Conclusion

The five themes of geography have allowed us the ability to understand what makes both Iran and Iraq unique. There are few who could not say they were free of pre-described notions of two countries in “The Middle East”. Who would have thought to see a lush mountain range where they assumed was nothing but barren desserts? That two branches of Islam exist, and that the minority branch was the majority in these two countries? Perhaps the most important part of learning these themes was looking at how the people of Iraq and Iran were dealing with the world around them. How they dealt with the limitations brought on by the physical geography around them. Or how they dealt with the atrocities forced upon them by other people. Hopefully in understanding this, we can understand how to help make their situations slightly better in anyway possible. We can begin to view Iraqis and Iranians as individuals with their own unique identities rather than just “Middle Easterners” or “Muslims”. In doing so we can hopefully look past those fears that our global leaders and media feed to us. Fear is the bastard child of ignorance, and ignorance can only be overcome through education.