They proclaimed that the war had really begun over 1,300 years ago, at the battle of Quaddisiya in A.D. 637, when Muslim Arabs drove the Persians, who are Indo-European, from Iraq. (Iraq was called Mesopotamia then, and until 1935 Persia was the name for Iran.)

In a passionate, bloody series of events later in the seventh century, a split occurred in which the Muslim religion was divided into two main branches, the Shiite and the Sunni. Now Iran is ruled by the Shiites, and is religiously oriented; Iraq is ruled by the Sunnis, and is more secular and socialistic. Iranian leaders emphasize the religious aspects of the war. Iraq the ethnic. The rulers of each country have urged the citizens of the other to revolt against their leaders. There is much disillusionment in Iran over the excesses of the Shiite clergy. In Iran martyrdom is encouraged — at home, in the war, and in terroristic activity abroad. Iraq has been accused of using chemical warfare (courtesy of the Russians) against its enemy. The Muslim world, then, is hardly a monolithic entity; as within Iran itself, the myriad consciousness making up the whole framework are much too varied for the to be true.

At least partially because of their brutal history. Iranians — Persians — are strongly self-centered; preservation of the self is given an overriding impetus. The world is seen as being full of peril. Causality, the interrelation of cause and effect, is often ignored or misunderstood in the Iranian quest for immediate advantage. Influence counts for much more than obligation; the concepts of long-term mutual trust is seen as basically adversarial; goodwill means little. Yet, such egocentric characteristics often are sublimated into the seemingly contradictory practice of martyrdom — the two are united within the Iranian interpretation of Muslim theology. In a land ruled by a body of theocratic law the needs of the country must ultimately prevail, as in the case of attack from without, say. There is no area in which Islamic precepts do not apply.

Rather ironically, not all Muslims want the Americans to leave the Middle East, as the terrorists have announced they must do. And the government of Iran, in spite of its great hatred for our country, is pragmatic enough to join it in a very efficient exchange of large sums of money; these transactions, in part to settle business claims against Iran, are a portion of the arrangements made to free the American hostages.

Attend to what is before us, for it is there for a reason. In each person’s life, and in our own, at each and every point of our existence. The solutions to our problems, or the means of achieving those solutions to our problems, or the means of achieving those solutions, are always as apparent — or rather as present — within our days as is any given problems itself. What I mean is quite simple: The solutions already exist in our lives. We may not have put them together yet, or organized them in the necessary ways. The solutions lie in all areas with which we are normally concerned — mail, blogs, news, our abilities. When we attend to what is there with the proper magical attitude of mind, then the altered organizations can take place.

A belief in a ‘god who provides,’ by whatever name, is indeed a psychological requirement for the good health of the body and mind. Unfortunately, in our society we need every good suggestion we can get, to offset fears and negative conditioning.