Saddam was not the only cause of the war. Ayatollah Khomeini instigated the tension. He was not afraid to express his feelings towards Saddam. Ayatollah thought of him as a "brutal Sunni tyrant" who oppressed his country's Shin majority. After two years of fighting, Khomeini rejected a cease fire offer from Saddan. Rather than avoiding more destruction to his people, he went on the offensive. He attacked in human waves, sending thousands of Iranian boys to their deaths. In 1988, Khomeini finally excepted a cease fire from Iraq. After leaving his country under a pile of rubble for nothing, Khomeini ended his reign with a cup of poison.