Week of Dec. 4, 2006

Most Americans used to live near a graveyard in the 18th century. That changed in the 19th century, when big cemeteries were on the edge of the cities and became destinations.... [But by the 20 th century an aversion to dealing with death had made cemeteries places that people] went out of their way not to go to.

I saw McCain on television the other day uttering some nonsense about Iran seeking hegemony in the region for the last 1,000 years. There hasn't even consistently been an Iran over that kind of timeline. Nation states like Iran always claim ancient patrimonies, but they are actually mostly modern phenomena. In the 800s, the Abbasid Empire, an Arab dynasty based in Baghdad, ruled what is now Iran. In the 900s and 1000s, the Buyid Empire based in Iran invaded what is now Iraq and ruled both the Mesopotamian valley and the Iranian plateau. Then you have a Turkic Central Asian empire like the Seljuks. And what about the Mongol Empire, which included both Baghdad and the Iranian plateau in the 1200s and 1300s? Making up an eternal Iran that is always an aggressor seeking hegemony is just an exercise in historical whimsy. In fact, even modern Iran has not aggressively invaded another country for two centuries.

Senators should please not misuse history for mere politics.