It's time for the United States to hold Iran accountable.

If you ranked the civilizations that have most affected the course of human development, Persia would be near the top of the list. We forget this because in recent centuries, the states that have ruled in Iran have been either weak or isolated from the rest of the world.

Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, that has changed. There was even a short-lived moment when it seemed Iran was poised to predominate in the Middle East. This was right before the Syrian civil war broke out, as I explain below. That chance collapsed, and Iran has been consigned to a secondary regional power for the near future.

The four maps below explain why.

To see the four maps and read the rest of the Forbes article click here.