WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080 Welcome to the Deep Dive. I am incredibly glad 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:04.660 you could join us today. Yeah, thanks for being 00:00:04.660 --> 00:00:07.240 here with us. Because we have a very specific, 00:00:07.459 --> 00:00:10.380 almost, you know, microscopic mission ahead of 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:12.320 us today. We really do. Usually when we look 00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:14.019 at history, we're taking the bird's eye view. 00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:15.960 Yeah. We look at those sweeping arrows pushing 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:19.100 across giant maps or decades condensing into 00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:22.039 single sentences. Right. The macro level. Exactly. 00:00:22.300 --> 00:00:25.859 But today... We are taking a magnifying glass 00:00:25.859 --> 00:00:29.379 to a single, hyper -specific, four -day window 00:00:29.379 --> 00:00:33.219 in June of 1981. We're going to use this tiny 00:00:33.219 --> 00:00:35.880 slice of time to understand how the sprawling, 00:00:35.899 --> 00:00:38.939 chaotic, and frankly contradictory mechanics 00:00:38.939 --> 00:00:41.240 of modern warfare actually work on the ground. 00:00:41.609 --> 00:00:43.929 It is a phenomenal case study. When you zoom 00:00:43.929 --> 00:00:46.390 in this closely on one isolated event, you stop 00:00:46.390 --> 00:00:49.210 seeing the abstract concept of war and you start 00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:51.750 seeing the grinding mechanical reality of it. 00:00:51.850 --> 00:00:53.789 And our source material for this journey today 00:00:53.789 --> 00:00:56.130 is, it's interesting all on its own. It's just 00:00:56.130 --> 00:00:58.469 a single Wikipedia article. Just one page. Yeah. 00:00:58.770 --> 00:01:01.530 Detailing a specific military offensive known 00:01:01.530 --> 00:01:04.430 as Operation Commander -in -Chief. This took 00:01:04.430 --> 00:01:07.159 place during the Iran -Iraq War. We are going 00:01:07.159 --> 00:01:09.700 to dig into the data, the timelines, and the 00:01:09.700 --> 00:01:12.379 historical records presented in this text. But 00:01:12.379 --> 00:01:14.439 before we get into the tactical weeds of what 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:16.579 happened in those four days, we really need to 00:01:16.579 --> 00:01:18.920 establish some parameters for how we are looking 00:01:18.920 --> 00:01:21.439 at this information. Yes, please. This is a vital 00:01:21.439 --> 00:01:23.959 caveat for you, the listener, to keep in mind 00:01:23.959 --> 00:01:27.120 before we begin. Because this conflict involves 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:30.340 heavily charged geopolitical history. I mean, 00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:32.659 we are talking about figures like Saddam Hussein 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:35.620 and Rouhani, along with intersecting interests 00:01:35.620 --> 00:01:38.739 from massive global superpowers. It's a minefield. 00:01:38.900 --> 00:01:41.400 It is. So I want to explicitly state right now 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:43.480 that our deep dive today will remain strictly 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:46.519 neutral. Right. We are not taking sides. We are 00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:49.700 not endorsing any political viewpoints, nor are 00:01:49.700 --> 00:01:52.120 we evaluating the morality or the overarching 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:54.340 policies of the nations involved. Absolutely. 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.819 Absolutely. Our goal here is entirely analytical. 