From 1980 to 1988, Iran and its western neighbor Iraq fought one of the bloodiest and most futile wars of the late twentieth century. The precise number of fatalities is unknown, but certainly reaches into the hundreds of thousands. And, as war retrospectives inevitably point out, neither side gained an inch of territory. Yet, Middle East Report 257, “The Iran-Iraq War 30 Years Later,” it is not quite right to conclude that this “senseless” conflict left no legacy but death and destruction.