Talking with Persia, spreading out the carpet

Imagine the high culture of the Persian court—and its dense, complex, artful language. Imagine yourself arriving in Persepolis 2,500 years ago, an outlander from a distant region the Persians considered barbaric and uncivilized. Themistocles was smart; he decided to learn the language and understand the culture.

When US envoy Ryan Crocker met yesterday with Iran’s Hassan Kazemi-Qomi in Baghdad, he expressed no interest in the multilayered history of Iran, and he did not choose to communicate in the subtle Persian language. Instead...