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What if the Shah of Iran had remained: 35 years later
FSM ^ | 9/28/14 | Slater Bakhtavar

Posted on 09/28/2014 7:45:32 PM PDT by freedom44

In 1979, after a long campaign of political pressure applied by the Carter administration in the United States, the Shah of Iran fell to the Islamic Revolution, ending a tradition of monarchic rule that had persisted in Iran for thousands of years since the rule of Cyrus the Great. The stage was set for the rise of the Ayatollah, and the establishment of a theocracy in Iran that, today, most Iranians do not even want. But what if none of that had ever happened? While a momentous departure from actual history, it is not nearly so far-fetched as it sounds. It isn't difficult to imagine that, beset by strife as the Shah was at the time, the opposition of a major world power like the United States was the final straw that brought the monarchy to an end, and it is not even clear why President Carter chose to engage in such opposition. While there were some human rights concerns taking place under the Shah, as Carter noted, these pale in comparison to the atrocities committed by the sorts of Islamic extremists that have since risen to power in Iran and found a more conducive environment in the Middle East generally. Let's see what else would have been different had Carter relented, and the Shah remained.

(Excerpt) Read more at familysecuritymatters.org ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: anniversary; iran; persia; shah
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1 posted on 09/28/2014 7:45:32 PM PDT by freedom44
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To: freedom44

To this day you see people blaming the Shah for the rise of the ayatollahs.

They still do not understand that he fought on two fronts holding the communists and the ayatollahs at bay his entire adult life.

Or they do understand and hate him for it.


2 posted on 09/28/2014 7:48:53 PM PDT by marron
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To: freedom44

Jimmah Catarrh is a walkin’, talkin’ suppurating pilonidal cyst!


3 posted on 09/28/2014 7:49:32 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra (Don't touch that thing Don't let anybody touch that thing!I'm a Doctor and I won't touch that thing!)
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To: freedom44

The Shah was dying of cancer and probably could not have done much. Maybe if he had made his Son the Shah then he could have more strongly fought off the Ayatollahs.


4 posted on 09/28/2014 7:49:36 PM PDT by yarddog (G)
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To: freedom44

Jimmy Carter did what he did because he feared the above scenario could happen.


5 posted on 09/28/2014 7:50:42 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle (If America falls, darkness will cover the earth for a thousand years.)
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To: freedom44

There is a pattern in that part of the world, of dictators being removed, and radical Islam rising up after dictators are gone.

It happened in a number of countries. Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, come to mind. Could it be that these dictators were able to keep radical Islam in check? And now the genie is out of the bottle? Just a thought.


6 posted on 09/28/2014 7:50:50 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (s)
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To: marron

“They still do not understand that he fought on two fronts holding the communists and the ayatollahs at bay his entire adult life.”

Exactly right. However the liberals always try to rewrite history. Jimmy Carter takes the full blame for this.


7 posted on 09/28/2014 7:51:34 PM PDT by Parley Baer
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To: freedom44

What if we had let Spain keep Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898? Cuba would be a lot better off than it is under Castro. And we wouldn’t have idiots trying to make PR a state.


8 posted on 09/28/2014 7:52:01 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: freedom44

It must really suck to be Iranian and see pictures from 40 years ago and see a more modern world than the one they live in now.


9 posted on 09/28/2014 7:52:03 PM PDT by cripplecreek ("Moderates" are lying manipulative bottom feeding scum.)
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To: freedom44

If he had remained in power, he would be the oldest head of state in the world.


10 posted on 09/28/2014 8:00:24 PM PDT by Oliviaforever
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To: freedom44
Well, Rummy wouldn't have gotten chummy, with a mustachioed Hussein, because we wouldn't have needed a proxy to attack Iran.

No WMD sales to Saddam, he probably wouldn't have over thrown Kuwait. So no gulf wars.

11 posted on 09/28/2014 8:01:34 PM PDT by rawcatslyentist (Jeremiah 50:32 "The arrogant one will stumble and fall ; / ?)
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To: freedom44

A few years back, Glenn Beck had a compelling interview with Rocky Sickmann who was a USMC guard when the embassy was stormed. Sickmann detailed how they had been given orders not to resist and defend the embassy grounds and had been told to stand down. He recalled the mobs had a few women in the front as human shields, and to this day he regrets not pulling a trigger. Sickmann has been very successful in his later life; at the time of the interview he was a senior executive for Anheuser Busch in charge of their entire military sales program, but in the interview he said he would have given up his entire future, his job, his kids, his grandchildren for the opportunity to go back and pull the trigger. It’s his belief that the Beirut USMC bombing, the 93 WTC bombing, 9/11 etc. were all a direct result of the US not standing to defend its embassy on November 4, 1979.


12 posted on 09/28/2014 8:02:20 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: marron

You’re right. The Shah imprisoned Communists and Islamic Fundamentalists who were terrorists. There were groups like MKO/MEK and Islamists groups detonating bombs inside of Iran. It was Iran’s war on terror but the Carter Administration saw it as something entirely different.


13 posted on 09/28/2014 8:02:47 PM PDT by freedom44
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To: cripplecreek
It must really suck to be Iranian and see pictures from 40 years ago and see a more modern world than the one they live in now.


14 posted on 09/28/2014 8:06:34 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: freedom44

Definitely sounds like a far better scenario than what happened in reality.


15 posted on 09/28/2014 8:07:41 PM PDT by ReformationFan
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To: Oliviaforever
'If he had remained in power, he would be the oldest head of state in the world.'

Pahlavi was born in 1919 and was 60 when he died in 1980. Michael I of Romania was born in 1921 and was ousted by the Communists in 1947. He is not only the oldest surviving head of state from WWII, but is also the last surviving person to have held field marshal (five star equivalent) rank during the war.

16 posted on 09/28/2014 8:11:03 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: freedom44

I blame carter for the complete lack of paragraphs!


17 posted on 09/28/2014 8:12:55 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (Zimmerman, Brown, Fast & Furious, IRS harassment, Philly ignorance: holdering in 1st degree)
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To: freedom44

What is wrong with these Democrat Presidents. They are certainly showing they are not on the side of America.


18 posted on 09/28/2014 8:20:53 PM PDT by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: rawcatslyentist

Who are you saying sold WMD to Saddam Hussein?

Or are you saying because Rumsfeld “got chummy” and shook hands with Saddam Hussein, that means a WMD sale was a done deal?


19 posted on 09/28/2014 8:22:37 PM PDT by rlmorel (The Media's Principles: Conflict must exist. Doesn't exist? Create it. Exists? Exacerbate it.)
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To: freedom44
and it is not even clear why President Carter chose to engage in such opposition.

Seeing as his sponsors in running for office were among the Rockefeller clan, I can't imagine why. /s

20 posted on 09/28/2014 8:28:37 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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