Iran and Iraq: Not the Same

Today I read a shocking story on Time Magazine's website about ties between al-Qaeda and Iran in the months and years leading up to Sept. 11.

I know what you're thinking. Iran? What? Did they change the spelling of the word "Iraq"? Perhaps you even think your little cub has committed a typo. But believe it or not, my friends, Time stands by its story. The article is quite adamant that Iran is the country that had al-Qaeda ties.

Now at this point you may have another question: Why did the U.S. invade Iraq if Iran is the one that plotted to attack us? I've thought about this a lot, and I think the only explanation is that the U.S. somehow got the two countries confused.

It's an easy mistake to make -- who hasn't had trouble with spelling and geography? But I decided I wanted to have this Iran-Iraq thing down cold, no matter how much work it took. I set aside a few days to do some serious investigating, and eventually managed to track down the object you see above: a map.

Now that we've acquired it, let's give our map the careful analysis it deserves. As you can see, the map seems to indicate that Iraq is next to Iran, and that -- yes -- the spelling of their names is remarkably similar. Yet for all their similarities, the map indicates, Iran and Iraq are different. They are not the same.

I hope this clears some things up. My only regret is that the vice president and president didn't hear about this sooner.