This paper will analyze the conflicted and paradoxical legacies of the Iran Iraq war on Iranian polity and society. On the one hand, the war played a major role in consolidating the Khomeinist regime after the revolution by forging new institutions of coercion and governance, mobilizing popular support, and eliminating domestic rivals. On the other hand, the war also created deep and lasting divisions within the new political elite, and between the new state and significant sectors of the Iranian society over the legacy of the war and the nature and the direction of the post-revolution and post-war project. The popular aspirations that were unleashed during the revolution were incorporated into the war experience, but they remain unfulfilled and are a major factor that shape public culture and political practices. This discontent is compounded by the shortcomings of authoritarian and ill-conceived post-war reconstruction, especially in war-torn regions. The imposition of an official interpretation of the “Sacred Defense” effectively silences plural experiences of the war and alternative and more critical analyses of it. As a result, instead of acting as a unifying experience that reinforces state hegemony, the legacy of the war is a widespread resentment that affects public culture and political attitudes. This paper investigates the conflicted legacies of the Iran-Iraq War by using case studies from historical and ethnographic research, as well as professional experiences in urban planning and post-war reconstruction.