The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of distinction between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
-- Sir William Francis Butler
In The Longest War, Dilip Hiro describes the causes and courses of the Iran-Iraq military conflict and its effect on the two antagonists, as well as the rest of the world. He reveals the intricate twists and turns of international diplomacy and the realpolitik behind the rhetoric, providing a comprehensive and admirably balanced account of the political and military aspects of the "longest war."