Word: shahs
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Jimmy Carter's second term disappears without a trace, and the Shah of Iran is no longer mentioned as a steadfast ally of the U.S. Egypt has a sharply different role: now it is assumed not to be a reliable Soviet client state but, in alliance with Saudi Arabia, a force that extinguishes Libyan extremism, helps to impose moderation on the Israelis and thus stabilizes the Middle East. Otherwise, our next spasm of global bloodshed remains much as imagined four years ago in The Third World War: August 1985 by retired British General Sir John Hackett...
...rarely sees a mullah on the street, a clear sign of how hated the clergy are. Khomeini, once the idol of the people, has managed to become as hated as the Shah, if not more. The reason he has managed to retain his power is simple: a minority of Iranians are ferociously committed to him. But the people who do not support him have become cautious for two reasons: the regime's medieval brutality and their bitter disillusionment with revolutionary change. They are not willing to trust another leader easily, fearing a new, perhaps even more devastating betrayal...
...cost of the war is being felt here, not because the Iraqis are losing on the battlefield but because this nearly landlocked country is experiencing a severe economic pinch after 23 months of fighting. The vastly superior Iranian navy, which the Ayatullah Khomeini inherited from the late Shah, has effectively sealed off the vital Shatt al Arab waterway. With the exception of military hardware, which is flown in, Iraq's supplies must arrive by land routes from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Result: astronomical consumer prices. A quart bottle of drinking water costs $25. If you are desperate...
...Baghdad corners people coming in from the southeastern city of Basra, wanting to know what is happening near the front. The exodus of panicky Europeans from Basra has become a virtual flood, and the anxiety there about the future is reminiscent of the feeling in Iran during the Shah's last days...
...against the blowing sand. An Iraqi bulldozer is pushing the corpses into a hastily dug burial ground. Pennants were found among the bodies, reading NEXT STOP, AN NAJAF, the Shi'ite holy city in central Iraq where Khomeini spent 14 years in exile plotting the overthrow of the Shah...