Iran. Iran so far away.

[ilthuain]

Lately I've been subjected to a heapin' helpin' of dumb concerning Iran. Now, I don't expect everyone to have my expertise on the subject (I read a whopping THREE books about modern Iran), but holy peanuts people have been spouting some grade A gibberish. People are talking about Iran like we have never ever ever never ever done anything nasty to

Comments

YOUNG KIDS AND THEIR ROCK AND ROLL AND POGS

[frenchpresser]

What a fucking dumbass. I feel horrifically enraged and embarrassed just reading that. And possibly due to this I suddenly have diahrrea right now, regardless of how it's spelled.

[circuit_four]

People are talking about Iran like we have never ever ever never ever done anything nasty to them and they only hate us because of "Freedom", "Those Levis Jew Pants", and "That Hippity Hop Sex Music."

The shit? People are actually saying they hate our culture?! Talk to anyone who's ever worked in the Arab/Farsi world -- I know I'm preaching to the choir here -- and they'll tell you that's BULLSHIT, especially in Iran. They hate our foreign policy. They can't get enough of our freakin' culture. They'll preach a firestorm against the Great Satan... while they've got a halal Big Mac in one hand, a pair of tickets to a Pixar flick in the other, and a Jordache logo across their ass. If you need backup, I can getcha quotes from pro journalists to that effect...

[expandranon]

Stop making sense!

[aaroncity]

I think to be on the safe side we should arm both sides of the Ahmenidijad-Mousavi split so we can be assured of backing a winner in this race.

[bikerwalla]

Hell, that's just good business, son.

[cerilian]

What books do you recommend for educating one's self on Iran, Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East, the history of American intervention, etc?

[ilthuain]

"All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer is a good starter on Iran, but for a more comprehensive title, I'd definitely go with "The Great War for Civilisation" by Robert Fisk. Fisk is one of the few people who writes about the Middle East from a western perspective who has any authority on the matter, mostly because the subjects he writes about he witnessed personally.