00:01:57.140 --> 00:01:59.739 We are merely unpacking the factual data, the 00:01:59.739 --> 00:02:02.120 timelines and the historical records exactly 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:04.640 as they are presented in our source text. OK, 00:02:04.719 --> 00:02:07.319 let's unpack this. Our mission today is to discover 00:02:07.319 --> 00:02:10.580 how a seemingly minor three kilometer military 00:02:10.580 --> 00:02:14.580 advance acts as an absolute masterclass in military 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:17.879 strategy, complex geopolitics and even modern 00:02:17.879 --> 00:02:19.840 historical record keeping. It's a lot packed 00:02:19.840 --> 00:02:22.199 into a very small space. It really is. Yeah. 00:02:22.259 --> 00:02:24.580 And to really grasp. why those three kilometers 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:26.979 matter, we need to zoom out first and look at 00:02:26.979 --> 00:02:29.340 the broader context. When you look at the timeline 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:32.199 provided in our source, the sheer scale of the 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:34.039 Iran -Iraq conflict leading up to this point 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:36.580 is just staggering. The pre -war incidents alone 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:39.419 set a very tense, highly volatile stage. You 00:02:39.419 --> 00:02:41.419 don't just wake up one morning to a full -scale 00:02:41.419 --> 00:02:44.460 mechanized war. Right. It builds over years. 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:47.080 The page outlines this whole cascading series 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:49.659 of events. You've got the 1975 Algiers Agreement, 00:02:49.939 --> 00:02:51.860 the massive upheaval of the Iranian Revolution. 00:02:52.810 --> 00:02:56.810 1979 Kurdish rebellion in Iran, the 1979 Khuzestan 00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.650 insurgency, the Iranian embassy siege. It is 00:02:59.650 --> 00:03:02.280 a relentless buildup of pressure. Yeah, all of 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:05.419 this happens before the 1980 Iraqi invasion even 00:03:05.419 --> 00:03:07.319 officially kicks off. And when it does, it starts 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:09.439 with an airstrike and then immediately spirals 00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:12.680 into these massive overlapping operations. Khaman 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:15.460 99, the first battle of Khorramshahr, Scorch 00:03:15.460 --> 00:03:18.740 Sword, Dezful. It's a continuous back and forth 00:03:18.740 --> 00:03:21.259 across a massive front. What's fascinating here 00:03:21.259 --> 00:03:24.180 is the staggering list of international participants 00:03:24.180 --> 00:03:26.800 drawn into this conflict. When you look at the 00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:29.939 sidebar of this Wikipedia article, it lists the 00:03:29.939 --> 00:03:32.240 supporters for both. sides oh yeah i saw that 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:34.580 and it reads less like a regional dispute and 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:37.240 more like a roster of the entire globe you have 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:40.020 the soviet union which the documentation notes 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:43.560 supported both iran and iraq wait pause on that 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:46.340 for a second the soviet union is actively supporting 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:49.340 both sides of an active brutal war yes that sounds 00:03:49.340 --> 00:03:51.639 incredibly counterintuitive it's completely dizzying 00:03:51.639 --> 00:03:53.560 when you try to map out the alliances it does 00:03:53.560 --> 00:03:56.060 sound crazy but it perfectly highlights the proxy 00:03:56.060 --> 00:03:59.150 nature of the war Superpowers were hedging their 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:01.469 bets. They were aiming to maintain influence 00:04:01.469 --> 00:04:04.250 in the region, regardless of who ultimately won 00:04:04.250 --> 00:04:06.750 the territory. Then you have the United States 00:04:06.750 --> 00:04:09.729 officially supporting Iraq, but also simultaneously 00:04:09.729 --> 00:04:12.909 entangled in the Iran -Contra affair, supplying 00:04:12.909 --> 00:04:15.729 arms to Iran. So both superpowers are playing 00:04:15.729 --> 00:04:18.589 both sides. Exactly. And the web just keeps expanding 00:04:18.589 --> 00:04:22.079 outward. You have Britain. Involved in the arms 00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:25.259 to Iraq scandal, you have Egypt, France, Israel, 00:04:25.540 --> 00:04:29.439 Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, North Korea, Pakistan, 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:32.639 Singapore and Syria. There's half the globe. 