Iran

Kemal Ataturk in Turkey and Reza Shah Pahlavi were involved in modernizing, secularizing, and Westernizing their countries.

Weakening of the Clergy: Many of these political reforms were done to increase the secularization , as a result, the Muslim clergy, which had historically had a large role in governance of the Turkish and Iranian States had their political roles threatened. Education, which had previously been religious, was stripped of that element, which further weakened the clergy and the religion. Finally, both leaders jailed clerics they disagreed with and standardized weekly sermons in order to direct the religion in the country.

Westernization Values: Westernization imparts different social values than the ones that Islamic clerics considered valuable. For example, Westerners value a person more often by his productivity than by his character and humility. This resulted in vast infrastructural developments, industrial growth, and an opening to international commerce.

Nationalism over Pan-Islamism: Both Turkish and Iranian Reforms strengthened nationalist ideologies and supported the uniqueness of Turks and Iranians by discussing their particular histories and values. This resulted in the development of new historical narratives.

Most of the Persian defeats in the 50 years of warfare between the Greek city-states and Persia were either sea or sea-land battles, not land battles involving just the army.

The single land battle of Plataia in 469 BCE was won by the Greek forces sticking defeating the inferior unsupported Persian infantry.

In 1979, in anger at the United States' refusal to render the deposed Shah back into Iranian custody, Iranians loyal to the Khomeini regime stormed the US embassy and took all of the embassy personnel hostage.

In the minds of many, the reason the United States went to war with Iraq is still not clear. The historical account goes like this:

Saudi Arabia had been asking the US for a long time to leave their country, but the U.S. did not leave. That made one particular man named Osama bin Laden angry and he hatched several terrorist attack plans against the U.S, the most devastating being the attack on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon. Then he went into hiding. President Bush vowed to hunt down bin Laden, and the U.S. declared war on Iraq. The reason given to the public was originally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; however, no weapons were found. The public was later told that the U.S. Was in Iraq to instill democracy.

Unfortunately, not finding any weapons of mass destruction left doubts in many people's minds about the "real" reasons the U.S. went to war with Iraq. It also came to light that bin Laden was trained by the C.I.A and that the bin Ladens were visitors to the White House on several occasions, In addition, during the time when all planes were grounded on 911, it was alleged that President Bush flew bin Laden's brother out of the U.S. Since 911, there have also been doubts raised about the events that occurred that day and whether bin Laden was really responsible for it, along with allegations that the U.S. Made billions of dollars from the sale of weapons to Iraq.

So, there is the historical account, but in many people's minds we may never know the real reasons the U.S. went to war with Iraq.

The numbers were even at the battlesite at Salamis - the Persians had lost ships in a storm, they were deluded into sending a third of it to cover the back exit of the sea. This was further evened by the Persians having to split their fleet to go around both sides of the Island of Psyttalia, and had to go in line ahead to get through the straits. This allowed the waiting Greek fleets to attack their ships on on a broad front. As the course of the battle and the result showed, it was uneven in favour of the Greeks.

When the invasion by Xerxes became imminent in 480 BCE, the city-states met in a council to determine their strategy. There were some difficulties they had to overcome: * First, Xerxes' agents had alread been through Greece in a softening up campaign, with bribes and promising dissident factions in the cities that they would become the rulers of their cities under his overall rule. The council was therefore unsure who was reliable and who had 'Medised', but certainly suspected cities such as the Thessalians and Thebes which would be the first to be run over by Xerxes' forces and therefore most likely to switch sides. * Second, Xerxes had a superior fleet (drawn from Phoenicia, the Greek cities of Asia Minor and the islands, and Egypt). This gave him the amphibious capability to attack any of the cities near the coast (which most were) one by one. So the cities were reluctant to send out their armies to a joint force against the invasion, but kept them at home to defend their cities. The states of the Peloponnese talked of building a wall across the Isthmus of Corinth, and sending some of their soldiers to man it, but this was a sham as the Persian fleet could simply outflank this and land soldiers directly at the cities, and the contingents would never actually be released from their cities. Athens knew it was exposed, and made plans to evacuate the city, sending the families to cities in the Peloponnese for sanctuary, with all its manpower, including its infantry, manning its 200 warships. Athens and Sparta sent an expeditionary force of 100 ships and 10,000 infantry north to the pass at Tempe to act as a delaying force and stiffen the resolve of the northern city-states. The king of Macedonia, who had no option but to side with Xerxes, sent secret word to them that Xerxes intended to bypass this by cutting an inland road, so this expedition was withdrawn. The plan was then resolved that the only way to free the southern cities to come out and fight was to destroy the Persian amphibious capability. As the Persian fleet was almost twice the size of the Greek one, and had larger ships, it was determined to arrange to engage it in narrow waters so that the Greeks would not be overwhelmed. The strait between the island of Euboea and the mainland was selected, and small forces sent from several of the cities to block the land route at the Thermopylae pass to force the Persians to send their fleet through the strait nearby to outflank the land blockage. The pass was held for three days, and on each day a naval engagement was fought, with the combined Greek fleet coming off second best. It was withdrawn to the Strait at Salamis for a second attempt there, which was successful. The Persian amphibious capacity was broken, and Xerxes could not even protect his sea supply line and had to take half his army home as the countryside could not support them over winter. As planned, no longer threatened by Persian amphibious attacks, the cities of the south joined their forces at Plataia the following spring and defeated the remaining half of Persian army and its Greek allies. At the same time the Greek fleet destroyed the rump of the Persian fleet at Mykale in Asia Minor.
By xerxis trying to take over the greek empire

There were 72 hostages and 72 were returned from Iran.

It is unknown at this point whether Iran does or doesn't have nuclear weapons at its disposal.

