Consider the sources....ping.
Posted on 05/26/2006 11:13:28 PM PDT by neverdem
IT is easy to label Iran's quest for nuclear energy a dangerous adventure with grave regional and international repercussions. It is also comforting to heap scorn on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his earlier denial of the Holocaust and his odious call for the obliteration of the state of Israel. The rambling intransigence expressed in his recent letter to President Bush offers ample insight into this twisted mindset. Yet there is something deeper in Iran's story than the extremist utterances of a messianic president and the calculated maneuvering of the hard-line clerical leadership that stands behind him.
We tend to forget that Iran's insistence on its sovereign right to develop nuclear power is in effect a national pursuit for empowerment, a pursuit informed by at least two centuries of military aggression, domestic meddling, skullduggery and, not least, technological denial by the West. Every schoolchild in Iran knows about the C.I.A.-sponsored 1953 coup that toppled Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Even an Iranian with little interest in his or her past is conscious of how Iran throughout the 19th and 20th centuries served as a playground for the Great Game.
Iranians also know that, hard as it may be for latter-day Americans and Europeans to believe, from the 1870's to the 1920's Russia and Britain deprived Iran of even basic technology like the railroad, which was then a key to economic development. At various times, both powers jealously opposed a trans-Iranian railroad because they thought it would threaten their ever-expanding imperial frontiers. When it was finally built, the British, Russian (and American) occupying forces during the Second World War made full use of it (free of charge), calling Iran a "bridge of victory" over Nazi Germany. They did so, of course, after Winston Churchill forced the man who built the railroad, Reza Shah...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
defending the enemy has been called treason in the past. thought there was a law...
And a pity we don't have a modern day Churchill to face down dinner-jacket and the mad mullahs today.
I have hopes that Pres Bush will stick to this one. He has done pretty good in foreign affairs (stuck with the Iraq thing, etc.) (Don't get me started on domestic affairs however.)
I thought it was a very good article. He did however, neglect to mention the need to keep some dictators in power in the fight against the commies.
i am missing your point
How do you know if the author is a U.S. citizen? The Constitutional requiements for treason are pretty strict, IIRC. I posted it for the history prior to the 1950s.
I'm not going to bother to read all the way to the end of this propaganda to see the part where he says that we just just 'talk' to the nutbags and stop accept their explanation that they need nuclear power (cuz that oil is just to hard to turn into electricity) as a sign of national pride.
I bet this apologist author knows Madeleine HalfBright very well.
Make no mistake, the current Iranian state is run by some twisted people that do not like the US. But condemning them as a country and people would be like condemning the Polish people for being a part of the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. If it was not for the current regime, the US would likely have very good relations with Iran in the same sense that the US has historically had close ties with the Polish people despite its transient occupation by the Soviet Union.
The Iranians are essentially decent and educated people with no antipathy for the US under the thumb of an oppressive anti-US regime, as has happened many times in history. It would do us well here to remember this, though I expect that the US government does remember this. If we handle this situation well, we can come up smelling like roses.
Oh, do I literally hate to read such comments. Guess why?
Read comment# 6 and what I wrote in comment# 8. You can't understand an enemy without some knowledge of their history. I wrote it for the history prior to the 1950s.
Saw your comments and generally agree. History is a good thing and I won't even question the historical account. Its the spin under which it was presented by the 'historian' which I object to. There is a bunch of people out there now trying to create the no-confront approach to Iran right now.
Persians!
They are the Mullahs' weak spot.
I hope we are encouraging the Persians and their Persian identity.
That Persians, with their might history, must choose, must make their hard choice. That all things must come to pass and now it is the time for the Mullahs to pass away.
It is time the Persians rise again. Time to throw off the yoke of Islamic slavery and lead their proud and storied nation, Iran, to a new beginning of freedom, modernization and shared wealth with the nations of the world.
Overthrow the Mullahs.
That a new Iran, a Persian Iran, rises as a trusted member of nations among the world, a nation respecting her citizens and a nation who respects the other nations of the world. A nation whose history demands remembrance, a nation who can stand tall in her homeland; Iran. A nation trusted to be at peace with the all other nations.
Overthrow the Mullahs.
The Mullahs' only deliver slavery. Stand by faith.
Overthrow the Mullahs.
Persians!
Being a Persian. An Iranian! Being free of the Mullahs' yoke.
We welcome you.
from the 1870's to the 1920's Russia and Britain deprived Iran of even basic technology like the railroad, which was then a key to economic development.
Western technology was denied. They still had flying carpets.
At the turn of the 20th century the Shah of Persia contributed money to the building of the Hejaz railroad that ran between Damascus and Medina. Is the author saying that the Shah of Persia was unable to do the same in Persia?
Not a perfect summary. But one needs to grasp their view of regional history to see how they shape propaganda against the West.
Yeah..well we all remember the sacking of Athens too.
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