I’m getting sick and tired of all of this saber rattling from the US. The president of Iran (I’m not going to attempt to spell his name) recently spoke at Columbia University. The guy’s a jerk, and he has some views that are indefensible. Be that as it may, Columbia did invite him to speak, so I find the remarks of Columbia’s president to be way out of line. He called Iran’s president a “petty dictator” which really showed his ignorance of Iran and it’s political situation. Iran elected him, and as much as he might want to be a dictator, everyone knows that the real power is with the clerics. Any problems you might have with Iran (and there is plenty to be upset about) can be laid at the clerics feet.
What is really frosting me is the fact that the US has never, and probably will never admit to any of the reasons why the Iranian government does not like the US. The US had an instrumental role in overthrowing the elected leader of Iran and installing the Shah in 1953. By all accounts, the Shah was an awful ruler, but he wasn’t a communist! That’s all the US cared about. In 1978, the Iranians deposed the Shah, took over our embassy, and held the embassy workers hostage for over a year. Now that’s pretty bad, but I still gotta say that overthrowing their government and installing a dictator was probably a worse thing… Later on we backed Saddam Hussein in his war with Iran. As far as I can tell, we did this mostly out of spite, still stinging from the whole embassy thing. The Iranians know what a monster Saddam was, he used chemical weapons against the Iranians while we were backing him. That war was the equivalent of WWI for Iran, they lost an entire generation, the number of casualties was awful. The US is currently backing an organization called the MKO. They have been responsible for numerous bombings in both Iran and Iraq. By any other measure they would be considered a terrorist organization, but we refuse to allow the Iranians to strike their base of operations that is inside Iraq.
What’s pretty clear to me is that the US has systematically screwed around with the Iranians for decades, and for what? For the Iranian’s retaliatory storming of our embassy and holding our people hostage? Is that enough of a reason to continue to hound and badger them? What danger do they pose to us? What danger have they posed to us? It seems to me that we could go a long ways towards a peaceful middle east (that is the goal, right?) if we simply recognized our belligerence and apologized for our meddling throughout the years. We don’t have to forgive them for whatever “terrorist” activities they have been supporting, but just putting our past sins on the table will allow us to get past the whole, “You are evil!” method of diplomacy. It would also help get rid of some of the smell of hypocrisy surrounding the US actions over here. In my mind, the Iranians have every reason not to trust us, and they have done very little to us to deserve the scorn and judgement that we heap on them…
3 replies on “Iran and the US”
Wow. We agree on something. I’m no Ahmajinedad booster but I thought the Colombia pres’ remarks were a pretty cheap shot. Posturing for sure. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Not fitting of an academic institution to sponsor and condone such a Jerry Springer type display.
Ironically, it was a very Ahmajinedad like move. I think he’s (Ahmajinedad) the mirror image of our own president, mainly an opportunist and a bit of a dolt.
Take the whole Holocaust denial thing for instance. I can’t really believe that he buys into that BS, (holocaust denial) but in that part of the world it sells with a certain militant element and makes him look like a badass which a lot of politicians seem to crave nowadays. The similar situation (but not equivalent) in the US would be almost every politician nailing an anti-abortion plank to their political platforms. In reality I really don’t think Bush would hesitate to get an abortion for one of his daughters if she happened to get knocked up by the wrong boy, especially if he could do it without anyone knowing. Unfortunately, for a lot of the world, being right wing means being tough. And tough is electable.
First of all, the Shah was around and had a role in politics before we “installed” him. It’s not like we flew in a king from France. The leader that was replaced was not exactly a beacon of democracy either.
Secondly, Albright in the 90’s did quasi-apologize for our role in the 1953 coup.
Also, would it be too much for Iran to take a simple step to help our relations, like apologizing for taking our embassy hostage? It takes two to Tango.
I’d like to see the the text of that “quasi-apology.” My feeling is that until the US comes totally clean with an actual apology for us meddling in Iran’s political life, the takeover of our embassy was about all we deserved. Once we’ve cleared the air, then i would expect an apology from them, but not until that..
Isaac