38 years on: Iraq still divided over Iran war victory anniversary

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Thirty-eight years after Iraq marked the end of its war with Iran, August 8 no longer commands the national consensus the former regime under Saddam Hussein built around it, according to Iraqi analysts, politicians, and citizens who spoke to Shafaq News. Once celebrated as "Great Victory Day," the date has become the subject of an open argument over whether the eight-year war was a military triumph or a ruinous waste.

The Iran-Iraq war began in September 1980 and ended in August 1988 under United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, which demanded a ceasefire and the withdrawal of both armies to internationally recognized borders. The ceasefire took effect on August 8, 1988, the date Baghdad proclaimed its victory.

During the Saddam Hussein era, the commemoration was a major state occasion. Authorities staged celebrations in Baghdad and the provinces, honored soldiers and the families of the dead, and used the day to advance a narrative that the Iraqi army had defended the country's borders and blocked what officials called the export of Iran's revolution.

That official consensus no longer holds. Ahmad Youssef, a political analyst, said Iraqi society is now sharply divided over the meaning of August 8, 1988. One part of the public wants the sacrifices of the Iraqi army remembered and honored, he said, while another regards the war as a futile conflict that drained the country's people and finances and left lasting economic and human damage.

The state itself has stepped back from the date. After the fall of Saddam in 2003, Iraq stopped officially marking "Great Victory Day." The country's official Victory Day is now December 10, tied to the 2017 declaration of victory over ISIS, the extremist group that seized roughly a third of Iraqi territory in 2014. Former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over ISIS on December 9, 2017, and proclaimed the following day an annual national holiday.

School curricula changed as well. Iraqi textbooks moved away from terms used by pre-2003 governments for the war, such as "Saddam's al-Qadisiyyah," invoking a seventh-century Arab victory over Persia, and "the Eastern Gateway," which cast Iraq as the Arab world's frontier against Iran. They began presenting it as a destructive regional conflict, emphasizing its human and economic costs, the debt it left behind, and the international decisions attached to it, foremost among them Resolution 598. A younger generation of Iraqis now learns the war differently from the generation that lived through it.

The Disappearance Of The Commemoration

For some Iraqis, the retreat from August 8 reflects a deliberate national reset. “After 2003, the government chose to turn the page on past wars and disputes with neighboring states and to build relationships based on economic and security cooperation,” Youssef said, adding that Iraq still needs to strengthen ties across the region and the world in a way that serves the sovereignty of the state and its people.

Others read the silence around the date more sharply. Ammar Sarhan, a political activist, said the shift from commemorating August 8 to sidelining it is no longer a matter of administrative choice but “reflects the concern of influential political forces about embarrassing Tehran.” Control over media and the shaping of the public narrative, he argued, has helped marginalize any account of the war told from a nationalist or military perspective in favor of one centered on rapprochement.

Sarhan said accusations of promoting the former ruling Baath party have at times “become a political tool against those who invoke the army's sacrifices, leaving a gap between collective memory and political reality.”

What Victory?

Aqil al-Radini, spokesman for the Victory Coalition (Al-Nasr) led by former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said commemorating the date reproduces a narrative that ignored the war's true cost. The war drained Iraq's human, material, and infrastructure capacities and secured no lasting gain, he said, noting that Iraq ultimately returned to the terms of the 1975 Algiers Agreement it had sought to overturn.

"What victory? Iraq returned in the end to the Algiers Agreement, lost its money and its infrastructure, and paid an enormous human price."

He argued that events after 1988 confirmed the war was not a sustainable strategic victory: “within two years Iraq invaded Kuwait and entered a new phase of wars, sanctions, and blockade.”

Abu Mithaq al-Masari, a political researcher and member of the Coordination Framework, the alliance of Shiite political forces that governs Iraq, said restoring the August 8 celebrations as a "victory over Iran" no longer fits the nature of the current relationship between the two countries. He described the transformation since 2003 as “a move from two enemies at war for eight years to a trade and economic partnership.”

On the other side of the argument, segments of Iraqis, particularly former military personnel and nationalist currents, still see August 8 as an occasion to remember the sacrifices of the Iraqi army and the defense of the country's borders. Each year, images of the former Iraqi army and wartime anthems circulate on social media alongside posts recalling the dead, the destruction, and the policies of the former government.

Sarhan said removing the date from official memory does not resolve the underlying tension. The disconnect between collective memory and political reality will persist, he argued, unless Iraq can construct a historical account that acknowledges the military's sacrifices without turning into praise for the former government.

Written and edited by Shafaq News staff.