Barry Bush

And things look like they're about to get nasty. I can imagine launching a massive strategic air-strike on the Iraqis fairly close to the advancing Soviet armies leading to trouble.
 
I just read the entire thing in one sitting and I am loving this. This is my favorite timeline on the website by far.

It's a strand of very surreal ideas sewn together with realistic events. It's what Turtledove books try to be.

Keep this going, I'm enthralled.
 

Hendryk

Banned
The F 15s would stage from Europe and rendezvous with the bombers that would come in from Guam and then deliver their packages against Iraqi tank concentrations just west of Khorramshahr, a port city that Saddam was keen to capture.
His name is Saddam Hussein. I don't know why everyone thinks they're on a first-name basis with him, but it's distracting. At least when people write WW2 TLs they don't call Hitler "Adolf" all the time.

This is all the more true in 1979, when most people didn't know the Iraqi president's name.
 
His name is Saddam Hussein. I don't know why everyone thinks they're on a first-name basis with him, but it's distracting. At least when people write WW2 TLs they don't call Hitler "Adolf" all the time.

This is all the more true in 1979, when most people didn't know the Iraqi president's name.

His name is actually Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (or some variant, thereof). The proper shorthand is actually his first personal name (Saddam), although in the last twenty years or so the use of the second personal name (the patronymic, Hussein) has been widespread, with people using it like a surname. Technically, just calling him Saddam would be more proper, especially for sources from before the mid-'80s.

I prefer Hussein myself, but I'm under no illusion that it's technically incorrect.
 
This is quite good, Mark, and very different from most other timelines both in tone, style and scope. I like it a lot. Please continue.

Best regards

- Mr. Bluenote.
 

Hendryk

Banned
Technically, just calling him Saddam would be more proper, especially for sources from before the mid-'80s.
Before the mid-80s anyone outside of Iraq who knew who he was called him Saddam Hussein. And after the mid-80s too, if speeches and press conferences by George H.W. Bush are any indication.
 
The President spoke to the nation about an hour after the Khorramshahr strike had occurred and the planes were safely away out of range of Iraqi or Soviet anti aircraft. He hit all of the fine points, denouncing Soviet and Iraqi aggression, demanding the withdraw of the invading forces out of Iranian territory, offering support to the Iranian people, thanking offers of support from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UEA, Jordan, Israel, and Great Britain. As of the speech, the continental European powers, particularly France, were silent.

The president announced that American forces would enter into an alliance with the Iranian military to eject the Iraqi invaders. Supplies and other technical support would be given for Iranian troops who were fighting the Soviet invasion. Finally a no fly zone would be imposed south of the Zagros Mountains. That was the riskiest part of the strategy. If the Soviets decided to contest it, a direct clash between American and Soviet forces would result, which could spiral out of control.

After the speech, we went down to the situation room for a report on the results of the strike. The results were better than anyone had expected. An entire Iraqi Armored Division had been taken out of action. But that was just the first course.

Apparently an ammo dump stocked with chemical weapons shells was hit, releasing poison gas over a wide area. Iraqi casualties were estimated to be in the thousands. The prevailing winds were blowing from the east, minimizing Iranian civilian casualties.

The effects, both political and military, played themselves out over the following few days. First, the Iraqi advance was not only stopped, but reversed, as Iranian forces rallied and pushed back the decimated Iraqis. Second, Saddam Hussein claimed that we had in fact dropped chemical weapons on his forces. This caused several days of anti war demonstrations in Europe and North America. The President was called a war criminal and was burned in effigy.

Clearly we were going to have to get on top of that, lest we lose the propaganda war,
 
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