…this week announced the appointment of Dennis Ross as the point person in charge of the Iran portfolio at the State Department (but curiously not the White House). In its announcement, however, the State Department referred not to Iran, but to some fictitious place it calls “The Gulf,” a body of water not found on any reputable map.
In doing so, the State Department undoubtedly knew it would tweak the noses of the Ahmadinejad government as well as the Ayatollahs and leadership in Tehran, but it should have also known that Iranians everywhere, of every political stripe, inside and outside Iran, would be equally incensed at what they have perceived over the last few years as an attempt by the U.S. (and its Arab allies) to diminish, distort, and tarnish their history, which they view as glorious and deserving of admiration. As citizens of the only nation in the region wit
