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Dramatic Aspects and Blazes in Combatants
Great phenomena and events like the imposed war may bring new features and blazes of culture and art. In the other words, societies create their own special art by passing through historical vicissitudes. The 8-year imposed war of Iraq against Iran is not an exception, but unfortunately, it has not been able to show its impact in dramatic domain. Only in two periods of the sacred defense movies festival, more than three hundred and fifty movies were demonstrated. Although, we may see worthy and prominent works in these festivals, according to festival holders, critics, artists, and writers who have had experiences in this field, the war theater has not been able to take its worthy position and impress the country’s theater yet.
Great phenomena and events like the imposed war may bring new features and blazes of culture and art. In the other words, societies create their own special art by passing through historical vicissitudes. The 8-year imposed war of Iraq against Iran is not an exception, but unfortunately, it has not been able to show its impact in dramatic domain. Only in two periods of the sacred defense movies festival, more than three hundred and fifty movies were demonstrated. Although, we may see worthy and prominent works in these festivals, according to festival holders, critics, artists, and writers who have had experiences in this field, the war theater has not been able to take its worthy position and impress the country’s theater yet.
What the thing to be expected might be our lack of knowledge about war, front’s culture, and combatants’ society apart from reasons related to cultural policy-making of the society’s authorities. The one who is working in this field has to either experience the war himself and be familiar with dramatic skills and techniques or be close to places, time, circumstances, and personalities of the battlefield culture by studying it exactly.
This way, he does not pays attention only to destructive aspects of war impressed by other wars and does not make anti-war works, i.e. works in which there is a desperate and bitter atmosphere, have political tinge, and does not pay attention to combatants’ manhood and underdog defense. According to the writer, the battlefield culture and studying speech, behavior, and writing of the combatants’ society gives us a chance to be more familiar with their lives and understand their mental inconsistencies and delicacies.
Undoubtedly, this can solve the problem of the sacred defense theater somewhat. The 8-year war of Iraq against Iran was full of such dramatic aspects, blazes, and creativities. These blazes and aspects show themselves apparently in behavior, speech, and writing of the combatants’ society. Customs, games, wisecracks, innovations, dreams, slogans, boasts, humors, martyrdom letters, observations, poems, diaries, and memories are big treasures using them we can create new works directly and indirectly. In addition, we can watch behavior, speech, and writing of the combatants’ societies by studying the battlefield culture and make use of these tricks, blazes, and creativities in the dramatic domain. This essay is going to answer the question of “What are these dramatic blazes and aspects and how to make use of them to elevate the theater, and especially, the war theater?”? This question may have two answers.
First, according to David Lesco in the book of “The art of writing war scenarios”? and emphasizing the Chinese thesis, Sun Teso, called “The art of war”? (320 and 400 BC), there are similarities between the art of war and scenario writing in creation of situations. These similarities can help each other to make a great work. Second, war is a rich treasure of dramatic elements itself, and contains some of what is called “Theater and scenario structures.”? We can draw them and use by studying combatants’ behavior, speech, and writings.
We tried to count a selection of its dramatic aspects by a glance to the battlefield culture and behavior, speech, and writings of the combatants’ society. War and general culture of the front
- War is the first machine of history whose parts are made of human beings.
- War is the power game of jobless hunters lead by different communions’ exponents. - War is human’s twin.
- War is a barbaric lifestyle of fighting nomads.
- War is a cancer. (The dominance of warmonger cultures on peaceful ones)
- War provides health for a country.
- War is caused by misunderstanding of common and noble people.
- War is the result of toxicity of Testosterone.
- War is the result of that human is an aggressive animal.
- War is the result of that human’s brain has reached a blockade from the point of evolution.
- War is for gaining benefit or following divine prophets.
- War is a custom and tradition.
- War is an improvement and achievement.
- War is an eternal machine.
