<P> The war came at a great cost in lives and economic damage - a half a million Iraqi and Iranian soldiers as well as civilians are believed to have died in the war with many more injured and wounded - but brought neither reparations nor change in borders . The conflict is often compared to World War I, in that the tactics used closely mirrored those of the 1914--1918 war, including large scale trench warfare, manned machine - gun posts, bayonet charges, use of barbed wire across trenches and on no - mans land, human wave attacks and Iraq's extensive use of chemical weapons (such as mustard gas) against Iranian troops and civilians as well as Iraqi Kurds . </P> <P> By the eve of the Invasion of Kuwait which led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the army was estimated to number 1,000,000 men . Just before the Persian Gulf War began, the force comprised 47 infantry divisions plus 9 armoured and mechanised divisions, grouped in 7 corps . This gave a total of about 56 army divisions, and total land force divisions reached 68 when the 12 Iraqi Republican Guard divisions were included . Although it was said at the time in Western media that Iraqi troops numbered approximately 545,000 (even 600,000) today most experts think that both the qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the Iraqi army at the time were exaggerated, as they included both temporary and auxiliary support elements . Many of the Iraqi troops were also young, under - resourced and poorly trained conscripts . Saddam did not trust the army; among counterbalancing security forces was the Iraqi Popular Army . </P> <P> The widespread support for Iraq during the Iran--Iraq War meant Iraq had military equipment from almost every major arms - selling country . This resulted in a lack of standardization in this large heterogeneous force, which additionally suffered from poor training and poor motivation . The majority of Iraqi armoured forces still used old Chinese Type 59s and Type 69s, Soviet - made T - 55s from the 1950s and 1960s, and some T - 72s from the 1970s in 1991 . These machines were not equipped with up - to - date equipment, such as thermal sights or laser rangefinders, and their effectiveness in modern combat was very limited . The Iraqis failed to find an effective countermeasure to the thermal sights and the sabot rounds used by the M1 Abrams, Challenger 1 and the other Coalition tanks . This equipment enabled Coalition tanks to effectively engage and destroy Iraqi tanks from more than three times the distance that Iraqi tanks could engage . </P> <P> The Iraqi tank crews used old, cheap steel penetrators against the advanced Chobham Armour of these US and British tanks, with disastrous results . The Iraqi forces also failed to utilize the advantage that could be gained from using urban warfare--fighting within Kuwait City--which could have inflicted significant casualties on the attacking forces . Urban combat reduces the range at which fighting occurs and can negate some of the technological advantage that well equipped forces enjoy . Iraqis also tried to use Soviet military doctrine, but the implementation failed due to the lack of skill of their commanders and the preventive air strikes of the USAF and RAF on communication centers and bunkers . </P>

Iraqi army is the best in the world