Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away

The fundamental problem in the Middle East is not a degenerate and corrupt Islam. The fundamental problem is a degenerate and corrupt Christendom. We have not brought freedom and democracy and enlightenment to the Muslim world. We have brought the opposite.

We have supported a government in Israel that has carried out egregious war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza and is daily stealing ever greater portions of Palestinian land. We have established a network of military bases, some the size of small cities, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Kuwait, and we have secured basing rights in the Gulf states of Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. We have expanded our military operations to Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Egypt, Algeria and Yemen. And no one naively believes, except perhaps us, that we have any intention of leaving.

We have used the iron fist of the American military to implant our oil companies in Iraq, occupy Afghanistan and ensure that the region is submissive and cowed.

Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught. It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away.

Stephanie wrote:Cato,

Are you trying to deny US installation and support of dictators and oppressors in the Muslim world? The Shah of freaking Iran........remember him? How about Sadam Genocide Hussein? What about Israel and the US funded ethnic cleansing of the holy land?

Get real!

Stephanie wrote:Cato,

Are you trying to deny US installation and support of dictators and oppressors in the Muslim world? The Shah of freaking Iran........remember him? How about Sadam Genocide Hussein? What about Israel and the US funded ethnic cleansing of the holy land?

Get real!

ziggy wrote:

Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught. It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away.

Mohamed Shah - The British and Soviet authorities constrained constitutional government and permitted Reza Shah's son, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi to succeed to the throne on September 16, 1941. Mohammad Reza Shah wanted to continue the reform policies of his father, but a contest for control of the government soon began between the young Shah and a the nationalistic Mohammad Mosaddeq

In January 1942 Britain and Russia signed an agreement with Iran to respect Iran's independence and to withdraw their troops within six months after the end of the war. In 1943 Tehran Conference U.S. reaffirmed this commitment. In 1945, the USSR refused to announce a timetable to leave Iran's northwestern provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, where Soviet supported autonomy movements had developed. The USSR withdrew its troops in May 1946; this episode was one of the harbingers of the emerging Cold War.

Iran's political system began to mature. Political parties were organized, and the 1944 Majlis election were the first genuinely competitive elections in over 20 years. Foreign influence and interference remained very a sensitive issue for all parties. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), owned by the British government, continued to extract and market Iranian oil. At the end of the war, Iranians began to demand nationalization of the oil industry, a demand that became the centerpiece of Iranian nationalism.

Despite his vow to act as a constitutional monarch who would defer to the power of the parliamentary government, Mohammad Reza Shah increasingly involved himself in governmental affairs and opposed or thwarted strong prime ministers. Prone to indecision, however, Mohammad Reza relied more on manipulation than on leadership. He concentrated on reviving the army and ensuring that it would remain under royal control as the main power base of the Monarchy. In 1949 the Tudeh communist party was banned after an assassination attempt on the Shah, and the Shah's powers were expanded.

Rise and Fall of Mosaddeq - In 1951, the Iranian Parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry, then controlled by Britain. Legislators backing the law elected its leading advocate, Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, as prime minister following the assassination of his predecessor. Britain responded with threats and sanctions. However, Britain could not persuade the USA, under the Truman administration to take any action at the time. Mosaddeq was an aging and eccentric academic, immensely popular because of his stands for the common people. He was a nationalist, and not a communist, though the Tudeh (communist) party supported him for a time. Nonetheless, the British and US governments were eventually able to persuade themselves that Mosaddeg was about to align Iran with the USSR.

Dr. Mosaddeg took a very inflexible positions, and was unable to compromise with Britain, which won the support of the major oil companies in imposing an effective global boycott on Iranian oil.

Dr. Mosaddeq became an anti-imperialist hero to the developing world. His eccentricities, which became his trademark, included conducting business in bed dressed in pajamas, weeping publicly and frequent complaints about poor health. Raised by a wave of popularity, Mosaddeq showed signs of demagoguery and dictatorial government. When the Shah refused his demand for control of the army forces in 1952, Dr. Mosaddeq resigned. He was reinstated in the face of popular riots as he very probably knew he would be. Next he conducted a national referendum to dissolve parliament.