- War is resulted from racialism. These words are different opinions about reasons of wars. They are statements that have many hidden facts behind them, but the reality is that there are still wars in every point of the earth everyday. These wars have their own reason of occurrence. The 8-year war of Iran against Iraq was one of these bloody wars of the late 20th century in which “The Saddam’s personality”? and “International system in three levels of superpowers, big powers, and regional powers”? had influential roles.
This war occurred to meet three objectives of overthrow, disintegration, and weakening of this country. This war that lasted 8 years can be categorized in 8 junctures: The first juncture was contriving the war from the beginning of the revolution to Shahrivar 31, 1359. The second juncture was Iraq’s invasion and occupying Iran’s territory from Shahrivar 31 to 30/08/1359. The third juncture was liberation of occupied regions from 17/07/59 to conquest of Khoramshahr. The fourth juncture was chasing and punishing the invader from the Operation Badr to the Operation Ramadan.
The fifth juncture was imposing our conditions on the enemy by gaining a victory from Faw conquest to Halabcheh conquest. The sixth juncture was the formal entering of the international system into the war through approving the Resolution 598 to crashing the Airbus Airplane. The seventh juncture was revealing our fundamental failures in the war from the fall of Faw to approving the resolution. The eighth juncture was resisting of our combatants and getting political victories from renewed attack of Iraq against Iran to Iraq’s acceptance of the Treaty 1975. In this war, Iran mostly relied on its popular forces in spite of Iraq that relied on its modern weaponry. Our combatants were the ones who created epics by their 8-year war and remained a rich culture.
The front culture is now available for us in written form and in approximately tens of volumes. This culture contains three fields of speech, writing, and behavior of common knowledge and culture of the front and shows a great part of our combatants’ behavior, cultural contents, spirit, thought, taste, and imagination through the years of the sacred defense. Undoubtedly, the mentioned culture that is resulted from this 8-year war has many dramatic blazes, aspects, and innovations, which reflects the “Unconscious dramatic instinct”? of combatants’ behavior, speech, and writing and plays an important role in this field. In the other words, according to “Oscar G Bracket, theatrical and dramatic elements can be found in every human society regardless of that these societies are improved and complex or not. These elements are so apparent in dances and people’s elementary customs that they are in political campaigns, demonstrations, athletic matches, religious rituals, and even our childish games. Most of participants in such activities do not consider themselves that they present in a theatrical activity, while, viewers, dialogues, and the collision of ideas are used in them.
We are looking for combatants’ blazes, aspects, and innovations in speech, writing, and behaviors in this essay and will point at dramatic elements in custom, games, wisecracks, creativity, true dreams, slogans and boasts, humors, martyrdom wills, observations, revelations, poems, diaries, and memories. 1. Dramatic blazes and aspects in combatants’ behavior A considerable part of common knowledge of the fronts is specified to the behavioral field of combatants’ society. It is a field that includes customs with subcategories of social, defensive, and religious affairs as well as games, creativity, leisure…. Making toy men, dramatic methods of survival and camouflage, dramatic weapons, voice echo, dramatic language, sports, hobby, leisure, scenery, Nowrooz Eve, Hanabandan celebration, Ashoora, Sham-e-Ghariban, Chafiyeh, dreams…are examples of this culture that have considerable aspects and blazes. Here, we count some of them briefly.
1-1. Making toy men In operational regions, combatants to meet their objectives designed toy men and expose to the enemy. They were sometimes toy men made of clothes filled with brushwood that looked like human beings. They were made of a helmet on a wooden shaft or a gun and were placed behind earthworks, shelters, and ambush canals. The goal of was naturally making the enemy fire at those places and wastes its armaments. In such cases, forces hid quickly in shelters or got away from those places after placing toy men in desired points. Then, it was possible to estimate the amount of armament, kinds of weaponry in the region, and the number of enemy forces behind earthworks and shelters from the amount of firing and the type of armament used in it.
