The lands we arrogantly named the Middle East (one must wonder, Middle East of what? Europe?) are in disarray and disaster today, largely because of the greed, hubris and yes, white supremacy of Europe and America.
Iran today suffers from painful sanctions, while those who ripped Iraq apart, who drove the forces of ethnic, sectarian and religious rivalry into furies almost approaching civil war, and face nothing.
Iraq is today a charnel house that has sent ripples of disorder, destruction and destabilization throughout the region.
This is the foul fruit of that old lie: ‘weapons of mass destruction.’
It is interesting that I am addressing a group composed of Iranian students, for many decades ago, as a young journalist; I covered several demonstrations featuring members of the Iranian Students Association, who marched through downtown Philadelphia shouting, “Down Vis da Shah!”
When I interviewed them, they told of the ill-gotten wealth of the Peacock Throne, and the brutal terror of the dreaded SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police. The SAVAK, trained in their deadly arts by the CIA and Israeli intelligence, made life for Iranians both at home and abroad, a living hell of fear.
Of course, who could foresee the future of life in Iran after the Shah’s overthrow?
None of us truly knew the future.
But, we know enough of the past to teach us valuable lessons. (If we want to learn.)
Like, when foreign invaders intervene, they bring chaos, destruction and discord.
They make problems worse – not better.
That’s a lesson from the CIA and M15 removal of Iran’s President Mohammed Mossedegh in August 1953, which set the stage for decades of rule by the Shah Reza Pahlavi, the savagery of SAVAK, and ultimately, the Shah’s fall and the rise of the role of the clerics.
Iranians must decide Iran’s future, not foreign intelligence agencies, or foreign armies.
It’s been over 50 years.
Perhaps that lesson has finally been learned.
