The war continued for another six years under the slogans `War, War until Victory,` and `The Road to Jerusalem Goes through Karbala,` but other countries, particularly the Soviet Union gave crucial aid to Iraq. The Iraqis also used chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers. As the costs mounted and Iranian morale waned, Khomeini finally accepted a truce called for by . By 1988, Iran was nearly bankrupted by the ruinous costs of the war and its manpower pool also exhausted. The Iranian Army in desperation began resorting to using boys as young as 14 in human wave attacks against Iraqi machine gun emplacements. Khomeini remarked that agreeing to peace with Iraq was "like drinking poison", but there was no other choice. Although neither borders nor regimes were changed the war helped to `awaken the people and to fight the problems that threaten the revolution,` according to future president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. An estimated 200,000 Iranians were killed and the war is estimated to have cost Iran $627 billion in total direct and indirect charges (in 1990 dollars).