In some other cases, combatants used toy men to draw the attention of the enemy and occupy their mind in a particular point in order to provide the possibility of movement for RPG shooters and machine gunners who were going to destroy enemy targets, machine guns, or shelters. In this case, friendly forces stood farther from the enemy fire position, recognized, estimated desired position according to weaponry fire, and attacked it using the principle of raid. If they wanted to make the enemy be afraid and show friendly forces more than reality, they displaced frequently toy men and put them to show every time in a different place to create the conception of infantry displacement for the enemy. Of course, sometimes our forces wanted to tease the enemy and did it for fun to make them fear and shoot at toy men. This could waste their armament.
Of course, to make these toy men and dramatic tricks used previously in other wars especially in the Second World War, combatants used their innovation according to the time, place, and facilities they have in hand. For example, using a shovel stick and a helmet and putting it in the shelter so that the enemy misunderstands it with a guarding soldier, or using chafiyeh, palm wood stuck together in a cross shape, and dressing overcoats and helmets on these toy men were some of these dramatic innovations. Undoubtedly, this combatants’ behavior reminds us of puppet art.
“A puppet is a lifeless body that is made to move in front of spectaculars by human being’s effort.”? However, there is no spectacular here, the addressee is a soldier in the opposite front, and puppeteers are combatants who try to deceive people in front of them. They are the ones who try to make the enemy misunderstand by putting a helmet on a stick to use once again the old term of “Fancy”? and “Fantasizing.”? Although these toy men are silent and static most of the time, they need to move like puppets.
When they get their shapes and personality by their creator, the inclination to move increases in them. It occurs especially when they know they are used in a great, real, and adventurous aim and are situated in a dramatic position. If we consider the sticks or guns of these toy men as poles, we near the polar puppets. Bill Board says in the book Puppet Art: “A puppet is not a man, woman, or small animal. A puppet must be simpler, sadder, more malicious, and more flexible than their live counterparts.”? There is a lot of simplicity, maliciousness, and sadness in body of these toy men. Although they are not too flexible, they can near the real expression of a puppet when they accompany with a combatant’s dangers and dramatic instinct.
2-1. Dramatic methods of survival and camouflage “Survival and saving life was done in different ways and different reasons. Sometimes, an injured person who had left on the ground in a captured frontline or region might pretend to be dead, and when enemy ignored him or that region was captured by friendly forces, he would survived. Sometimes, our forces understood that the enemy had encircled them. In such situations, they applied martyrs’ blood on their faces and bodies and pretend to be dead. If they had time, they wore quickly Iraqi soldiers’ clothes to get rid of coup de grace of the enemy. Sometimes, they hid themselves under a pile of friendly and enemy corpses. They used to do all of these things in one or two minutes after being informed of being encircled or ambushed.”? In this dramatic behavior of combatants, we can find numerous dramatic elements such as acting, make-up, dress designing, and scene designing.
We can obviously see how human’s acting instinct appears in a special circumstance and gives him a new life. Here, “Scene phobia,”? “Shyness,”? “Losing control of emotions,”? and “Losing control of speech”? or ignoring the factors a human as an actor must work on persistently like “Body, expressing the mind, and emotions”? may result in his death. Maybe, this combatant could get rid of enemy Coup de grace by little experience or exercise he had about such a thing. “In the Operation Faw, we were in the enemy’s siege in a twelve-people group. We tried to camouflage ourselves among corpses. Iraqi forces came over our heads to shoot coup de grace. When they kicked one of our forces, he shouted “Ouch”? unconsciously and they shot the coup de grace into his head. I tried not to show any reflection.
After they went, I ran away and joined the friendly forces.”? Another dramatic element is Make-up. It is an art that tries to have a significant role in dramatic arts like cinema, TV, and theater. Using technique and necessary tools are necessities of this art to make a new personality or create a disguised face in the theater. In the previous section, we pointed at this element. In combatants’ behavior through the 8-year sacred defense against invaders, it can be seen in its natural and original feature. “After the air raid, we were somewhere that was under the heavy fire of the enemy, and so, we could not get out of there. In this situation, our armament ran out too. Some people came to arrest us. I fall down immediately among martyrs’ corpses and made my face and head bloody. They captured my friends, but I did not move, however they kicked my head and chest. Finally, they went and I got rid of them.
