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First thread so sorry if it isn’t too impressive :biggrin:

Anyways, one thing I’ve noticed, looking at the history of Saddams Iraq is the startling incompetence in its military, from the lowest level soldiers, to the generals, to Saddam himself. For example, in spite of amassing what was the fourth largest army in the world at the time of the Iraq Iran war, the Iraqi army followed a top heavy structure, with Saddam, a man with no military experience, ultimately making the military decisions. In fear of what Saddam would do, his generals would often be slow to report bad news on the front. Another problem is the fact that his generals were promoted for loyalty, not competence, and some were reported as being ‘semi literate’. The soldiers were also extremely poorly trained as well.

So let’s say that Baathist Iraq had built a competent military to field against Iran, and Saddam was rational enough to promote on performance and comptence, rather than loyalty and clan alliance. Would Iraq have been able to take their objective in Khuzestan? What would be the geopolitical implications of them winning against Iran, especially after the USSR fell? What would his relations be like with his neighbours, and the rest of the international community? Would this butterfly away the First gulf war, and the 2003 invasion? Would Baathist Iraq survive the arab spring, and what would Iraq be like today?
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