alternatehistory.com

The challenge: how could the Shah's Iran at some point during the 19760s have ended up at war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and would Imperial Iran inevitably have won given the lavish US and Western military support for the Shah's regime (F4 Phantoms, F5 Tigers, F14 Tomcats, Chieftain MBTs, hovercraft, etc) ? WI say sporadic clashes over their shared border, the Shatt al-Arab, or Iranian support for the Kurds escalated into a full-scale war along the lines of OTL's 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War ? How would the Iranian army fare, esp at the same time as they had an elite bde in action in Oman 1970-73 fighting the Communist Dhofari rebels alongside the British SAS, Sultan of Oman's Land Forces (SOLF) and Jordanian special forces ?
Top