Word: ayatullah
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Horwitz quotes the late Ayatullah Ruhollah Khomeini as having once said, "There is no fun in Islam." Yet the sartorially and culturally suppressed of trendy Tehran have their ways. The author and his wife are invited to a dinner party at an apartment in an affluent section of the Iranian capital. Once inside, the women slip out of their long, black chadors to reveal miniskirts and low-cut blouses. They are soon drinking bootlegged vodka and wiggling to pop music. Although the guests grudgingly respect the imam and are proud of their heritage, they are sadly aware of their predicament...
...defeats and the debilitating eight- year war that would follow. But hindsight suggests that he would probably have provoked Iran into battle even if he had known all the consequences at the outset. From his point of view, the alternative was worse: the militant Islamic fundamentalism, fanned by the Ayatullah Khomeini, would arouse Iraq's Shi'ite Muslims, some 55% of the population, leading not only to Saddam's overthrow but also to the domination of his Arab state by the descendants of the ancient Persian enemy. Would this really have happened? Saddam did not wait for an answer...
...Iraq purchased weapons from the Soviets, who were eager to extend their influence in the Middle East. Saddam's interest was to counter a U.S.-engineered arms buildup in Iran. Western sympathies shifted against Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, which ousted the Shah and brought the Ayatullah Khomeini to power. After Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, France proved to be a willing supplier. China and 25 other countries also fueled the eight-year conflict by selling weapons to both sides. The war ended in 1988, but Saddam was not sated. With an eye toward both Iran and Israel...
...Guard troops sustained heavy losses in 1986-87, but then became national heroes in 1988, when they penetrated a curtain of shell fire and were instrumental in the recapture from Iran of the Fao peninsula, the engagement that broke the back of the Iranian war effort and persuaded the Ayatullah's men to sue for peace...
...When the Ayatullah Khomeini became the regional monster a dozen years ago, Washington feared he would export his revolution across the gulf. That was one reason the U.S. at the time backed Khomeini's enemy, Saddam Hussein...