By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Forty-two years ago on this day when the US ordered Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad to launch an unprovoked war on Iran it had thought that within a few weeks the newly-founded Islamic Republic would be overthrown and the Americans back in Tehran to continue plunder of its rich resources, while keeping the Iranian Muslims in perpetual bondage and at the mercy of a minion in power on the Peacock Throne to de-Islamicise the country and spread the most abominable vices in society in the name of freedom.

It turned out to be not just a distant dream but a horrible nightmare for both Washington and Saddam as the imposed war dragged on for 8 years with no gains for the instigators except permanent loss, thanks to the heroic resistance of the Iranian combatants and people, inspired by the God-oriented leadership of that Sage of the Age, Imam Khomeini (RA).

Today, on the 41st anniversary of the Holy Defence (as the US-Ba’thist invasion is marked), the Islamic Republic system of government while guaranteeing the independence, security, welfare, and progress of the Iranian Muslim masses, is an attraction to the people, movements, and independent governments of the region and beyond in which US hegemony is on the wane, and the means of defence produced by a self-reliant Iran are more than a match for the terrorists and the regimes equipped with US-manufactured armaments.

It should be recalled that during the 1980s the most impenetrable armour of the Iranian combatants facing an armed-to-the-teeth war machine greased by the weapons of the both the Capitalist West and the Socialist East, in addition to the billions of petrodollars doled out to Saddam by Persian Gulf Arab regimes, was faith in God Almighty and the recitation in the trenches amidst bursting bombs of such supplications as “Dua Kumayl”, “Naad-e Ali”, “Ziyarat” of Imam Husain (AS), and “Isteghasa” of the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (AS) – may God hasten his reappearance for end of oppression and establishment of the global government of peace, justice, and prosperity.

Yesterday’s statement of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution on the start of this year’s Holy Defence Seek by recalling the epics of the 8-year imposed war and the selfless sacrifices of the people as “an exciting, eventful and fruitful juncture”, drew a clear line between the victors and the vanquished.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei in his address to senior military officials rightly remarked: “The era of Holy Defence is among the events that has an effect on our yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

The message of the Islamic Revolution and the victory of the Iranian people echoed in the heart of the US itself in New York where President Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi, in his address to the 77th UN General Assembly, while waving from the podium the portrait of Martyr General Qassem Soleimani (one of the commanders of the Holy Defence during the imposed war and architect of the victories of the people of Syria and Iraq against the takfiri terrorists, as well as of the Lebanese against Israel during the 33-day war of 2006), called for justice and fairness of the international system and punishment of former US president, Donald Trump for his crimes against humanity.

It is now all the more clear that the imposed war utterly failed in creating bad blood between the brotherly people of Iran and Iraq, who are both winners as was evident by the fraternal atmosphere at the recent Arba’een rituals where Iraqi Muslims displayed their highest form of hospitality for millions of Iranian guests.