História recente do Irão

Nota: Se acharem estranha a animosidade do Irão contra os US, digam lá donde vem essa estranheza. Ainda assim, os sinais de abertura gradual no Irão já se faziam sentir antes da inútil operação no Iraque, existindo muitos sinais de que também poderá ser completamente inútil e até contraproducente a ingerência externa no regime do Irão para uma mudança forçada e apressada, que a acontecer apenas complicará uma possível futura transição interna pacífica (tal como no Iraque).

As desgraças que o mundo sofre na mão de burocratas e idealistas intervencionistas com boas intenções...

"Fewer people in the U.S. than in the Middle East are aware that the CIA, in a 1953 mission, code-named Operation Ajax, overthrew the first democratically elected leader of Iran. ("Iran coup mastermind Kermit Roosevelt dies," Honolulu Advertiser, 6/11/00, see also, Solberg, Carl, Oil Power, pp. 196-7)

In 1953, the elected, very popular, Md. Mossadegh had asked the British government's oil concessionaires for a 50/50 split of revenues, a split that American oil companies had already granted in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. When the British government refused this split in revenues, Mossadegh did to Iranian oil what the British government had long before done to British oil: he nationalized it. In response, and worrying that Mossadegh would cozy up to the Soviets, western intelligence agencies engineered his overthrow and replaced Mossadegh with Shah Reza Pahlavi.

Iran's oil revenues were then evenly split between U.S. and British oil companies. Nice for US oil companies. Shah Pahlavi maintained his dictatorial rule for the next 25 years through the support of the CIA, which trained his own secret police, the SAVAK.

Throughout this time the CIA was well aware that the SAVAK was responsible for torturing and killing Iranian political dissidents, perhaps as many as 10,000. Not nice for US/Iran relations nor for the popularity of the Shah. And not nice for the dead.

...

After 25 years of US supported dictatorial rule, Shah Pahlavi was finally overthrown by a fundamentalist revolution in 1979. Understandably, suspicion and hostilities were then very great between the governments of the U.S. and Iran.

Soon thereafter, the U.S. government commenced its support of Saddam Hussein in his 8-year long Iraqi invasion of Iran that left a million people dead. The US usually condemns such invasions, but not this one.

On the contrary, the U.S. supplied at least a billion dollars of military support to Saddam Hussein, perhaps much more. This was supplemented by more than $20 billion of support from the rulers of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, rulers who also feared similar fundamentalist uprisings against their own despotic regimes.

All the while, Saddam Hussein's murderous tactics were known and excused. The Iranians tried to block the oil trafficking that was financing Saddam's war machine, poison gases and all.

The US sent a Naval fleet to guarantee "freedom of the seas," a policy that even resulted in an airborne Iraqi attack that killed 37 American sailors on the USS Stark. But the killing of American sailors was excused because, at that time, Saddam was the ally of US politicians and their desire to crush Iran. (Now American sailors are being sent to risk their lives to enforce a blockade against Iraq, the opposite cause for which the 37 American sailors died in the 1980's.)

Oh, yes, it was also then that the US was supplying the Iranians during the Iran-Contra affair. Together, the 5 permanent members of the Security Council of the UN supplied 95% of the weapons used in the region. The US even supplied Saddam Hussein with anthrax from public health facilities in the US and had the US taxpayer pay for it all with EX/IM loan guarantees. Nice for the weapons lobby.

Saddam Hussein was "America's ally," like Noriega, Mobutu, Suharto, Papa Doc, Samosa, Pinochet, Marcos, and others before.

I don't think that George Washington would have approved of any of these alliances. "

For a look at my philosophy of liberty, please see my book web site: http://jonathangullible.com/