The thousand nations of the Persian empire are pissed off about 300
Via Matthew Yglesias, I see IRNA reporting that the government of Iran is not pleased with the movie 300: Government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham said Tuesday that the movie called `300′ insults the culture of world countries. The statement was made in response to the question raised about the anti-Iran movie dubbed `300′. The government spokesman ...
Via Matthew Yglesias, I see IRNA reporting that the government of Iran is not pleased with the movie 300: Government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham said Tuesday that the movie called `300' insults the culture of world countries. The statement was made in response to the question raised about the anti-Iran movie dubbed `300'. The government spokesman referred to the movie as part of the extensive cultural aggression aiming to degenerate cultures of world states. Elham noted that the Iranian nation and those involved in cultural activities will respond to such a cultural aggression.... The movie has fabricated the history with depicting a war between Iran and Greece, whereas, no Greek king dared to stand up to the Persian Empire or the Emperor Xerxes. Though Sparta's King Leonidas cherished such a dream, but, he lost his head and Iranian fighters threw his head before Emperor Xerxes's feet and told him that he had attempted a suicide attack to Persian Army. Though Matt and I have had some differences on Iran, I agree with correct lesson he from this tidbit of information: It's interesting that even Iran's contemporary theocrats regard themselves as the heirs to all the pre-Islamic Persian empires. Which goes to show how misleading it is to frame US-Iranian disputes as part of an apocalyptic struggle with "Islamofascism" rather than a sort of banal (but not unimportant!) situation issue where the government of Iran is seeking to assert its interests in the neighborhood where governments of Iran have traditionally sought to assert themselves.UPDATE: Azadeh Moaveni suggests in Time that ordinary Iranians are equally ticked off about the movie.
Via Matthew Yglesias, I see IRNA reporting that the government of Iran is not pleased with the movie 300:
Government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham said Tuesday that the movie called `300′ insults the culture of world countries. The statement was made in response to the question raised about the anti-Iran movie dubbed `300′. The government spokesman referred to the movie as part of the extensive cultural aggression aiming to degenerate cultures of world states. Elham noted that the Iranian nation and those involved in cultural activities will respond to such a cultural aggression…. The movie has fabricated the history with depicting a war between Iran and Greece, whereas, no Greek king dared to stand up to the Persian Empire or the Emperor Xerxes. Though Sparta’s King Leonidas cherished such a dream, but, he lost his head and Iranian fighters threw his head before Emperor Xerxes’s feet and told him that he had attempted a suicide attack to Persian Army.
Though Matt and I have had some differences on Iran, I agree with correct lesson he from this tidbit of information:
It’s interesting that even Iran’s contemporary theocrats regard themselves as the heirs to all the pre-Islamic Persian empires. Which goes to show how misleading it is to frame US-Iranian disputes as part of an apocalyptic struggle with “Islamofascism” rather than a sort of banal (but not unimportant!) situation issue where the government of Iran is seeking to assert its interests in the neighborhood where governments of Iran have traditionally sought to assert themselves.
UPDATE: Azadeh Moaveni suggests in Time that ordinary Iranians are equally ticked off about the movie.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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