Impact of Revolutionary Ideology on the Military in Time of War Case Study

<p>The interaction between politics and military professionalism is a delicate balancing act in war. When the politics involves a revolutionary ideology military professionalism can be subordinated to the point of hurting the war effort. The Iranian revolutionary regime was in the midst of converting its military into an Islamic armed force when attacked by Iraq in 1980. The Iranians embraced a revolutionary as a prime component at all three levels of war often at the expense of military professionalism. At the strategic level the Iranians expanded their war aims to include establishing an Islamic republic in Iraq. At the operational level the Iranians failed to integrate the efforts of its two armed forces the Army and the ideologically driven Revolutionary Guards. At the tactical level they used the zealous spirit of religiously inspired troops with mixed results. The failure to balance the professional with the ideological was very costly in both lives and money and eventually caused Iran to have to settle for peace on terms short of its political goal.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>