Iran is a big issue for watchdogs these days. It is a topic of extreme caution. If they ever do get to posses them, the weapons have to be transported in order to launch them and it is a process. The location of Iran makes this process a very complicated one to attack on the main us but certain American targets in other places of the world could be threaten. Right now the swine flu should be more worry some that Iran launchiung a nuclear attack on the US but is something to keep an eye for.

-It is more likely that Iran will sell supplies for making nuclear weapons than that they will use them any time soon.

A coalition of southern Greek city-states led by Sparta.

The question as worded is not helpful. The Shah was ruling a country that is overwhelmingly Moslem, therefore any force that overthrows him will be constituted of Moslems. (A similar question would be "Was Louis XVI overthrown by Christian forces?")

The question you are most likely trying to ask is "Was the Shah of Iran overthrown by Islamist forces?" where Islamists are those who seek to implement political manifestations of Islam. The Islamic Revolution did not start out as being led by the Islamists but during the late part of 1978, they began to have substantially larger role. By the time the Shah left, the Islamists led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were able to move into the power vacuum he left and crush all of the liberal dissenters.

Persia was was the official name of Iran in the Western world before March 1935 (as per Wikipedia)

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis that lasted from November 4, 1979 until January 20, 1981. Members of the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam's Line, a group of militant university students who were supported by the new Islamic regime, held 63 diplomats and three additional U.S. citizens hostage inside the American diplomatic mission in Tehran, Iran. Fifty two people, not including those who were released, were held hostage until the conclusion of the crisis. The United States attempted a rescue operation named Operation Eagle Claw. The operation failed, resulting in the deaths of five USAF Airmen and three US Marines. Some political scientists argue that the crisis was one of the primary reasons for U.S. President Jimmy Carter's defeat in the U.S. Presidential Election of 1980. The crisis reached its conclusion with the signing of the Algiers Accords. On January 20, 1981, the hostages were formally released into United States custody after spending 444 days in captivity. The release took place just minutes after Ronald Reagan was officially sworn in as president.
In November of 1979 55 americans were taken hostage.They were kept for over a year.On January 20,1981 the hostages were released.It was the same day that Ronald Reagan became the 40th president of the United States.

For the moment, Iran does not need to attack Israel. Its proxy armies like the Syrians, Hezbollah, and Hamas (all funded by and/or trained in Iran) are doing a sufficient job attacking and fighting Israel. If Israel or the United States declares open war on Iran, however, Iran will retaliate by attacking Israel since its missiles can reach targets in that area.

From Libya to the Middle East and to Central Asia.

It means "Aryan" and is derived from this word. Iran used to be called "Persia" - Land of the Aryans - before 1935 and the Shah changed it to Iran.
Aryan.

Riza-i-Abbasi was the most famous painter, Persian miniaturist, and sculptor of the Safavid era under Shah Abbas.

Right now Israel is not in any active war. Although two of it's close neighbors - Lebanon and Syria never reached peace or normalized relations ever with Israel you could say Israel is still at war with them de jure. But the truth is that since the 80's First Lebanon War, there were no significant border incidents between Israel and Syria that could even be a hint of an aggressive action.

As for Lebanon - the war in 2006 - The Second Lebanon War was not fought between the governments of the two countries. The Lebanese government actually was very quiet about the hot action going on in their country because that was Israel fought against Hezbollah - a terrorist, militant organisation influenced by Iran and frankly that terrorist organisation holds the Lebanese government by the junk and it can take it down any time. That's why it seems that this war was with "Lebanon" but actually the Lebanese government wasn't really involved so to say the fighting was Israeli-Lebanese is not very accurate.

Israel also has a de jure war with the Palestinian Militant Group Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip. This has flared up into open conflict in the winter of 2008-2009 and the autumn of 2012.

America cannot even defeat a 3rd world country such as Iraqi or Afghanistan. The war with Iraqi and Afghanistan had been devastating to the USA economy.

Americas goal was always just to threaten Iran into military action so they would stop developing nuclear weapons but war with Iran is highly unlikely as Iran is a moderate country with a good economy.

War with Iran would destroy Americas economy and might even start World War 3.

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Think about it this way.

Iraqi - 3rd world country (poor country)

Afghanistan - 3rd world country (poor country)

Iran - Good stable economy

If USA is losing a war against Iraqi and Afghanistan then how will they do against Iran?

The only way for USA to win the war would be to bombard the country to death and killing hundreds of thousands or even millions of people to win the war but every country would repell against America which even Americas allies would turn sides and fight against America.

Darius was a Persian.

They first defeated a Persian force at Granicus and massacred the Greek mercenaries hired by the Persians to give them the armoured infantry they lacked - this stopped Greeks hiring themselves out in future, and so left the Persian unarmoured infantry to face Macedonian armoured soldiers.

They then captured the coast of the eastern Mediterranean Sea which stopped Persia operating naval forces against mainland Greece, thus securing their home cities and source of recruits while they fought in Asia.

They then defeated the Persian main force at Issus and captured the Persian treasury, giving them the financial resources to pay and feed their soldiers and augment their mercenary archers, light infantry and cavalry..

With this augmented force they then attacked the main Persian force again at Gaugamela and defeated it decisively. Coordinated resistance ended and they picked off the rest of the Persian piece by piece over the following few years.

The Iran Contra scandal was about senior administration officials secretly selling weapons to Iran. They hoped that this would cause some U.S. hostages to be released.

180,000 Persians won. This took place in the battle of Thermopylae. Leonidas and his army of 6,000 to 7,000 Spartans but were delayed by the Persians when a Greek traitor showed the Persians how to attack from both sides. Leonidas commanded all of his soldiers to escape except for 300 Spartans.

Herodotus of Halicarnassus.