My friends came back after 5 years of captivity.”? Dress designing is another dramatic element. This element expresses a special peculiarity of a person and is a tool show the theater atmosphere. Using this dramatic element is apparent in combatants’ behavior when they tried to save their lives as well. “At the first night of the Operation Valfajr II, I was injured and remained in enemy region. When I saw Iraqi forces approaching, I undressed one of them quickly, took on his clothes myself, and pretended to be dead. They shook and tossed me some times, but neither had I moved nor I winked. After they went away, I joined our forces about morning and I was transferred to the hospital.”? To analyze, repeat, review, and express this scene, it is enough to find some other dramatic elements in it.
3-1. Dramatic weapons “Round-the-clock, some cases happened in the region that had our forces use false weapons preplanned or because of not having armament and real weapons when the enemy ambushed. These cases were like putting a Polika or metal tube, lumbers, and logs into shelters or platforms having been designed to fire cannons, placing tanks, flying plastic aflame balloons instead of flares, throwing clods, stones, and bullet shells to the enemy’s shelters, earthworks, or passages, taking sticks, metals, or anything else instead of weapons and grenades by the hand while encountering enemy forces to survive friendly forces and capture the enemy or making him escape. The goals our forces intended in using false weapons were different from according to time and place.
Creating fear in the enemy’s heart so that he does not dare approach the friendly lines or their deployment place is one of their tasks. Pretending to have state-of-the-art armament and warfare, locating in the position of ambush, not carrying weapons, making fun of the enemy to tease it and reinforce friendly forces’ spirit…were other aims of using toy men in frontlines.”? Using symbolic and unreal tools, devices, and weapons instead of real ones is an accepted principle in dramatic arts, especially in theater. It is a principle that has been accepted by actors, scene designers, and spectaculars. Maybe based on this principle, sometimes, combatants used Polika tubes, lumbers, and metal tubes instead of cannon and tank barrels, or they flied aflame balloons instead of a flare.
The difference was that combatants wanted the enemy consider their tools as real weapons, not as dramatic ones. They were going to make the enemy not to understand he had been mocked. “We were near enemy frontline. A boat came and took off some Iraqi soldiers. I told one of our forces who knew Arabic well to tell them surrender. I put a wrench that was in my hand behind one of those soldiers’ head. He assumed it as a gun and started shouting in Arabic, “Take off or he kills me.”? Everyone took off. We disarmed them together and shifted them to the rear.”?
In another front, a combatant used a pitcher as a gun and made his enemy surrender playing the role of a decisive combatant. “I was going to the toilet when I met some of Iraqi patrols. I was alone and I did not have any choice rather attacking them by that pitcher. I emptied its water, took it by two hands, and shouted in Arabic, “Hands up and do not turn back.”? I took them this way to our forces. Someone said, “Why did not you disarm them?”? I answered, “If they turned back and see my weapon, I was not here right now.”?
Dramatic usage of a thing instead of another, or even a thing instead of many things according to theater circumstances, is considered directing and designing innovation. Such a thing is apparent in Iranian combatants through 8 years of the imposed war clearly.“In the Operation Beit-ol-Moghadas II, our battalion was line holder. At nights, we gather black garbage bags. Then, we dyed some wool, cotton, or old cloth with oil, gas, or sludge, tied it with metal wires to mouth of the bag, and burnt it. Smoke caused the bag fly. When it flied, it caught fire very well and moved everywhere quickly.
Then, Iraqi defensive guns started to fire. Our forces made a lot of fun this way as well as reconnoitering enemy position from the place of firing that was, of course, the main goal of our job.”? Such behaviors that had considerable dramatic aspects were apparent in the western, central, and southern fronts. In a place like “Hoor-ol-Azim,”? a combatant put some lanterns in a box with his innovation and sailed it on water to be considered by the enemy as a boat and make them shoot at it.
