New Brutality in a Long War

Increasingly desperate after 7 1/2 years of brutal and profligate war, Iraq has now decided to wage a campaign of anti-civilian terrorism against Iran, and the Tehran regime has been quick to respond in kind. With this, a brutal new phase opens in a war that has long since become distinguished for its political and strategic pointlessness. In the past each country made occasional half-hearted raids on the other’s capital. This week Tehran and Baghdad became primary targets. Judged by the number of missiles fired, Iraq can claim the edge in this new battle of the cities. Judged by the damage done, neither side--typical in this war--can brag of any gains.

Iraq seems to have at least three purposes in mind with its calculated escalation of the long war. It hopes to demoralize Iranian civilians, and perhaps in so doing have some influence on the parliamentary elections that are scheduled for April. It would like--or so some of its officials claim--to goad Iran into launching a major ground attack that Iraqi officers say they are confident of stopping, with heavy casualties to Iran. Finally, it seeks to pressure the U.N. Security Council into acting on a long-delayed resolution to impose an arms embargo on Iran.

Iraq’s weapons-of-choice in this process are apparently Soviet-made Scud missiles, the same weapon--again, typical of this war--that Iran has used to attack Baghdad. The Scud, not a notably accurate weapon to begin with, has been modified by Iraq in a way that makes it even less so. Neither side is even pretending that it is shooting at military targets. The missiles are indiscriminate weapons, and, cities being what they are, civilians inevitably become the chief casualties.

The Iranians, who apparently got their own Scuds from Syria and Libya, are furious with the Soviet Union for supplying missiles to Iraq. The Soviets, as it happens, have been one of two foot-draggers on the effort in the United Nations to cut off arms to Iran; China, a major supplier of weapons to Iran, is the other. The Soviets seem to have tilted toward Iraq in selling arms, while working hard to maintain their political standing in Iran. It’s ironic that this standing, earned in part by helping to prevent a vote on a U.N. arms embargo, is now threatened because of the missiles that the Russians have sold to Iraq. The civilians in Baghdad and Tehran who are dying now in the exchanges of Soviet-made missiles are, of course, unlikely to appreciate the irony.