On Thu, 2 Jul 2009, Shane Mage wrote:
> The "long-running war?" At a very early stage Saddam Hussein offered to
> end the war by restoring the pre-war boundaries--exactly the terms of
> the ultimate settlement.
Yeah, after he attacked unprovoked in order to grab land -- and soon found himself obviously losing and in danger for his survival. The only reason he didn't get entirely knocked out of power -- which the Iranian Islamic republic would have naturally loved, uniting the two large majority shiite states in the world, and freeing the Iraqi shiites from religious suppression -- was because the US and the gulf states held him up with finances, and because he resorted to chemical weapons. Khomeini refused to answer like with like because it he considered such weapons of mass destruction to be against Islamic principles. And that's when he agreed to a draw.
At least that's the narrative given by Dilip Hiro in _The Longest War_.
Michael