By Ehsan Qaraee

In my previous article, I discussed how Khomeini was looking for a solid alibi to justify his actions in order to pursue conflict, along with his use of psychological warfare. At last Saddam gave Khomeini that alibi by executing

Ayatollah Mohammad Bagher Sadr. Sadr was a Shia cleric and founder of the Islamic Dawa Party (the party that would later be led by Nouri al-Maliki), who fought against the Iraqi regime in order to establish an Islamic state similar to Iran in Iraq. Saddam arrested Sadr and his sister on 5th of April 1980 in the Iraqi city of Najaf and three days later executed them. It was the best opportunity that Khomeini could get. Immediately, he and his propaganda system began to make the most out of this incident.

By Hamid Yazdan Panah

This past week I attended a large protest outside the United Nations General assembly in New York City. The event was notable for many reasons. It was by far the largest and most organized protest outside of the UN. It included thousands of Iranian-Americans voicing their opposition to the Iranian regime and to Hassan Rouhani. It also included a number of Arab-Americans from Syria and Yemen who were there to call for an end to Iranian intervention in their countries. But this is not what impressed me. What impressed me was the leadership of Iranian youth in this protest, I know this because I was there and worked alongside other young people to make this protest a success.

By Ehsan Qaraee

In this series of articles, I will discuss the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq during the 1980’s, and the history behind it. In order to cover the many aspects of this historical event, I will focus on a few points in each article.

The Iranian regime called this conflict the “Imposed War” or “Holy Defense”. However, the question remains, was this war really an act of defense, or was it imposed on the nation?