Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
Persia was never conquered or colonized by the West. The modern state of Iran maps almost exactly to the historical Persian heartland. It's far from an arbitrarily constructed state.
It isn't obvious that if left free of foreign interference, Iran would have developed into a more prosperous, liberal, or pro-Western state.
Look at its neighbour Turkey. In the 20th century it did become prosperous, liberal (by the standards of the region), and pro-Western. But largely because its constitution was defended by a secular military cabal, with the backing of the West. And since the generals were shoved aside by a populist, conservative movement, the country has become less prosperous, less liberal, and turned away from the West.
People can badly #### up their own countries without any help from the West.
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While I wouldn't disagree with any of this and certainly Turkey is no shining beacon of democratic light these days, but Turkey, or the Turkish people don't resent or hate us the way much of the rest of the region does precisely because we didn't screw with them the way we did with the rest of the region, they haven't spent 40 years hating Israel or the West to any great degree, they have generally seen themselves as our equals, not our victims.
I'm not arguing that left to their own devices middle eastern countries would have become democratic bastions of freedom, just they wouldn't have spawned hundreds of thousands of western hating resentful Islamic wanna be martyrs led by equally resentful or at the very least opportunistic thugs that have harnessed that resentment for their own ends.