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One of the most brutal wars of the recent past was the 1980s Iran / Iraq war. Saddam was our proxy punisher, our agent for breaking Iran. During one engagement in the swamps, the forces of Iraq used massive electrical generators to slaughter hundreds of Iranian conscripts struggling through the mud. Their bodies where then used as roadbed material -- four corpses side by side, followed by another four-corpse layer, rotated 90 degrees, rinse and repeat. The Ayatollah Khomeini blessed seven-year old boys, gave them shiny plastic martyr's medals (made in China), and sent them into the front ranks of battle to serve a human minesweepers.

Iran is (at the moment) filled with people who love Americans and hate their rulers. On September 12, 2001, vast crowds in Tehran lit candles and grieved with our shocked nation. One reason for this affection is the hatred their ruling mullahs hold for the USA. A pundit I loathe said in a rare moment of insight,

The legacy of the war with Iraq is an Iranian population in which two-thirds of the Iranian population is under 25 and where the average age of the mullahs who conducted it is somewhere around 75. Most of the generation of students who launched the revolution are dead. Their children view the revolution as a catastrophe that killed their parents and has stolen their freedom.

Meanwhile, the Iranian cinema is flourishing.

Be sure to rent Majud Majudi's film The Color of Paradise. The filmmaker obviously loves his country, and spectacular rural scenery frames the human melodrama. Keep in mind the theme of generational conflict as you watch a lad who longs for familial connections. A venal, self-centered, shame-ridden man trying to distance himself from his blind son. A traditional matriarch who worries about what her son is doing to his own soul, by his refusal to do right by the grandson. It's interesting how this Muslim filmmaker used a Christian metaphor -- the father is repeatedly shown washing his hands.

Finally, take note of which characters actually get to “see the face of God,” the stated goal of life for Muslims as well as Christians.

Despite persecution, Christianity is flourishing in Iran. They got the Islamic utopia they wanted -- and many decided they really wanted something else!

Let's see -- wasn't there another Muslim country in the neighborhood with a strong and legally protected Christian minority? Not any more -- Iraq now has an Islamic constitution, and more than half of their Christians have fled for refuge from a homeland they've occupied for 4,000 years.

Now who is there out there with a grudge against both Muslims and Christians? And a tidy little stockpile of 130+ atomic bombs? Who refuses to sign on to the nuclear nonproliferation agreement? And whose interests appear to trump those of American voters, taxpayers, and service personnel?