What’s your opinion about the United States bombing three
nuclear sites in Iran? Did we have a national security or moral obligation to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities and try to
disrupt its potential nuclear bomb making capabilities? Was there an ulterior underlining
motive? To address those, and other questions, we need to take a brief look
back at the history of Iran and its relationship with the United States.
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.
Eventually, following a series of constitutional crisis
events, which included the Shah fleeing to Italy out of concerns for his safety,
Mossadegh was forced to align himself with pro-Soviet factions (despite strongly
disliking the Communists). This was all the CIA and MI6 needed. The result was
an overthrow of his government (and future suppression of the National Front)
under “Operation Ajax”.
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.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis lasted from November 4, 1979 until
January 18, 1981. During that time, then President Jimmy Carter made numerous unsuccessful attempts to resolve the situation. In October 1980, Carter authorized a
rescue operation (euphemistically named “Operation Eagle Claw”) which was an all-around
disaster and national embarrassment, representing a political, military, and intelligence blunder. Eight servicemen were killed and four were
injured amid several mechanic failures and crashes.
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.
Key among these groups was Hamas, responsible for
the October 7
th attack on Israel which resulted in the butcher of over 1,139 men,
women, and children. as well as seizing 251 hostages. They are also responsible for keeping the Gazans
living in a state of terror. Hezbollah is another such group, which routinely
launches missiles into Israel from Southern Lebanon.
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.
Despite U.S. and Israeli warnings, Iran has been engaged in the development
of a nuclear infrastructure, which they claim is for "energy purposes" only (and yet they sit
on some of the world’s richest oil and gas reserves). Taking Iran’s threats
seriously, Israel has done everything it could to deter Iran’s efforts overtly
and covertly (I’m particularly impressed with the massive computer virus and
the exploding cell phones of Iranian nuclear scientists. Bravo Israel! Very
clever).
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.
Additionally, 71% of Democrats said they didn’t trust Trump
to make the right decisions on behalf of the United States when it came to
Iran.
62% of Independents said they had
little or no confidence in Trump's decision ability. On the other hand, 51%
of Republicans confirmed that they had a great deal of faith in Trump while 37%
said they had a moderate amount of confidence in the president.
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
"Another Opinion", the Op/Ed blog page for the "militant
middle". Here at "A/O" we truly value our readers. At
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along. Below you will find links to the sources we used in writing this
article. Thank you.
Free Officers movement (Egypt)
Kermit Roosevelt Jr.
Iran hostage crisis
October 7 Attacks
The Canadian Caper
56 percent disapprove of U.S. strike on Iran: Survey
Voters 51 – 42 Percent Oppose U.S. Joining Israel inMilitary Strike…
Islam in Iran
Nuclear facilities in Iran
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