A few words, if I may.
I personally know quite a few Iranians. Only some Iranians are Persians; to say "Persia" is like to say "Virginia", not all Americans are Virginians.
Persia meant as the ancient heartland of Iran is a nation as old as history itself.
Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes are Persian kings mentioned in the Old Testament.
The Persians made war against ancient Greece more than once, are regularly depicted as "evil" (see the film "300") but were actually more civilized than the Greeks themselves.
Only once in history were those lands "defeated", by Alexander the Great; not always by military battle, as more than one local ruler (Satrap) switched sides from Darius to Alexander to keep his position and save his own dinasty.
During the Roman Empire, the Romans expanded east to seize Anatolia (modern turkish peninsula) Syria and Palestine (which included modern Jordan).
However, Mesopotamia, the Fertile Crescent, lay beyond the Iraqi desert; the Romans tried more than once, but never succeeded
in defeating the Persians (mentioned as "Parti") and more often than not the Persians proved to be more than a match.
The Persians were the only people to resist the Arab onslaught to propagate Islam.
True, they converted; not all, as their original religion, Zoroastrism, is still alive and well, and is perhaps the oldest surviving religion on earth, along with Judaism.
The Persians "educated" the furious mongol hordes into civilized city dwellers, and the raging turks into civilized rulers and administrators.
Anyone who has read "the 1001 Nights" (which, by the way, is so decent you could read it as a bedtime story) will realize the grandeur of the Caliphs of the Middle Ages, when Rome, London and Paris were little more than oversize villages.
Science as we have today has been handed down to us by the Caliphs of Baghdad, Damascus, Teheran and Shiraz.
Throughout time Iran has been sovereign and independent, and has never been invaded nor defeated, with the sole exception of Alexander in the 3rd Century BC.
Even Russia never succeeded in invading Iran.
My advice ? Leave Iran alone. Do business with Iran, but don't mess with Iran.
Iran is an old dog with quite a few tricks up its sleeve, and could prove to be more than a match for anyone who have to "import" their military a few thousand miles just to sit on the border.
To the best of my recollection, the only time the US attempted anything against Iran in the last 30-50 years was with Operation Eagle Claw, and we all remember how it ended.
Even Israel is wise enough to bout in a shouting match, but no more.
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