00:04:33.040 --> 00:04:35.000 And that doesn't even touch on the Kurdish involvement 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.399 with various Peshmerga factions or the United 00:04:37.399 --> 00:04:39.420 Nations Security Council constantly trying to 00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:41.579 intervene. Right. This wasn't just two neighbors 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:44.079 fighting over a border. It was a massive global 00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:47.259 proxy arena where dozens of nations were projecting 00:04:47.259 --> 00:04:49.660 their own geopolitical and economic interests 00:04:49.660 --> 00:04:52.339 onto the deserts of Khuzestan. It's like the 00:04:52.339 --> 00:04:54.720 entire world was pulling invisible strings in 00:04:54.720 --> 00:04:57.180 this one geographic region. And that brings us 00:04:57.180 --> 00:05:00.509 to the year 1981. The crucial year. According 00:05:00.509 --> 00:05:03.730 to the timeline, by 1981, the initial chaos of 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:05.750 the invasion had settled into a very distinct, 00:05:05.970 --> 00:05:09.410 very grim phase. The article literally titles 00:05:09.410 --> 00:05:12.089 this section, The Stalemate. We see a list of 00:05:12.089 --> 00:05:14.470 operations during this period, like Nasser H3 00:05:14.470 --> 00:05:17.649 and Opera. But when we hear the word stalemate, 00:05:17.769 --> 00:05:20.649 I think we tend to picture a timeout, like a 00:05:20.649 --> 00:05:23.379 pause in the action. A stalemate in warfare is 00:05:23.379 --> 00:05:26.259 anything but a pause. It is arguably one of the 00:05:26.259 --> 00:05:29.459 most dangerous and grueling phases of any conflict. 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:32.079 How so? It's the grinding halt where front lines 00:05:32.079 --> 00:05:35.040 freeze. But the consumption of resources, ammunition 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.899 and human life continues at a staggering pace. 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:41.040 This wasn't a ceasefire. Right. This was thousands 00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:43.600 of men dug into the desert trenches, firing artillery 00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:46.000 back and forth, burning through national resources 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.860 while the borders stubbornly refused to budge. 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:51.439 Which sets the stage for why Operation Commander 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:54.300 -in -Chief was suddenly so necessary. If you're 00:05:54.300 --> 00:05:57.079 Iran and your entire front line is frozen in 00:05:57.079 --> 00:05:59.300 this meat grinder of a stalemate, what do you 00:05:59.300 --> 00:06:01.139 do? You have to act. Right. You have to test 00:06:01.139 --> 00:06:03.540 the walls. You have to find a way to break the 00:06:03.540 --> 00:06:05.959 stagnation because simply sitting in those trenches 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:09.579 is bleeding you dry. Iran found itself in a position 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:12.480 where it needed to launch completely new probing 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:14.699 offensives to free its territory from the Iraqi 00:06:14.699 --> 00:06:18.000 forces. And that requires a very specific type 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:19.980 of military calculation. You don't just throw 00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:22.240 your entire army at a fortified wall and hope 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.600 it breaks. You probe. You probe. You test. Let's 00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:29.500 dive into the details of that test. No. In Persian, 00:06:29.660 --> 00:06:33.459 the operation is listed as Amaliyat -e -Firmandi 00:06:33.459 --> 00:06:36.819 -ye -Kolikova. But the complete translated name 00:06:36.819 --> 00:06:39.300 is quite striking. It's Commander -in -Chief 00:06:39.300 --> 00:06:42.449 Khomeini Ruakota. A very powerful title. Yeah. 00:06:42.670 --> 00:06:45.170 It was officially launched on June 11, 1981, 00:06:45.529 --> 00:06:48.750 in the Abadan and Darkoven regions. Now, the 00:06:48.750 --> 00:06:51.310 combatants here are also worth noting. It was 00:06:51.310 --> 00:06:54.029 the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, 00:06:54.069 --> 00:06:57.310 moving against the Iraqi Baathist army. That 00:06:57.310 --> 00:06:59.269 distinction between the forces is incredibly 00:06:59.269 --> 00:07:01.949 important for context. You have the Iraqi Baathist 00:07:01.949 --> 00:07:03.769 army, which is a highly structured conventional 00:07:03.769 --> 00:07:06.350 military force. They are relying on traditional 00:07:06.350 --> 00:07:08.769 armored divisions and established doctrine. And 00:07:08.769 --> 00:07:11.470 they are up against the IRGC, which at this point 00:07:11.470 --> 00:07:14.370 in 1981 is a paramilitary force born directly 00:07:14.370 --> 00:07:16.949 out of the recent Iranian revolution. They are 00:07:16.949 --> 00:07:19.790 operating alongside but distinct from Iran's 00:07:19.790 --> 00:07:22.790 regular army. It's a fascinating clash of military 00:07:22.790 --> 00:07:25.399 cultures and structures. And their objectives 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:27.519 for this specific push were very calculated. 00:07:27.740 --> 00:07:30.360 It had a dual purpose. First, it was designed 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:32.980 to break the siege of Abadan. Yes. Abadan was 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:35.620 a critical location, an island city with a massive 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:38.680 oil refinery. And breaking that siege was a strategic 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:42.540 necessity for Iran. But second, and crucially, 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:45.839 this operation was explicitly intended to serve 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:48.879 as a test for a much larger, highly significant 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:52.050 upcoming offensive called Salman al -Amey. They 00:07:52.050 --> 00:07:54.850 are essentially beta testing a massive military 00:07:54.850 --> 00:07:56.750 offensive before committing the bulk of their 00:07:56.750 --> 00:08:00.250 forces to seminal AMA. They need real world data. 00:08:00.370 --> 00:08:02.589 Makes sense. They are probing the enemy's defenses, 00:08:02.790 --> 00:08:05.449 testing their own logistical capabilities, evaluating 00:08:05.449 --> 00:08:07.449 how their command structures communicate under 00:08:07.449 --> 00:08:09.870 fire and seeing exactly how the Baptist Army 00:08:09.870 --> 00:08:12.470 responds to a direct assault in this specific 00:08:12.470 --> 00:08:14.930 challenging terrain. Here's where it gets really 00:08:14.930 --> 00:08:16.730 interesting. And honestly, looking at these numbers 00:08:16.730 --> 00:08:18.750 initially confused me. This operation lasted 00:08:18.750 --> 00:08:22.240 for four entire days from. June 11th to June 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:25.339 15th. Four days of coordinated military effort. 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.199 A long time in combat. Exactly. And the total 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.000 distance advanced by the Iranian forces, just 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:33.500 three kilometers. When you think about modern 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:36.500 warfare with tanks and airstrikes and mechanized 00:08:36.500 --> 00:08:39.919 infantry, a three kilometer advance over almost 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.779 100 hours of fighting sounds like a massive failure. 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:45.460 It absolutely sounds like a failure until you 00:08:45.460 --> 00:08:47.740 visualize what those three kilometers actually 00:08:47.740 --> 00:08:50.220 represent on the ground. Three kilometers is 00:08:50.220 --> 00:08:53.500 roughly 3 ,000 meters. Right. If you, the listener, 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:56.200 are walking at a normal, leisurely pace, you 00:08:56.200 --> 00:08:58.460 could cover that distance in under 40 minutes. 00:08:58.659 --> 00:09:00.679 You probably drive that distance on your morning 00:09:00.679 --> 00:09:02.639 commute in three minutes. Barely even noticing. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:05.779 Exactly. But in the context of this war, moving 00:09:05.779 --> 00:09:09.259 that front line took four days of intense, unrelenting 00:09:09.259 --> 00:09:12.600 combat, immense logistical planning, and the 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:15.759 full weight of the IRGC pushing against incredibly 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:18.799 well -fortified Iraqi positions. It completely 00:09:18.799 --> 00:09:21.259 reframes how we think about the speed of war. 00:09:21.629 --> 00:09:24.210 Victory here isn't measured in sweeping maneuvers 00:09:24.210 --> 00:09:26.929 across a province. It's measured in literal meters. 