terror affecting large population groups, including residents of major cities like Tehran and Baghdad
understanding terror's potency, Iraq soon advanced its use of chemical weapons from the battlefield to threaten vulnerable civilians.
As Iran increased its chemical defenses
This may instead have persuaded the Iraqis to target civilians as a way of putting new pressure on Iran to end the conflict.

pg. 85

When Serdasht became the first civilian town to be attacked with chemical weapons
The Iranan government did not broadcast news of the attack, fearing it would cause mass panic and erosion of popular morale,
In contrast Iranian newspapers covered the chemical attacks on the southern front.
this indicates that either attacking soldiers was okay but attacking civilians would have a demonstration effect or B that the Iranian regieme cared little for the kurds

The kurds have always been problematic
when the Iran war starts they are bought off
however, collusion with the Iranians and the inpuninty with which they could organize in the mountains led them to increasingly get out of control
Iraq became faced with a two front war

For the regime the kurkuk attack could not have come at a worse time. I was another blw to the nation's bprideand this, added to a sense of deeep betrayal, goes a long way in esxplaining the depth of anger that informed the regime's military response once it was capable of launching one

these developments further raised the threat level for the iraqis, who not only saw their control of kurdistan shrinking byt he say, byt also realized that the kurds were appraoching kurkuk
Chemical Ali is appointed (Ali Hassan al Majid) chief of the northern bureau ofin kirkuk granting him broad latittutde to supress the rebellious kurds
Kurdish strength is derived … not just from the mountainous terrain but also, critically, fromt he population's support.
two pronged strategy depopulate the countryside with a village destruction program
relocate them next to paved roads
decapitate the kurdish leadership - gas smoked them oiut - but was ineffecitve because it hung in valley's so insurgents moved to higher ground
kurdish parites justifed their insrugency to protect the kurdish people - if they were shown to be incapable of doing that the population would be demoralized - hence gassing started to target civilians

The peshmergas' main vulnerability wa the rural population that sustianined them, and that by gassing civilians it could break the rebel's fighting spirit. demoralize them to the point of pralysis
after all , the kurdish parties justified their insuregency as necessary to port the people.
the brutal effectiveness of chemical weapons would expose the hollowness of this claim
this logic was combined with frustrated efforts to depopulate the entire countryside
use the gas to flush themout of the villages

A direct result of the gassing that triggered the peshmergas' total collaspe of morale
we didn't want to cause even more casualties, especially among civilians
so we decided to withdraw and evacuate the townspeople
such a fear - instinctive, overpowering of further gas attacks … sundenly suffered total disintegration
the use of special ammunition in strikes… has terrified and panicked them and has weakend their morale forcing many to return to national ranks (surrender)

conscuious of its new pscyhological advantage, the regieme pressed for total victory
In each case, the tactical use of gase, mostly targetted at peshmergas but mainly killing and injuring civilians, sered - by causing mas panic - to flush out the countryside in a matter of days, sometimes hours, villagers who had been hardened to years of air and artillery attacks

panicked by news of the gassing, and aware of what happened in Halabja less than a week earlier, villagers streamed out of Qaradagh
the effect was always the same, mass panick and flight
collective punishment!

The Iraqi regime could nto have systematically murdered this many kurds if it had not been in a position first to flush them out of their villages
a feat it had signally failed to accomplush in the army;s perenial attempts to subdue the country side, due to difficult terran and strong peshmerga resistance.

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page revision: 2, last edited: 09 Dec 2007 18:33