This week happens also to be the 25th anniversary of the
liberation of Khorramshahr, a bloody Iranian victory during the eight-year “imposed war” against Iraq. All week footage of the fighting has been broadcast on television, even filling the half-time gap in the European football cup final between AC Milan and Liverpool (which soccer-mad Iranians watched avidly). The Iran-Iraq war cost Iran
hundreds of thousands of lives, helping to consolidate the very revolution Saddam Hussein had foolishly attacked. Posters of the martyrs still adorn the streets of Tehran.