Friday, January 20, 2006
Reading up on Iran
. I love the way Pollack looks at geopolitical problems through the prism of history, and The Persian Puzzle is no exception. I am about half way through it -- which means that I have covered about 2,500 years of Iranian history through the embassy hostage crisis -- and am persuaded by at least one of Pollack's core arguments: That while both the United States government and the American people know very little about Iran, Iran and Iranians have historically had an even poorer understanding of the United States. More tellingly, Iran's national "pride" -- touched on by Charlottesvillain in this post and the linked article -- has historically moved them to think that the United States was far more interested and involved in its internal affairs than it in fact has been. The relationship -- at least until the hostage crisis -- was not entirely unlike the famous exchange (pdf) between Ugarte and Rick:UGARTE: "You despise me, don't you?"
RICK (indifferently): "If I gave you any thought, I probably would."
The hostage crisis forced us to give Iran some thought.
I will return to this theme in a future post. Consider yourself warned.
6 Comments:
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Fri Jan 20, 08:50:00 AM:
By Cassandra, at
Fri Jan 20, 12:08:00 PM:
Is today THE day? If so, ***Happy Birthday!!!***
We're celebrating my poor husband's tonite too. It was yesterday, but we went to a hockey game after work so there was no time.
Life begins at 40, CP. It's true - you'll see. And don't let those young whippersnappers tell you otherwise. I'm older than dirt, and I've enjoyed the last few years immensely :)
By TigerHawk, at
Fri Jan 20, 12:14:00 PM:
Cass, if you're older than dirt, I suppose that makes me as old as dirt. Hmmm.
By 
, at
Fri Jan 20, 08:45:00 PM:
I'm not older than dirt, but I do remember when it was still under warranty...
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Jan 20, 10:03:00 PM:
Yep, got to listen to former Sec of State Warren Christopher (misspelling?) today on NPR try to take credit for getting the Iranian Hostages released. Brought back memories. Three words. Carter. Never. Again.
By SeekerBlog.com, at
Sun Jan 22, 02:31:00 AM:
Thanks for the Pollack recommendation - I respect Pollack's intellectual integrity and am looking forward to my copy.
Nit dept: do you want to edit your post to show Kenneth (not Kevin) Pollack? How do you keep up with all your inputs & outputs under the day job & travel workload? Remarkable!
