comments?
yeah, here's a blast from the past:
mossadeq.
slightly pinko leader of the new iran, circa 1950s.
under the threat of commie infiltration from under beds and in closets, the hard-line pro-westen-domination-of-iranian-oil and severe butcher the shah is re-installed.
the muslim world, or more specifically (and stepping aside from iran) the arab world, is very divided.
we, the west, have chosen which side we are on.
it is not the progresive secular side. it is the backstabbers' side. the corrupt-as-all-hell saudi regime, the source of so much of our trouble these days.
and before anyone says anything, yes i know, the secular leaders are probably even more corrupt (saddam hussein, quadaffi, old man assad and his optomologist son etc.), but the fact remains - when the mideast had its coming-out party, intervention by 'our side' in the name of the cold war has had some ugly effects on the region's current state.
baathism, yes, is antisemitic in nature. but it does spawn from ataturk's secular, western dream.
i am NOT HERE to spout some ivory-tower chomsky-ish crap aboot the clash of civilizations, and how it's "all our fault..."
i simply see a traceable cause-and-effect.
why is the US the great satan in iran? hmmm.... let's go down the list:
1) backing the shah. period. no excuses. once read a 1978 article in a playboy while sifting through a stash (we were all 12...), there was plenty of warning aboot khomeini and american policy makers must have been pretty stupid not to see it. and pretty smart to keep plugging their 'main man', the shah.
2) shooting down that airliner. over iranian territory. on a planned route. the revelation that the lockerbe terrorist attack came partly from iranian money, well hell i am not surprised. mistaking a civilian jet transponder for and F-14 transponder? talk to anyone in the know aboot transponders, and yikes does that event get suspect quick.
3) the backing of iraq in the iran/iraq war. forget the rhetoric of muslim/jewish conflict. this was THE jihad of modern islam, in both scale and implications. the betrayals involved among rich 'religious' arabs and poorer secular arabs still haunt the region, years later, and have more to do with american involvement in iraq today than any other single event in my opinion.
also read a couple of books by a political advisor named said abourish, such as 'the coming fall of the house of saud'. and if i ever find a copy of his book on hussein, 'the politics of revenge', for under 50 bucks i will have to buy it.
the basic premise that this guy works from is the betrayal of poor arabs at the hands of rich ones. the 'palestinians die at the hands of the israelis and at the feet of other arabs' argument.
another book is 'children of bethany'.
absolutely amazing insight into the arab world, from the eyes of a true insider.
i am not saying we cause all the problems in the musim and arab worlds.
but to claim we, the west, are innocent bystanders, and have done no wrong, is a recipe for further education by some sick bas**rds.
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