WRETCHED PROSPECTS

On 17 September, 1980 President Saddam Hussein announced Iraq's unilateral abrogation of the 1975 Algiers agreement with Iran which defined the shared sovereignty of the two countries of the Shatt al Arab waterway. Five days later the Iraqi army invaded Iran, and the Iraqi air force struck at targets deep inside Iran. Many observers at once foresaw that the war would bog down in an inconclusive military stalemate. Despite the disruption of Iran's military forces by political purges, expert military assessments put Iraqi armed forces as not much better.