[arjie]

Illinois has 12 m people and a GDP over $1 trillion. I doubt most foreigners could place it on a map. There is no significant difference that it is part of a federation and Iran is not. People oversell these kind of Instagram sound-bites. It's really not a big deal.

I'd suspect most Americans have a relationship with far-off suffering the same as me: it's sad and I think we should contribute to alleviating it, but if I encounter sufficient sanctimony about it I'd rather go live my life.

[niemandhier]

The parent comment is provocative and impolite, so you are right to refute it.

On the other hand, I’d like to point out that few countries have foreign policies as obsessed with Illinois as the US government is with Iran.

The average person probably also has no political opinion on Illinois or their governments policy with respect to Illinois, something which I would assume to be different with respect to Iran in the US.

[TiredOfLife]

Illinois is not currently supplying drones and rockets to russia. Is not financing terrorist organizations around the world

[RobertoG]

The problem is: that could be the relation that most Americans have with Iran, but, unfortunately, it's not the relation that USA has with Iran.

[don_esteban]

Now, compare the cultural history of Illinois and Iran/Persia.

And yes, being a part of federation does make a lot of difference. How many China provinces can you name? (Not even asking you to point them on the map).

[epolanski]

No offense but you can't compare a us state to one of the most important and ancient countries on the planet.