In 1953, the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, was
overthrown via a CIA orchestrated coup (with the help of British Intelligence,
MI6), under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt Jr, a intelligence officer with the CIA's Office of Policy Coordination, and grandson of President Theodore
Roosevelt.
Roosevelt had previously helped orchestrate the 1952 coup in
Egypt with the Free Officers Movement to topple King Farouk. The movement was
led by a small cadre of Egyptian and Sudanese officers and was led by Abdel Moneim
Abdel Raouf, and included such future notables Gamal Abdul Nasser (who became
close friends with Kermit Roosevelt), Salah Nasr, and Abdel Hakim Amer.
Mohammad Mosaddegh had been appointed prime minister by the democratically
elected Iranian Parliament (the “Majlis”). He had also co- founded the
National Front, a Left leaning pro-democracy, secular, and Iranian nationalistic
political party. They also implemented a number of land and tax reforms aimed
at helping the lower class.
Amid a period of political unrest, assassination, and emerging religious extremism, Mossadegh sought to maintain power and improve Iran’s
economic stability by nationalizing its burgeoning oil and gas industry,
beginning with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
The result was the installation of a much more pro-Western government
under the direction of CIA recommended
General Fazlullah Zahedi as the new Prime Minister. Among the many changes
implemented by Zahedi was ending nationalized oil and gas production and
returning control to British, French, and American oil companies.
The CIA also organized guerrilla groups to disrupt pro-Communist
groups. In addition, the CIA also directed Major General Norman Schwarzkopf Sr.
(father of “Stormin Norman” of Gulf War fame) to Italy and “encourage” the Shah
to return to Iran. He also helped organize and train Iran’s new security service,
SAVAK, in order to help the Shah maintain power (in time the SAVAK would develop a reputation similar to Stalin’s NKVD which eventually became the KGB).
All went well between the West and Iran until 1979 when Shah Reza Mohammed Pahlavi was overthrown by a small group of
religious extremists led by the exiled cleric, Ruhollah Khomeini (incidentally, who was also named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” in 1979) and was described as
the “face of Shia Islam”. He was later
to be named the supreme leader in Iran and given the title of “Ayatollah ”, an
honorific title of the “Twelver” Shia sect which was to become Iran’s official state
religion (95% of the world’s Muslim population is Sunni, however, Iran is 95%
Shia). He was also credited with labeling the U.S. as the “Great Satan” and
Israel as the “Little Satan”.
Although the U.S. wasn’t happy that their man had been thrown
out of power and forced to flee the country (he was given asylum in the U.S.
for health reasons), what really irked the U.S. government was the seizure of
66 Americans, which included diplomats, civilian personnel, and a small security
detail U.S. Marines, along with the U.S. Embassy itself in a series of assaults
by the Muslim Student Followers of the
Iman’s Line, not to mention instigating hostilities with the CIA’s man in Iraq,
Saddam Hussein which ultimately led to the Iran-Iraqi War.
Largely forgotten today, there was also an attempted attack
on the U.S. embassy in Pakistan by over 1000 pro-Iranians protestors and an
aborted attempt to seize the Soviet Union’s embassy for its “Marxist and
anti-god beliefs”. Some U.S. embassy personnel
were able to evade capture and hide in a Canadian embassy before being able to
escape through an ingenious CIA ruse popularly called “The Canadian Caper” (a
2012 movie entitled “Argo” details this secret rescue operation).
Meanwhile, the Iranians made numerous threats about the imminent
execution of the hostages unless the U.S. agreed to a number of demands
(essentially blackmail), including the return of the Shah to face trial and probable
execution (which was refused). The Iranians ransacked the American embassy, revealing great many political,
diplomatic, and intelligence secrets. Finally, after 444 days, and the election
of Ronald Reagan, the hostages were released (this was seen as a calculated insult directed at Carter for the attempted rescue operation).
Ever since, The U.S. military and intelligence community has
been looking for a way to overthrow Iran’s theocratic regime. Accordingly, Iran
has been ostracized, boycotted, and even had billions of its dollars held in U.S. bank
accounts frozen, The result had little effect on Iran’s ruling elite although, as usual, the average Iranian felt the brunt of the embargos. Much of the money was ultimately returned.
President Obama approved releasing $400 million in August 2016 and President Joe
Biden released $6 million in September 2023 for "humanitarian purposes".
