It's Wednesday, January 14, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Americans have found ourselves talking about two countries that haven't been a part of our daily conversation.

One of them, even more rare than the

other. We're talking about Iran and Greenland, but let's start with Iran. The reason Iran is front

and center in considerations is because right now it might be the most interesting place on planet

Earth. And that's because demonstrations, particularly of young people, but large demonstrations

have broken out in major Iranian cities unprecedented in the history of the Islamic Republic

in terms of the period from 1979 to the present. So we're talking about a theocratic,

we're autocratic regime. It is Islamic extremism. It is a theocratic state

driven by not only Islam, but in particular the Shiite variant of Islam. There is enormous

distress going on in Iran right now, and Iran, as you know, has been in the headlines of so

much mayhem around the world

since 1979 and what was then known as the Islamic Revolution.

So let's look at history.

First of all, why is Iran so important?

The quick answer is because Iran, better known throughout most of the history of that region,

as Persia going back to ancient Mesopotamia,

has been central to world history, virtually from the beginning of recorded history.

You're talking about one of the most longstanding civilizational traditions on planet Earth,

and by some accounts, the longest.

Of course, there would be a biblical argument to be made against that,

but nonetheless,

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