In addition, in Soomar, another combatant to deceive the enemy and frighten it used another innovative behavior that originated in his dramatic instinct. “In Soomar’s frontline, we chased turtles and tied flash lights to them. Then, we left them into the canal near the front and we turned back. The light of flashlights made Iraqi soldiers shoot at them. They did it for half an hour to one hour until the lights turned off. It was our usual trick for wasting their armaments.”?
What the thing to be expected might be our lack of knowledge about war, front’s culture, and combatants’ society apart from reasons related to cultural policy-making of the society’s authorities. The one who is working in this field has to either experience the war himself and be familiar with dramatic skills and techniques or be close to places, time, circumstances, and personalities of the battlefield culture by studying it exactly.
This way, he does not pays attention only to destructive aspects of war impressed by other wars and does not make anti-war works, i.e. works in which there is a desperate and bitter atmosphere, have political tinge, and does not pay attention to combatants’ manhood and underdog defense. According to the writer, the battlefield culture and studying speech, behavior, and writing of the combatants’ society gives us a chance to be more familiar with their lives and understand their mental inconsistencies and delicacies.
Undoubtedly, this can solve the problem of the sacred defense theater somewhat. The 8-year war of Iraq against Iran was full of such dramatic aspects, blazes, and creativities. These blazes and aspects show themselves apparently in behavior, speech, and writing of the combatants’ society. Customs, games, wisecracks, innovations, dreams, slogans, boasts, humors, martyrdom letters, observations, poems, diaries, and memories are big treasures using them we can create new works directly and indirectly. In addition, we can watch behavior, speech, and writing of the combatants’ societies by studying the battlefield culture and make use of these tricks, blazes, and creativities in the dramatic domain. This essay is going to answer the question of “What are these dramatic blazes and aspects and how to make use of them to elevate the theater, and especially, the war theater?”? This question may have two answers.
First, according to David Lesco in the book of “The art of writing war scenarios”? and emphasizing the Chinese thesis, Sun Teso, called “The art of war”? (320 and 400 BC), there are similarities between the art of war and scenario writing in creation of situations. These similarities can help each other to make a great work. Second, war is a rich treasure of dramatic elements itself, and contains some of what is called “Theater and scenario structures.”? We can draw them and use by studying combatants’ behavior, speech, and writings.
We tried to count a selection of its dramatic aspects by a glance to the battlefield culture and behavior, speech, and writings of the combatants’ society. War and general culture of the front
- War is the first machine of history whose parts are made of human beings.
- War is the power game of jobless hunters lead by different communions’ exponents. - War is human’s twin.
- War is a barbaric lifestyle of fighting nomads.
- War is a cancer. (The dominance of warmonger cultures on peaceful ones)
- War provides health for a country.
- War is caused by misunderstanding of common and noble people.
- War is the result of toxicity of Testosterone.
- War is the result of that human is an aggressive animal.
- War is the result of that human’s brain has reached a blockade from the point of evolution.
- War is for gaining benefit or following divine prophets.
- War is a custom and tradition.
- War is an improvement and achievement.
- War is an eternal machine.
- War is resulted from racialism. These words are different opinions about reasons of wars. They are statements that have many hidden facts behind them, but the reality is that there are still wars in every point of the earth everyday. These wars have their own reason of occurrence. The 8-year war of Iran against Iraq was one of these bloody wars of the late 20th century in which “The Saddam’s personality”? and “International system in three levels of superpowers, big powers, and regional powers”? had influential roles.
This war occurred to meet three objectives of overthrow, disintegration, and weakening of this country. This war that lasted 8 years can be categorized in 8 junctures: The first juncture was contriving the war from the beginning of the revolution to Shahrivar 31, 1359. The second juncture was Iraq’s invasion and occupying Iran’s territory from Shahrivar 31 to 30/08/1359. The third juncture was liberation of occupied regions from 17/07/59 to conquest of Khoramshahr. The fourth juncture was chasing and punishing the invader from the Operation Badr to the Operation Ramadan.