00:09:26.990 --> 00:09:29.049 It's fighting for every single sand dune, every 00:09:29.049 --> 00:09:31.350 single trench line. And that incredibly slow, 00:09:31.490 --> 00:09:34.509 incredibly difficult advance brings us to the 00:09:34.509 --> 00:09:36.909 most sobering part of the historical record we 00:09:36.909 --> 00:09:39.929 are examining today. The sheer human and material 00:09:39.929 --> 00:09:43.190 cost of those 3 ,000 meters. Let's look at the 00:09:43.190 --> 00:09:46.129 brutal math of the battlefield. The numbers in 00:09:46.129 --> 00:09:48.330 the Wikipedia info box for this three kilometer 00:09:48.330 --> 00:09:51.629 stretch are stark. On the side of the Iraqi Ba 00:09:51.629 --> 00:09:55.730 'athist army, the documentation lists 1 ,496 00:09:55.730 --> 00:09:59.509 forces as killed, wounded, and captured. Almost 00:09:59.509 --> 00:10:03.009 1 ,500 casualties. Furthermore, at least 32 tanks 00:10:03.009 --> 00:10:05.230 and personnel carriers were listed as entirely 00:10:05.230 --> 00:10:09.129 annihilated. On the Iranian side, 120 IRGC forces 00:10:09.129 --> 00:10:11.029 were killed. If we connect this to the bigger 00:10:11.029 --> 00:10:13.649 picture, these numbers tell us a very detailed, 00:10:13.830 --> 00:10:16.450 very grim story about the reality of that terrain. 00:10:16.769 --> 00:10:19.230 When you look at that high casualty rate and 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:21.629 the sheer volume of equipment lost, 32 tanks 00:10:21.629 --> 00:10:23.730 and armored personnel carriers destroyed in a 00:10:23.730 --> 00:10:26.250 space of just three kilometers, it tells us how 00:10:26.250 --> 00:10:28.590 deeply entrenched and fortified those forces 00:10:28.590 --> 00:10:31.539 were. Let's actually picture that. 32 destroyed 00:10:31.539 --> 00:10:33.820 tanks and armored vehicles scattered over a distance 00:10:33.820 --> 00:10:35.840 you could walk in less than an hour. It's a graveyard 00:10:35.840 --> 00:10:39.059 of steel. That is roughly 10 heavy armored vehicles 00:10:39.059 --> 00:10:42.240 burning every single kilometer. You don't lose 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:45.100 three dozen heavily armored vehicles unless you 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:47.220 are fighting tooth and nail for every single 00:10:47.220 --> 00:10:50.620 inch of dirt in a highly concentrated area. The 00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:53.100 text explicitly mentions that the Iranian forces 00:10:53.100 --> 00:10:55.799 were recapturing powerful and significant positions 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:58.960 held by the Iraqi army in the area. Powerful 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:01.100 and significant. Right. We are talking about 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:03.460 taking a piece of land that is arguably smaller 00:11:03.460 --> 00:11:06.340 than a typical city neighborhood. And yet the 00:11:06.340 --> 00:11:08.980 density of the combat required to dislodge an 00:11:08.980 --> 00:11:11.500 entrenched army from that tiny piece of geography 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:15.269 resulted in a bottleneck. absolute devastation. 00:11:15.309 --> 00:11:18.730 Over 1 ,600 people killed, wounded, or captured 00:11:18.730 --> 00:11:21.289 combined just to move the line an hour's walk 00:11:21.289 --> 00:11:23.750 forward. It really paints a picture of a concentrated, 00:11:24.090 --> 00:11:26.629 nightmarish bottleneck. And the fact that this 00:11:26.629 --> 00:11:28.789 level of destruction was considered merely a 00:11:28.789 --> 00:11:31.909 test run for a larger operation is mind -boggling. 