Meanwhile the Iranian
government helped organized, train, and
finance numerous terrorist organizations whose sole intent was the destabilization of the West (especially the U.S. and Israel) as well as specific Asian nations
by any means possible with the ultimate goals being creation of a global caliphate
under their version of extreme Islam.
Boko Haram, who are
known for their raids on African villages to capture women and girls to sell as
slaves and butchering non-Muslims. The Houthi, who operate in Yemen, regularly
launches missiles into Israel and is active in destabilizing the region. Of
course, there is also ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Talban, who received support from the
Iranians.
It’s believed that Iran has sponsored establishing sleeper terrorist
cells in Europe, Canada, South America, and the United States, and is
responsible for the hoard of immigrants into Europe (conquest through numbers?).
It’s been often noted that many of these
so-called “migrants” are very fit, aggressive military age males, which isn’t typical
of the average refugee (also notable is the lack of women, children and seniors
accompanying them).
It should be mentioned that starting with the Ayatollah
Khomeini, they have repeatedly promised to “wipe Israel off the map” by every
means available, including the use of nuclear weapons, even if it meant their
own total destruction. They have been responsible, directly or indirectly for
attacks in Paris, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and “lone
wolf” operations in the United States and elsewhere as well as dozens of
so-called “self-radicalizations” terrorists.
However, resistance has been growing, especially in Iran where women, long denied basic rights to education, employment, choice of marriage, physical mutilation of their genitalia, political suffrage, have been becoming more militant to their suppression, even to the point of risking death. It’s common for resisters to be blinded in one eye, tortured, suffer broken bones, face mutilation such has having their tongue, nose or ears cut off, or have acid thrown in their faces, and so forth. As an aside, this is, in part, those who back the Iranian regime or radical Islam are supporting.
However, despite their best efforts not to provoke an all
out war, Israel had little realistic options remaining except to go after Iran’s
reactors. It’s noteworthy at how many countries, including those inside the United States, who turned on the Israeli government
following the barbaric attack by Hamas on Israel or Hamas’s use of private homes,
schools and hospitals to launch their missiles, store weapons, and hide some of
the hostages it taken on October 7th (including a tunnel system under a EU
hospital!).
Hamas has repeatedly attacked or
hijacked relief columns of food, fresh water, and medicine, often selling it on
the black market for either more weapons or to fund expensive vacations for Hamas leadership. Europe, especially Germany, long been an allies of
Israel, now accuse the IDF of doing what Hamas is guilty of. Turkey, an EU and
NATO member, even hinted at a possible direct intervention in Gaza. How would that affect NATO's mutual defense clause? Would that plunge NATO into war?
Finally, this brings us to the bombing of Iranian nuclear
facilities by U.S. bombers. Did we have a moral or political obligation to
attack those sites? Every U.S. military intervention in the Middle East,
from Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, regardless of the officially stated reason, has had the secondary goal of bringing us a little closer to
Iran. Was this then just an opportunity
to strike Iran after all these years or was it, as President Trump said, an opportunity to
make the world a little safer?
According to polls, most Americans opposed the bombings.
A poll by The Hill showed that 56% of Americans in general disapproved of the
bombings although 82% of Republicans were in favor. However, 60% of
Independents (America’s political majority) weren’t happy with the bombings
along with 88% of Democrats. 78% of Americans were concerned we will get
drawn into a war with Iran.
It bears mentioning
that prior to the current ceasefire, 59% of Americans in general thought that
our attack on Iran actually made it more of a threat to the U.S. and the world.
Many were concerned that our attacks might provoke Iran to launch more attacks
on Israel either directly or through its many surrogates as well as possibly
activate imbedded terrorist cells in Europe, Canada, or the United States.
Finally, there’s Israel itself. Aside from being the only democracy in the Middle East, it is also an important trading partner and a vital source of intelligence information in the region. It also provides a key strategic position for U.S. and allied operations in the Middle East and Africa. Iran has made it crystal clear that it intends to wipe Israel off the map even at its own destruction and there's no reason not to take them at their word.
Such a fallout would trigger a dire humanitarian crisis
regionally as well as globally. Israel’s beef with Iran is direct and personal. The
outcome of Iran’s boast would have a severe impact on the rest of the world,
not to mention on Humanity as well, which Iran and its cohorts abhor. A nuclear
Iran is not just a threat of the survival of Israel. It’s a threat to the
survival of Mankind too.
Thank you for reading
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56 percent disapprove of U.S. strike on Iran: Survey
Voters 51 – 42 Percent Oppose U.S. Joining Israel inMilitary Strike…
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