By 1953, General Eisenhower had become president of the US. Anti-communist hysteria was reaching its peak. An Iranian general offered to help in overthrow Mosaddeq, and the British were able to persuade the American CIA to go ahead with the coup in August. With very scant resources and a shoe-string operational plan, the CIA set out to remove Mosaddeq. The plan almost failed, and the Shah, never very resolute, had fled to Baghdad and had to be enticed to continue playing his part from there. The army was loyal to the Shah and Mosaddeq was overthrown and arrested. This coup earned the USA and Britain the lasting hatred of large sectors of Iranian public opinion, uniting communists, nationalists and Shi'ite clericalists behind enmity to foreign meddling. Mosaddeq became a folk hero of Iranian nationalism.

In the context of regional turmoil and the Cold War, the Shah established himself as an indispensable ally of the West. In the Middle East, Iran stood out as one of the few friends of Israel, a friendship that allegedly extended to Israeli help in running the SAVAK, the hated Iranian secret service. Domestically, he advocated reform policies, [b]culminating in the 1963 program known as the White Revolution, which included land reform, the extension of voting rights to women, and the elimination of illiteracy. [/b]

These measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah's rule provoked both religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government, and for subservience to the United States. The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran. In 1967 he staged an elaborate coronation coronation ceremony, styling himself "Shah en Shah" - King of Kings. In 1971 he held an extravagant celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the Islamic calendar with an "imperial" calendar, which began with the foundation of the Persian empire around 500 BC. These actions were clearly aimed at sidelining the Islamic religion, and excited the opposition of Muslim groups, which rallied around the Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Shah suppressed and marginalized opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence organization, the Savak, using arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, exile and torture, and exciting profound and widespread discontent. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatolah Khomeini, channeled this discontent into a populist Islamist ideology. This ideology was spread through cassettes smuggled into Iran. Suffering ill health The Shah left Iran on January 16 1979, following widespread rioting. He announced that he was leaving for an eighteen month leave of absence. He had appointed Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister. Shapour Bakhtiar was unable to keep order with the help of Supreme Army Councils. Inexplicably, Bakhtiar not only allowed the Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran, but publicly invited him to return.

Khomeini - Ayatollah Khomeini to returned to Iran on February 1. Bakhtiar had invited the means of his own destruction. He soon went into hiding, and was eventually exiled in Paris. Mass purges of supporters of the Shah began, and hundreds were executed. A revolutionary court set to work almost immediately in a school building in Tehran. Revolutionary courts were established in provincial centers soon after. The Tehran court passed death sentences on four of the Shah's generals on February 16, 1979 and all four were executed by firing squad . More executions, of military and police officers, SAVAK agents, cabinet ministers, Majlis deputies, and officials of the Shah's regime followed.

http://www.mideastweb.org/iranhistory.htm

And now you should know why Ziggy posted his AgitProp.




.

It was Washington that orchestrated the 1953 coup to topple Iran’s democratically elected government, the first in the Middle East, and install the compliant shah in power. It was Washington that forced Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, a man who cared as much for his country as he did for the rule of law and democracy, to spend the rest of his life under house arrest. We gave to the Iranian people the corrupt regime of the shah and his savage secret police and the primitive clerics that rose out of the swamp of the dictator’s Iran. Iranians know they once had a democracy until we took it away.

An Iranian general offered to help in overthrow Mosaddeq, and the British were able to persuade the American CIA to go ahead with the coup in August. With very scant resources and a shoe-string operational plan, the CIA set out to remove Mosaddeq. The plan almost failed, and the Shah, never very resolute, had fled to Baghdad and had to be enticed to continue playing his part from there. The army was loyal to the Shah and Mosaddeq was overthrown and arrested. This coup earned the USA and Britain the lasting hatred of large sectors of Iranian public opinion, uniting communists, nationalists and Shi'ite clericalists behind enmity to foreign meddling. Mosaddeq became a folk hero of Iranian nationalism.

