What's he on about now?

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   Sunday, November 04, 2007

   IF I MIGHT MAKE A SUGGESTION...

Far be it from me to weigh in on a debate that I know extremely little about (oh who am I kidding? It's never stopped me before) but I think it's time to settle a 72-year-old Middle Eastern debate: is it Iran or Persia?

That's an internal debate, of course -- ultimately, the good people of Iran will call themselves and their country whatever they want -- but it's a timely one because the US government is so very afraid of Iran right now. Despite abandoning the noble efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and despite the (is there a bigger word than catastrophe? debacle? fiasco?) in Iraq, Bush and Cheney are still beating those wardrums, scaring us with tales of WWIII and "the new Hitler" (the last one was Saddam Hussain, for those keeping track at home). It feels like this is all going to end badly.

So, I think one small way for Iranians to slow this train (assuming they can't easily replace their own scary President) would be to change the name of the country back to Persia. Iran sounds too much like Iraq for some people (I once heard someone say, "What's the difference?" Oh, it's a big one) and Persia as a concept still gets a lot of play in Western culture.

While 'Iranian' brings up notions of war and revolution and executions, 'Persian' makes us think of carpets and tea and kittens. Why, it could be the Grandmother to the World! Who'd want to beat up on a little old lady who feeds us dates and naan bread?

Persia -- it just sounds nicer.

Labels: America, George W Bush, Middle East, politics, silliness, war - what is it good for?