first of all the Iraqis were not following Soviet doctrine, none of the arab armies ever came close to following Soviet doctrine, their units werent formed right, they certainly werent equipped right, they werent trained right and they certainly didnt maneuver right. Combined arms operations is something the arabs never got. In fact, it was the Israelis who came the closest, to maneuvering like the soviets, using a combination of Soviet (pre-1976 doctrine) and German doctrine (oh the irony). The Soviets changed doctrine in the mid-70’s actually and modern Russia has since changed doctrine twice. The modern Russian army doesnt even man its tank batallions like the USSR did, the Russian tank battallion was seriously rethought in the mid 90’s.
I’d go into more detail but it would take forever.
Needless to say, even in 1989, NATO conventional forces in Europe would have been little more than a speed bump to the soviet army, the afghan war actually led to improved logistics in europe, they were in better shape in 1989 as a army than they were in 1979, to bad as a country they were screwed.
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