Posted on 01/14/2009 7:54:38 PM PST by nuconvert
Iran's new leaders built their state on foundations of violence and corruption, making millions of us refugees
Nazenin Ansari / 14 January 2009
Life for me as I had come to understand it ended on 15 November 1977. Standing next to a group of young elementary school children from one of Washington DC's inner-city schools on the Ellipse facing the South Lawn of the White House, I was one of a thousand greeting the visit of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi and his Queen to the United States. The children were waving the US flag and I, a university student, the lion and sun flag of Iran.
Within seconds of the 21-gun salute sounding, hundreds of white-hooded and masked protestors viciously charged into us with brandishing sticks with nails that used to hold their placards and shouting "Khomeini come back" and "Down with Imperialism". The streets around the area turned into a bloody battleground with club wielding anti-shah protestors felling peaceful demonstrators. Tear gas and smoke from burning garbage transformed the Indian summer day into a hazy and mordant one. By the end of the clashes, more than 120 people had been injured.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
pong
I knew lots of Iranians beginning when I went to Navy Jet School in the mid-Seventies through when I went to college.
I liked Iranians, and generally liked the ones I knew. I always thought they could be incredibly down to earth, personable and funny.
I knew some who had to go back to Iran who I felt bad for, and a few who I was happy when they stopped coming to classes and disappeared. The latter were sullen staring kind of guys.
Too bad it had to be like this. I thought having Iran as an ally was a great thing.
Too bad it had to be like this. I thought having Iran as an ally was a great thing.It's pretty funny. Both the left and the western governments were idiots with regards to Iran. Western governments couldn't leave well enough alone and brought in the Shah. The lefties thought the Iranian revolution would lead to a new hippie utopia. Worked out well didn't it?
I suppose if neither side had done anything, Iran might have turned out like Egypt.
That’s not a great option either.
I suppose if neither side had done anything, Iran might have turned out like Egypt.The west would kill for a leader like Mosaddeq today. Too bad the US wanted to suck up to the British and French in the 50's. Another amusing piece of hindsight: Ho Chi Minh asked to be an independent US proxy after WWII. We gave it back to the French. Fools.That’s not a great option either.
Because the French were involved, it was difficult, especially with DeGaulle right after the war and into the Fifties.
Times were certainly different. I suspect Ho would have turned out no different whether a US proxy or not, but we’ll never know.
I thought this was going to be about the GOP.
And by the way, Mosaddeq was a socialist, and was probably closer to being a dictator communist than he was to being a typical beaurocrat.
I am not a big fan of anti-imperialism simply for the sake of being anti-imperial. As Dinesh Desouza said in his book “What’s So Great About America”, being a victim of imperialism was not a bad thing in many cases for India.
And by the way, Mosaddeq was a socialist, and was probably closer to being a dictator communist than he was to being a typical beaurocrat.Hindsight is always 20/20. Mossadeq wasn't a socialist, although his attempts to nationalize Iran's oil wealth might be misconstrued as socialism. The nationalization was more of a result of British shortsightedness(they refused to give the Iranians the same deal as Saudi Arabia) rather than grand socialist ambitions.I am not a big fan of anti-imperialism simply for the sake of being anti-imperial. As Dinesh Desouza said in his book “What’s So Great About America”, being a victim of imperialism was not a bad thing in many cases for India.
That's beside the point though. What interests me is just how poorly we predict the future and how decisions come back to bite us in the end. We're still paying for our decisions 50 years ago today.
Well, if you ever get that time machine running...let me know first...;)
Obama and today's Congressrats are far more radical than in Jimmy's era. There is no telling what Hussein and The Beast at State will screw up.
” As far as the Shah, it’s too bad he left because from what I understand he put jihadists through some rather coercive interrogation techniques”
Actually, to the Shah, the real enemy were the communists. They got the worst treatment.
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