00:11:32.029 --> 00:11:33.850 It changes your perspective on the scale of the 00:11:33.850 --> 00:11:36.590 violence. But this leads us to perhaps the most 00:11:36.590 --> 00:11:39.279 compelling layer of our deep dive today. Not 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:41.500 just what happened on the battlefield in 1981, 00:11:41.820 --> 00:11:45.259 but how we, sitting here today, actually know 00:11:45.259 --> 00:11:48.679 what we know about it. Ah, yes. The historiography 00:11:48.679 --> 00:11:51.279 of the event, how the narrative is constructed 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:54.299 and preserved. Yes, the meta -narrative. Because 00:11:54.299 --> 00:11:56.320 right at the very top of this Wikipedia article, 00:11:56.379 --> 00:11:58.940 before you even get to the info box, the casualty 00:11:58.940 --> 00:12:01.879 numbers or the history there, is a very prominent, 00:12:02.019 --> 00:12:04.860 very modern warning banner. I noticed that. It 00:12:04.860 --> 00:12:08.120 was flagged by an editor in March of 2023. And 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:10.500 it states, some of this article's listed sources 00:12:10.500 --> 00:12:13.799 may not be reliable. Please help improve this 00:12:13.799 --> 00:12:15.799 article by looking for better, more reliable 00:12:15.799 --> 00:12:18.080 sources. This raises an important question, one 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:20.059 that you should always ask when consuming historical 00:12:20.059 --> 00:12:22.600 information, especially in a digital age. Who 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:24.960 is holding the pen? Right. When we scroll down 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:26.860 to the reference section of this article to see 00:12:26.860 --> 00:12:28.559 where all these highly specific numbers come 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:31.580 from, we see 10 distinct footnotes. And when 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:33.940 you look closely at the URLs provided to those 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:36.799 footnotes, a very clear pattern emerges. See 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:40.480 domain. like difapress .airr, iznairna .airr, 00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:45.600 resikkun .net, tasmimnews .com, and jamran .news. 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:47.779 If you group those conceptually, what you are 00:12:47.779 --> 00:12:50.100 looking at is a collection of Iranian state -aligned 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:52.399 news agencies, cultural portals, and defense 00:12:52.399 --> 00:12:55.279 -focused media. Okay. In the fog of war, and 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:57.679 particularly in the decades following a protracted 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.100 conflict, the historical record itself becomes 00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:02.860 a fiercely contested battlefield. It introduces 00:13:02.860 --> 00:13:05.120 a fascinating layer of digital historiography. 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:08.720 You have this incredibly brutal, complex, multinational 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.559 war from the 1980s. And how do we learn about 00:13:11.559 --> 00:13:14.659 it today? Through a crowdsourced Wikipedia article 00:13:14.659 --> 00:13:16.960 with a giant citation -needed banner slapped 00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:19.620 on top of it by a random editor 40 years later. 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:22.019 It is entirely representative of our modern era. 00:13:22.220 --> 00:13:24.059 It's a very modern way to consume history, where 00:13:24.059 --> 00:13:26.220 the fog of war becomes a permanent digital reality. 00:13:26.809 --> 00:13:29.409 It absolutely does. When we read that exactly 00:13:29.409 --> 00:13:33.629 1 ,496 enemy forces were killed, wounded, and 00:13:33.629 --> 00:13:36.289 captured, or that 32 tanks were annihilated, 00:13:36.409 --> 00:13:38.350 or that the recaptured positions were powerful 00:13:38.350 --> 00:13:40.889 and significant, we must recognize that these 00:13:40.889 --> 00:13:43.110 specific data points and the adjectives used 00:13:43.110 --> 00:13:45.370 to describe them are drawn from the perspective 00:13:45.370 --> 00:13:48.129 of the victors of that specific battle or the 00:13:48.129 --> 00:13:50.769 nation that is compiling the record. The history 00:13:50.769 --> 00:13:53.929 is written by the victors. Always. The historiography 00:13:53.929 --> 00:13:57.370 of war is rarely completely absurd. It is shaped 00:13:57.370 --> 00:14:00.029 by the organizations, the state media and the 00:14:00.029 --> 00:14:02.950 nations that catalog the events. A phrase like 00:14:02.950 --> 00:14:05.629 powerful and significant positions is a narrative 00:14:05.629 --> 00:14:08.169 tool just as much as it is a tactical description. 