Every single Fox News commentary trying to whip up domestic support for overthrowing the Iranian Government during the latest unrest seems to ignore America did this in 1953 and it was that coup which led to the harsh Islamic Theocracy we have right now!
Their coup in 1953 was to remove the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh who threatened American oil interests by wanting to nationalise Irans oil for the benefit of Iranians. The brutal Shah that America installed as a dictator, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, killed off and imprisoned all moderate opposition leaving only the most radical strains of Islam for the people to rally around. Watching Americans scream about Russia interfering in their election while calling on America to interfere in Iran’s after everything America did in 1953 is dangerously schizophrenic.
Playing God in other people’s country with all the unforeseen blowback is how we got into this mess, I support democratic reform and respect for human rights for the Iranian people, I sure as fuck don’t support America (whose sanctions have helped cause this latest civil unrest in Iran by the way) poking around and playing God again.
It didn’t work in 1953, it sure as Allah won’t work under Trump
Iran is not Iraq and even though they have had 40 years of economic sanctions have managed to at least militarily and technologically stay ahead in terms of their national security (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nyLNQekwNE)
Also Russia one of their staunches allies share a volatile and long boarder so have security interest and co-operations that it is hardly unlikely for Russia to allow America or any other nation to interfere in it internal and political sphere
True Martyn, and if it turns out that the Iranian people overthrow the Islamic regime and don’t stop at a ‘democratic’ regime acceptable to the US, but go on to make a popular revolution, we need to oppose not only US intervention but that of Russia and China who are the staunch allies of the Mullahs who smashed the 1979 revolution and will quickly come to the aid of the regime.
Yes America is good at this as was Germany during it’s world expansion plans 70 yrs ago, so why is USA repeating Germany’s mistakes?
Scary times I’d say.
… and it sure as hell hasn’t worked in Iraq, after US-led “regime change”.
I would be pretty bloody sure they are involved in these protests Martyn. They are so perfectly timed wit all the other factors; Trump announces moving embassy to Jerusalem provoking inevitable protests, Palestinians send a couple of ineffective homemade rockets into Israel,Israel blames the rockets on Iran while knowing they have made it quite impossible for Iran to have smuggled them in there, and they would have caused some damage if they had been Iranian, Iran has helped Assad defeat US proxies trying to destroy the Syrian state, Trump has 7days left to decide if he is going to unilaterally sabotage the Iran nuclear agreement. What’s left to do but instigate unrest within Iran. The stage is set. Happy new year Iran.
D J S
Exactly.
It seems that according to some people, only Westerners, (white people), are allowed to protest against their government. If anyone else protests against their government, no matter how repressive, then they must be working for the US.
‘It didn’t work in 1953, it sure as Allah won’t work under Trump.’
It’s good that you have highlighted this matter, Martyn. But it would be good if you got the facts right.
It was primarily British interests -especially the Anglo-Persian oil company established in the early 1900s that were threatened in the early 1950s. The Americans financed the overthrow of the legitimate Iranian government and install the vicious dictator, and looter of the coffers, Palavi.
It took the Iranian people until 1979 to rid themselves of the dictator Palavi.
The Americans then provided Iraq with money and weapons and invited Iraq to fight a proxy war for the Americans……which the Iranians eventually started to win after years of the worse kind of trench warfare and chemical weapons attacks since WW1.
Contrary to what you wrote, it DID work in 1953: the Americans did get what they wanted -free rein to impose dollar hegemony and control of the oil market, and a market for American goods and services. And they got what they wanted very cheaply.
Needless to say, since 1979 Iran has been an ‘axis of evil’ nation that, as far as the Americans are concerned, must be taken down (a bit like the Koreans who managed to resist American imperialism and maintain their own governmental arrangements, unlike the puppet state Koreans south of the ‘Demilitarized Zone’ ).
The real point about all the noise that comes out of America is not that America is capable of actually doing anything significant anymore (America’s impotence has been repeatedly demonstrated since the time Russia liberated states invaded by Georgia in 2007/8) but that the American people have to be persuaded that America is still ‘the greatest nation on Earth’, even as its global empire slowly collapses and the infrastructure of America slowly collapses.
I should have pointed out that we are living in a post-peak-oil world, with all the easy-to-extract oil burned (or otherwise consumed) decades ago and desperation measures (deep-water drilling, fracking, extraction from tar sands etc.) now employed to in a futile attempt to maintain for just a bit longer the unsustainable living arrangements we have inherited from past squanderers of fossil fuels.
In the context of a world suffering terminal decline of easy-to-extract oil and collapsing economies that are a consequence of declining extraction (countries with big populations like Mexico and Venezuela are now in deep trouble as a consequence of declining extraction
https://medium.com/@albertbates/peak-mexico-6e34687817c2 )
control of places with significant reserves of oil, such as Iran, become increasingly important to oil-importing nations like America (US conventional oil peaked in extraction 1970-1971, and the short-lived fracking boom isn’t going to fix anything long term -it will make matters worse).
So, in the context of declining oil availability, who controls the oil controls the world. And who controls the oil controls the economy of China.