These measures and the increasing arbitrariness of the Shah's rule provoked both religious leaders who feared losing their traditional authority and intellectuals seeking democratic reforms. These opponents criticized the Shah for violation of the constitution, which placed limits on royal power and provided for a representative government, and for subservience to the United States. The Shah saw himself as heir to the kings of ancient Iran. In 1967 he staged an elaborate coronation coronation ceremony, styling himself "Shah en Shah" - King of Kings. In 1971 he held an extravagant celebration of 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. In 1976 he replaced the Islamic calendar with an "imperial" calendar, which began with the foundation of the Persian empire around 500 BC. These actions were clearly aimed at sidelining the Islamic religion, and excited the opposition of Muslim groups, which rallied around the Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Shah suppressed and marginalized opponents with the help of Iran's security and intelligence organization, the Savak, using arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, exile and torture, and exciting profound and widespread discontent. Islamic leaders, particularly the exiled cleric Ayatolah Khomeini, channeled this discontent into a populist Islamist ideology. This ideology was spread through cassettes smuggled into Iran. Suffering ill health The Shah left Iran on January 16 1979, following widespread rioting. He announced that he was leaving for an eighteen month leave of absence. He had appointed Shapour Bakhtiar as Prime Minister. Shapour Bakhtiar was unable to keep order with the help of Supreme Army Councils. Inexplicably, Bakhtiar not only allowed the Ayatollah Khomeini to return to Iran, but publicly invited him to return.

Cato wrote:

Stephanie wrote:Cato,

Are you trying to deny US installation and support of dictators and oppressors in the Muslim world? The Shah of freaking Iran........remember him? How about Sadam Genocide Hussein? What about Israel and the US funded ethnic cleansing of the holy land?

Get real!

Sweetie I know what the US has done in the past and I am well aware of things it has done recently. I find most it dispicable to be honest. What I find just as dishonoest and equally dispicable are those who have to blame this nation for everything that happens in other nations no matter what. Yes, we meddled in Iran, but the thing is we aren't meddling now and we haven't done so since the Islamic Revolution there. Did we cause the mess we see today? No. If you want to blame someone for what is happening there NOW, blame the ruling council and the pro-amidemijab (spelling) militas, but don't blame us.

ziggy wrote:

Cato wrote:

Stephanie wrote:Cato,

Are you trying to deny US installation and support of dictators and oppressors in the Muslim world? The Shah of freaking Iran........remember him? How about Sadam Genocide Hussein? What about Israel and the US funded ethnic cleansing of the holy land?

Get real!

Sweetie I know what the US has done in the past and I am well aware of things it has done recently. I find most it dispicable to be honest. What I find just as dishonoest and equally dispicable are those who have to blame this nation for everything that happens in other nations no matter what. Yes, we meddled in Iran, but the thing is we aren't meddling now and we haven't done so since the Islamic Revolution there. Did we cause the mess we see today? No. If you want to blame someone for what is happening there NOW, blame the ruling council and the pro-amidemijab (spelling) militas, but don't blame us.

Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

ziggy wrote:

Cato wrote:

Stephanie wrote:Cato,

Are you trying to deny US installation and support of dictators and oppressors in the Muslim world? The Shah of freaking Iran........remember him? How about Sadam Genocide Hussein? What about Israel and the US funded ethnic cleansing of the holy land?

Get real!

Sweetie I know what the US has done in the past and I am well aware of things it has done recently. I find most it dispicable to be honest. What I find just as dishonoest and equally dispicable are those who have to blame this nation for everything that happens in other nations no matter what. Yes, we meddled in Iran, but the thing is we aren't meddling now and we haven't done so since the Islamic Revolution there. Did we cause the mess we see today? No. If you want to blame someone for what is happening there NOW, blame the ruling council and the pro-amidemijab (spelling) militas, but don't blame us.

Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

ziggy wrote:And so, Sweetie, the U.S. bears no responsibility for the several decades long chain of events that put these latest nincompoops in power?