00:14:08.629 --> 00:14:10.590 So what does this all mean? Why does this matter 00:14:10.590 --> 00:14:12.509 for you, the listener, as you navigate the world 00:14:12.509 --> 00:14:15.230 today? It's a powerful reminder of media literacy. 00:14:15.669 --> 00:14:18.509 Essential media literacy. Whether you are prepping 00:14:18.509 --> 00:14:20.710 for a business meeting, catching up on the morning 00:14:20.710 --> 00:14:22.990 news or researching global history out of sheer 00:14:22.990 --> 00:14:26.919 curiosity, the metadata. like that reliability 00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:29.360 warning banner or the domain extensions in the 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:31.720 footnotes, is just as important as the data itself. 00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:34.360 The context of where the numbers come from is 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:36.740 the only way to truly understand what those numbers 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:38.639 are trying to tell you. Acknowledging the source 00:14:38.639 --> 00:14:41.299 does not necessarily mean dismissing the event 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:43.600 entirely. Good point. The battle happened. The 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:46.600 siege was real. Men died. But understanding the 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:48.820 lens through which the event is being shown to 00:14:48.820 --> 00:14:51.519 you is the foundation of critical thinking. It 00:14:51.519 --> 00:14:53.539 allows you to see the difference between raw 00:14:53.539 --> 00:14:56.460 tactical data and curated historical narrative. 00:14:56.860 --> 00:14:59.000 Okay, let's do a quick recap of the massive amount 00:14:59.000 --> 00:15:01.179 of ground we've covered today. We took a deep 00:15:01.179 --> 00:15:03.799 dive into a tiny four -day window in June of 00:15:03.799 --> 00:15:07.539 1981 called Operation Commander -in -Chief. We 00:15:07.539 --> 00:15:10.220 saw how a three -kilometer advance in the Abaddon 00:15:10.220 --> 00:15:13.200 and Darkoven regions was utilized as a grueling, 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:16.200 highly lethal test run to break an agonizing 00:15:16.200 --> 00:15:19.159 stalemate. It paved the way for larger, subsequent 00:15:19.159 --> 00:15:22.220 operations like Salmonella May and Tarical Quads. 00:15:22.539 --> 00:15:24.960 The stepping stones of the conflict. And perhaps 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:28.019 most importantly, we saw how this one tiny slice 00:15:28.019 --> 00:15:31.759 of Kuzestan province served as a microcosm for 00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:35.080 an eight -year global conflict, a proxy war that 00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:37.919 somehow managed to pull in over a dozen international 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:40.539 powers and superpowers. It is a lot to process, 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:42.620 but I want to leave you with a final lingering 00:15:42.620 --> 00:15:45.769 thought to explore on your own. When you look 00:15:45.769 --> 00:15:48.850 at the source's massive cascading timeline of 00:15:48.850 --> 00:15:51.309 back and forth operations from names like Scorch 00:15:51.309 --> 00:15:54.690 Sword all the way to Eternal Light, you see a 00:15:54.690 --> 00:15:57.529 relentless machine of offensives spanning nearly 00:15:57.529 --> 00:16:00.149 a decade. A machine that never stops. Never. 00:16:00.210 --> 00:16:03.129 If a single operation that cost well over a thousand 00:16:03.129 --> 00:16:05.409 casualties and left dozens of armored vehicles 00:16:05.409 --> 00:16:07.470 burning in the desert was considered merely a 00:16:07.470 --> 00:16:09.970 test for a three kilometer advance, how did the 00:16:09.970 --> 00:16:12.110 architects of war ultimately measure the value 00:16:12.110 --> 00:16:14.370 of human life against the value of geography? 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:17.620 That is a heavy but absolutely essential question 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:19.559 to carry with you. Thank you so much for joining 00:16:19.559 --> 00:16:21.759 us on this deep dive today. Keep reading, keep 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:23.759 exploring, and most importantly, keep questioning 00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:26.679 the contest of the information you consume. We 00:16:26.679 --> 00:16:27.539 will catch you next time.