In that context -of world domination- America has ‘no option’ but to meddle in the Middle East, even if its meddling results in further humiliation for America: corrupt, bloated, militaristic empires -such as exists in America and its vassal states- rarely go away quietly: they tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over again until they can’t.
And they’re most definitely engaging in those same failed mistakes:
Russia and China are doing different things but the same result – shifting the resources from Africa to them.
True. Thats why they’ll let israel & the MBS-Saudi have a crack at Iran! Producing another US – Russia de facto War-Conflict ….
Iran is the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world, and is committed to the destruction of Israel and the extermination of the Jews
Iran is, therefore, a natural bedfellow for the NZ Left
I think you’ll find America’s ally, Saudi Arabia, are the biggest sponsors of terrorism but that doesn’t fit your narrative which is to desperately paint the NZ Left as anti-semites. Andy doesn’t get blocked for his trolling because I think it’s important for readers to see how intellectually bankrupt much of the Right’s argument really is.
Iran became the insane theocracy it has become because of the American and British Coup in the 1950s. Acknowledging that doesn’t mean I support the excesses of Iran’s theocracy, I don’t support ANY theocracy, but I do understand how causing a coup creates a cultural and political backlash and that the only way out of that cultural and political backlash is via a far more kind and empathetic process than Andy has ever shown on this blog.
Yep. Saudi Arabia arguably remains the most prolific sponsor of international Islamist terrorism. It is only “arguably the most” though, which I guess is why it’s perfectly ok to try and get a free-trade agreement with them /sarc .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-sponsored_terrorism#cite_note-107
http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2014/12/financing-terrorism-saudi-arabia-and-its-foreign-affairs/
Your ‘ignorance is bliss’ narrative does match reality, Andy.
The fact is, the US is by far the biggest sponsor and perpetrator of terrorism and bloodshed in the world.
‘America has invaded 70 countries since its 4th of July Independence Day in 1776. American imperialism has made a major contribution to the 1.3 billion global avoidable deaths in the period 1950-2005. The Neocon American and Zionist Imperialist One Percenters can be seen as the New Nazis. The World, including ordinary Americans (1 million of whom die preventably each year) [10], must shake off the shackles of endless American One Percenter warmongering, imperialism and mendacity.’
http://www.countercurrents.org/polya050713.htm
Ah, more RWNJ lies.
The US is the biggest terrorist.
Iran has never even threatened Israel.
Andy, not only are you incorrect about Iran, but doing a bit of research into the last sarin-gas attack in Syria, I came across this curious bit of information; https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/07/02/this-evidence-than-anything-else-proves-why-we-should-all-fear-trump/#comment-388875
Saudi Arabia had access to sarin gas from former-Yugoslavia stockpiles.
Its worthwhile keeping an eye on how the media presents this
I’ve noticed at the very beginning of a conflict, before the official story has had time to gel, there is more honest reporting.
So far we’ve learnt that it was a surprise to many Iranians to hear calls for a return of the Shah(that he’s dead is immaterial),denunciations of the moderate Rouhani, and the appearance of guns in some of the protests. Gun acquisition in Iran is notoriously difficult.Some have wondered where the guns came from .At least 2 police stations have been attacked,and some protestors have reported the appearance of strangers who violently ramped up the action.20 dead but so far no claims that the Iranian police/Revolutionary Guards are cracking down with any ferocity.No leaders have emerged and some protestors have said they don’t want regime change
Hopes were raised that the nuclear deal would lift sanctions and lead to employment and higher standard of living. Rouhani won the election on such promises. There was a great deal of celebration in the streets, only to be dashed by Trump’s threats and US failure to act on its part of the deal, lift sanctions.So its going to be difficult for the US to capitalise on these events, as much as they would like to.Denying Iranians entry to the US won’t help., and the memory of Mossadeghs removal by the CIA , and the terror years of the Shah are still in living memory.
At the beginning of the strife in Ukraine, Salon.com , the BBC, the Guardian ran pieces on neo nazi groups dominating the Maidan protests, but these quickly dwindled once the official story had coalesced and the game plan finalised
Similar in Syria. Writers like Guardian’s Jonathan Steele were dropped from articles about Syria, and while Patrick Cockburn and Robert Fisk still appear in the Independent,. their articles do not get replicated in any but small independent online sites
Comment sections have pretty well closed in the Guardian and the Independent’s has degenerated in to slanging matches between “putinbots and langers”
Yes, “spontaneous” protests, amazing stuff.
https://markdoran.wordpress.com/2018/01/03/wordoftheday/
I would be surprised if the US are not already involved or even behind this. Remember the interview of former US General Wesley Clark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RC1Mepk_Sw
As for the mainstream media role in this. The word of the moment is “spontaneous protest”
https://markdoran.wordpress.com/2018/01/03/wordoftheday/
As for general mainstream media coverage of reality, it is non existent.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/01/01/new-years-message-and-warning-from-a-war-correspondent/
Some outstanding writing from people who understand.
Yep looks like Trump has thrown his hat in the ring
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/trump-admin-working-incubate-nascent-iranian-revolution/
Strange days for the US media, on the one hand they’d love nothing better than to bring down Trump, on the other hand nothing boosts sales like a good old fashioned war
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