For most Americans, Iran and its leadership are largely beyond comprehension.Memories of American diplomats held hostage haunt our foreign policy in the region. With the withdrawal from Iraq all but completed and the troops coming home from Afghanistan, few Americans in mid 2012 welcomed the prospect that the United States in the run up to the Novemberpresidential election might be involved in yet another Middle East conflict, this time involving nuclear weapons and a former US ally, Iran as the target. Spring had been a time when the tom-toms of war were beating loudly. Retired air force generals with close links to the Pentagon appeared on television to draw lines on the map of the vast territories between the Mediterranean, the Caspian Sea and the Indian Ocean showing how high flying drones would identify nuclearinstallations U.S. bombers would destroy them. The US Navy dispatched a second and prepared a third aircraft carrier battle group to join the one already deployed in the Persian Gulf. A former White House strategist told the readers of the WallStreet Journal that with “half a million New Yorkers facing a 1 in 20 chance of annihilation [the President) should order the US armed forces to attack and destroy [enemy targets] with massive ordnance penetrators; fuel air detonationswith almost the force of nuclear weapons; high powered microwave attack destroy Iran’s laboratories and its electrical grid.”President Barack Obama’s comment was that this “war talk” could be counter productive.” But, is it? Sir Eldon Griffiths with 30 years of experience in the British Parliament also has spent years in Iran and his book brings a fresh look at Iran. Read Less