The fifth juncture was imposing our conditions on the enemy by gaining a victory from Faw conquest to Halabcheh conquest. The sixth juncture was the formal entering of the international system into the war through approving the Resolution 598 to crashing the Airbus Airplane. The seventh juncture was revealing our fundamental failures in the war from the fall of Faw to approving the resolution. The eighth juncture was resisting of our combatants and getting political victories from renewed attack of Iraq against Iran to Iraq’s acceptance of the Treaty 1975. In this war, Iran mostly relied on its popular forces in spite of Iraq that relied on its modern weaponry. Our combatants were the ones who created epics by their 8-year war and remained a rich culture.
The front culture is now available for us in written form and in approximately tens of volumes. This culture contains three fields of speech, writing, and behavior of common knowledge and culture of the front and shows a great part of our combatants’ behavior, cultural contents, spirit, thought, taste, and imagination through the years of the sacred defense. Undoubtedly, the mentioned culture that is resulted from this 8-year war has many dramatic blazes, aspects, and innovations, which reflects the “Unconscious dramatic instinct”? of combatants’ behavior, speech, and writing and plays an important role in this field. In the other words, according to “Oscar G Bracket, theatrical and dramatic elements can be found in every human society regardless of that these societies are improved and complex or not. These elements are so apparent in dances and people’s elementary customs that they are in political campaigns, demonstrations, athletic matches, religious rituals, and even our childish games. Most of participants in such activities do not consider themselves that they present in a theatrical activity, while, viewers, dialogues, and the collision of ideas are used in them.
We are looking for combatants’ blazes, aspects, and innovations in speech, writing, and behaviors in this essay and will point at dramatic elements in custom, games, wisecracks, creativity, true dreams, slogans and boasts, humors, martyrdom wills, observations, revelations, poems, diaries, and memories. 1. Dramatic blazes and aspects in combatants’ behavior A considerable part of common knowledge of the fronts is specified to the behavioral field of combatants’ society. It is a field that includes customs with subcategories of social, defensive, and religious affairs as well as games, creativity, leisure…. Making toy men, dramatic methods of survival and camouflage, dramatic weapons, voice echo, dramatic language, sports, hobby, leisure, scenery, Nowrooz Eve, Hanabandan celebration, Ashoora, Sham-e-Ghariban, Chafiyeh, dreams…are examples of this culture that have considerable aspects and blazes. Here, we count some of them briefly.
1-1. Making toy men In operational regions, combatants to meet their objectives designed toy men and expose to the enemy. They were sometimes toy men made of clothes filled with brushwood that looked like human beings. They were made of a helmet on a wooden shaft or a gun and were placed behind earthworks, shelters, and ambush canals. The goal of was naturally making the enemy fire at those places and wastes its armaments. In such cases, forces hid quickly in shelters or got away from those places after placing toy men in desired points. Then, it was possible to estimate the amount of armament, kinds of weaponry in the region, and the number of enemy forces behind earthworks and shelters from the amount of firing and the type of armament used in it.
In some other cases, combatants used toy men to draw the attention of the enemy and occupy their mind in a particular point in order to provide the possibility of movement for RPG shooters and machine gunners who were going to destroy enemy targets, machine guns, or shelters. In this case, friendly forces stood farther from the enemy fire position, recognized, estimated desired position according to weaponry fire, and attacked it using the principle of raid. If they wanted to make the enemy be afraid and show friendly forces more than reality, they displaced frequently toy men and put them to show every time in a different place to create the conception of infantry displacement for the enemy. Of course, sometimes our forces wanted to tease the enemy and did it for fun to make them fear and shoot at toy men. This could waste their armament.
