A small republic, a country in spirit, lies north of Dagestan and Azerbaijan. It has only about a million and a half people and I am not sure there is consensus about how they want to live, but they have had to deal with choices made by others. The second Chechen war happens to be how a relatively new Russian prime minister made a name for himself; a man whose name we all know; Vladimir Putin...

Following the tumultous revolution and subsequent hostage crisis, Iran's neighbour, Saddam's Iraq thought the timing was opportune to do a land grab.

The strategic miscalculation led to one of the bloodiest 20th century bilateral conflicts and had repercussions that reverberate today.

What happened?

When I was seven years old, one of my friends moved to Tehran with his family. I do not know what his parents did, but I know that they returned in less than a year because of the revolution. I did not know what that meant, but I was glad to have my friend back. Iran felt like an excotic and dangerous place.

Since my childhood Iran has been in the news; for the revolution, the hostage crisis, its support of Hamas & Hezbollah. Why? Why is this the current representation of a civilization that can be traced back to the earliest empires of the world?

Let's try to shed some light...