Eye-raq or Eee-raq , that is the question...., Even Bush gets it right! Options

[Hellfighter]

Ok, a bit of a lighter thread for this forum.
Yesterday while watching Bush give a highly unusual solid performance at a televised talk with military families [down to earth and no bravado] a student speaker from the audience stood up to ask the Prez a question.....about "...Eye-raq..... blah blah?"
It was pretty funny when Bush responded; he said Eee-raq and Eee-ran a few times and he put emphasis on the words obviously in an attempt to educate the speaker and others into pronouncing it correctly.

My question is why do alot of Americans like to say Eye-raq and Eye-ran? In the 80s hostage crisis, nobody said Eye-ran - this seems to be a recent 'phenomenom' .... it's like it would be goofy to say, Eye-ndia, or Eye-ndiana. If you don't have an answer let's have a poll to see who here actually says Eye-raq.

At least pronounce it like us Canucks.... Eh-raq, Eh-ran....>joke

[pezking]

You say tomato, I say apple. What's the difference?