Of course, to make these toy men and dramatic tricks used previously in other wars especially in the Second World War, combatants used their innovation according to the time, place, and facilities they have in hand. For example, using a shovel stick and a helmet and putting it in the shelter so that the enemy misunderstands it with a guarding soldier, or using chafiyeh, palm wood stuck together in a cross shape, and dressing overcoats and helmets on these toy men were some of these dramatic innovations. Undoubtedly, this combatants’ behavior reminds us of puppet art.
“A puppet is a lifeless body that is made to move in front of spectaculars by human being’s effort.”? However, there is no spectacular here, the addressee is a soldier in the opposite front, and puppeteers are combatants who try to deceive people in front of them. They are the ones who try to make the enemy misunderstand by putting a helmet on a stick to use once again the old term of “Fancy”? and “Fantasizing.”? Although these toy men are silent and static most of the time, they need to move like puppets.
When they get their shapes and personality by their creator, the inclination to move increases in them. It occurs especially when they know they are used in a great, real, and adventurous aim and are situated in a dramatic position. If we consider the sticks or guns of these toy men as poles, we near the polar puppets. Bill Board says in the book Puppet Art: “A puppet is not a man, woman, or small animal. A puppet must be simpler, sadder, more malicious, and more flexible than their live counterparts.”? There is a lot of simplicity, maliciousness, and sadness in body of these toy men. Although they are not too flexible, they can near the real expression of a puppet when they accompany with a combatant’s dangers and dramatic instinct.
2-1. Dramatic methods of survival and camouflage “Survival and saving life was done in different ways and different reasons. Sometimes, an injured person who had left on the ground in a captured frontline or region might pretend to be dead, and when enemy ignored him or that region was captured by friendly forces, he would survived. Sometimes, our forces understood that the enemy had encircled them. In such situations, they applied martyrs’ blood on their faces and bodies and pretend to be dead. If they had time, they wore quickly Iraqi soldiers’ clothes to get rid of coup de grace of the enemy. Sometimes, they hid themselves under a pile of friendly and enemy corpses. They used to do all of these things in one or two minutes after being informed of being encircled or ambushed.”? In this dramatic behavior of combatants, we can find numerous dramatic elements such as acting, make-up, dress designing, and scene designing.
We can obviously see how human’s acting instinct appears in a special circumstance and gives him a new life. Here, “Scene phobia,”? “Shyness,”? “Losing control of emotions,”? and “Losing control of speech”? or ignoring the factors a human as an actor must work on persistently like “Body, expressing the mind, and emotions”? may result in his death. Maybe, this combatant could get rid of enemy Coup de grace by little experience or exercise he had about such a thing. “In the Operation Faw, we were in the enemy’s siege in a twelve-people group. We tried to camouflage ourselves among corpses. Iraqi forces came over our heads to shoot coup de grace. When they kicked one of our forces, he shouted “Ouch”? unconsciously and they shot the coup de grace into his head. I tried not to show any reflection.
After they went, I ran away and joined the friendly forces.”? Another dramatic element is Make-up. It is an art that tries to have a significant role in dramatic arts like cinema, TV, and theater. Using technique and necessary tools are necessities of this art to make a new personality or create a disguised face in the theater. In the previous section, we pointed at this element. In combatants’ behavior through the 8-year sacred defense against invaders, it can be seen in its natural and original feature. “After the air raid, we were somewhere that was under the heavy fire of the enemy, and so, we could not get out of there. In this situation, our armament ran out too. Some people came to arrest us. I fall down immediately among martyrs’ corpses and made my face and head bloody. They captured my friends, but I did not move, however they kicked my head and chest. Finally, they went and I got rid of them.
