Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, marked the 40th anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war last week by praising his predecessor’s decision to drink a “chalice of poison.” That is, to accept stalemate rather than victory.

The Tehran regime called its eight-year struggle the “holy defense,” and the first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, adopted the mantra “War, war, to victory.” Drinking from the chalice of poison amounted to a painful admission that hundreds of thousands had died and the country had endured profound deprivation all for nothing.