When we lived in Toronto, some of my closest friends were from Iran (and Afghanistan). When our son Marcus turned one on September 28, 2001, we celebrated the event with them, just a couple of weeks after 9/11. A significant and influential part of my doctoral studies focused on Iron Age Iran. Some of my favorite professors while in graduate schools were born and raised in Iran who had an intimate knowledge of the area (Christy Wilson at Gordon-Conwell, Bill Hutchison at Harvard and Cuyler Young at the University of Toronto).
However, in spite of my love for the land and its people, I cannot quite bring myself to joining in the jubilation and celebration coming from the general direction of 1600 Penna. Ave. The Islamic Republic of Iran is still a terrorist state and an active sponsor of terrorists. An adoring press will be tempted to make comparisons with the Nixon/Kissinger deal with China, but the analogy breaks down so fast so as to make it quite meaningless. In recent months, cool heads including Dr. Kissinger in a great essay co-written with George Shultz, have warned of the folly to sit down with the "ayyatolahs."
I am also reminded of an old movie, The Heroes of Telemark where the Norwegian Resistance put an end to Nazi hopes for nuclear power during WWII. From a strategic standpoint, for Nazi Germany to go nuclear was simply unacceptable in the eyes of the Allies and no cost was spared to stop the production of "heavy water." We are such a long way from such determination by the Great Powers.
So let's keep Persia on our minds and in our prayers. The world just got a little more dangerous as a result of this agreement.
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