My friends came back after 5 years of captivity.”? Dress designing is another dramatic element. This element expresses a special peculiarity of a person and is a tool show the theater atmosphere. Using this dramatic element is apparent in combatants’ behavior when they tried to save their lives as well. “At the first night of the Operation Valfajr II, I was injured and remained in enemy region. When I saw Iraqi forces approaching, I undressed one of them quickly, took on his clothes myself, and pretended to be dead. They shook and tossed me some times, but neither had I moved nor I winked. After they went away, I joined our forces about morning and I was transferred to the hospital.”? To analyze, repeat, review, and express this scene, it is enough to find some other dramatic elements in it.
3-1. Dramatic weapons “Round-the-clock, some cases happened in the region that had our forces use false weapons preplanned or because of not having armament and real weapons when the enemy ambushed. These cases were like putting a Polika or metal tube, lumbers, and logs into shelters or platforms having been designed to fire cannons, placing tanks, flying plastic aflame balloons instead of flares, throwing clods, stones, and bullet shells to the enemy’s shelters, earthworks, or passages, taking sticks, metals, or anything else instead of weapons and grenades by the hand while encountering enemy forces to survive friendly forces and capture the enemy or making him escape. The goals our forces intended in using false weapons were different from according to time and place.
Creating fear in the enemy’s heart so that he does not dare approach the friendly lines or their deployment place is one of their tasks. Pretending to have state-of-the-art armament and warfare, locating in the position of ambush, not carrying weapons, making fun of the enemy to tease it and reinforce friendly forces’ spirit…were other aims of using toy men in frontlines.”? Using symbolic and unreal tools, devices, and weapons instead of real ones is an accepted principle in dramatic arts, especially in theater. It is a principle that has been accepted by actors, scene designers, and spectaculars. Maybe based on this principle, sometimes, combatants used Polika tubes, lumbers, and metal tubes instead of cannon and tank barrels, or they flied aflame balloons instead of a flare.
The difference was that combatants wanted the enemy consider their tools as real weapons, not as dramatic ones. They were going to make the enemy not to understand he had been mocked. “We were near enemy frontline. A boat came and took off some Iraqi soldiers. I told one of our forces who knew Arabic well to tell them surrender. I put a wrench that was in my hand behind one of those soldiers’ head. He assumed it as a gun and started shouting in Arabic, “Take off or he kills me.”? Everyone took off. We disarmed them together and shifted them to the rear.”?
In another front, a combatant used a pitcher as a gun and made his enemy surrender playing the role of a decisive combatant. “I was going to the toilet when I met some of Iraqi patrols. I was alone and I did not have any choice rather attacking them by that pitcher. I emptied its water, took it by two hands, and shouted in Arabic, “Hands up and do not turn back.”? I took them this way to our forces. Someone said, “Why did not you disarm them?”? I answered, “If they turned back and see my weapon, I was not here right now.”?
Dramatic usage of a thing instead of another, or even a thing instead of many things according to theater circumstances, is considered directing and designing innovation. Such a thing is apparent in Iranian combatants through 8 years of the imposed war clearly.“In the Operation Beit-ol-Moghadas II, our battalion was line holder. At nights, we gather black garbage bags. Then, we dyed some wool, cotton, or old cloth with oil, gas, or sludge, tied it with metal wires to mouth of the bag, and burnt it. Smoke caused the bag fly. When it flied, it caught fire very well and moved everywhere quickly.
Then, Iraqi defensive guns started to fire. Our forces made a lot of fun this way as well as reconnoitering enemy position from the place of firing that was, of course, the main goal of our job.”? Such behaviors that had considerable dramatic aspects were apparent in the western, central, and southern fronts. In a place like “Hoor-ol-Azim,”? a combatant put some lanterns in a box with his innovation and sailed it on water to be considered by the enemy as a boat and make them shoot at it.
In addition, in Soomar, another combatant to deceive the enemy and frighten it used another innovative behavior that originated in his dramatic instinct. “In Soomar’s frontline, we chased turtles and tied flash lights to them. Then, we left them into the canal near the front and we turned back. The light of flashlights made Iraqi soldiers shoot at them. They did it for half an hour to one hour until the lights turned off. It was our usual trick for wasting their armaments.”?
