Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

30 years of exile
Guardian ^ | Nazenin Ansari

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 ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ayatolla; iran; jihad; nazeninansari; pahlavi; regime; shah; slam; totalitarianism
Today is the 30th anniversary of the Shah leaving Iran
1 posted on 01/14/2009 7:54:38 PM PST by nuconvert
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; freedom44; Valin; odds; sionnsar; LibreOuMort; Pan_Yans Wife; Army Air Corps; GOPJ

pong


2 posted on 01/14/2009 7:55:28 PM PST by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert

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.


3 posted on 01/14/2009 8:17:29 PM PST by rlmorel ("A barrel of monkeys is not fun. In fact, a barrel of monkeys can be quite terrifying!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel
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?
4 posted on 01/14/2009 8:21:35 PM PST by ketsu (ItÂ’s not a campaign. ItÂ’s a taxpayer-funded farewell tour.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: ketsu

I suppose if neither side had done anything, Iran might have turned out like Egypt.

That’s not a great option either.


5 posted on 01/14/2009 8:40:30 PM PST by rlmorel ("A barrel of monkeys is not fun. In fact, a barrel of monkeys can be quite terrifying!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel
I suppose if neither side had done anything, Iran might have turned out like Egypt.

That’s not a great option either.

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.
6 posted on 01/14/2009 8:48:19 PM PST by ketsu (ItÂ’s not a campaign. ItÂ’s a taxpayer-funded farewell tour.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: ketsu

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.


7 posted on 01/14/2009 9:38:55 PM PST by rlmorel ("A barrel of monkeys is not fun. In fact, a barrel of monkeys can be quite terrifying!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert

I thought this was going to be about the GOP.


8 posted on 01/14/2009 9:40:47 PM PST by doug from upland (10 million views of .HILLARY! UNCENSORED - put some ice on it, witch)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ketsu

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.


9 posted on 01/14/2009 9:45:13 PM PST by rlmorel ("A barrel of monkeys is not fun. In fact, a barrel of monkeys can be quite terrifying!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel
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.

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.

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.

10 posted on 01/14/2009 10:07:47 PM PST by ketsu (ItÂ’s not a campaign. ItÂ’s a taxpayer-funded farewell tour.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ketsu
LOL...I suppose if it weren't for sunspots, hurricanes, giant metors and...people, I could tell the future pretty accurately!

Well, if you ever get that time machine running...let me know first...;)

11 posted on 01/14/2009 10:16:27 PM PST by rlmorel ("A barrel of monkeys is not fun. In fact, a barrel of monkeys can be quite terrifying!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert
At first, I thought this was a thread about Republican exile lasting 30 years. It won't happen. 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.
12 posted on 01/14/2009 10:53:49 PM PST by TheThinker (Shame and guilt mongering is the Left's favorite tool of control.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nuconvert
We can thank Jimmy Carter for modern Iran. Where we once had an ally, the world has a terror state. The fallout of his numbskull policies led directly to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war, much of modern terrorism and possibly a future nuclear exchange.

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.

13 posted on 01/15/2009 4:22:07 AM PST by Jacquerie (Islam is a barbaric social and political system in religious drag.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: TheThinker

” 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.


14 posted on 01/15/2009 5:41:28 AM PST by nuconvert ( Khomeini promised change too // Hail, Chairman O)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson