Monday, June 22, 2009

Know Your History - Iran

Anybody paying attention to the news knows there is some serious stuff going on in Iran right now as many in that nation are openly protesting against the conservative religious government over what appears to be rigged elections.

As of last week, the Iranian leaders have started to talk about how the unrest in their country is being orchestrated by the U.K. and the U.S.A. This sounds paranoid, and it's definitely a diversionary tactic on the government's part to cover up whatever they've done.

However, it's not all that surprising why the Iranians would bring this up as a reason for the protests and unrest. Why you may ask? Know your history I say.

Turns out, we and the Brits did in fact overthrow a democratically elected Iranian government back in the 1950s...installing the Shah of Iran who ruled as a dictator and ensured the west got its oil for cheap. The Shah was in turn overthown by a revolution against his dictatorship in 1979...a popular uprising led by the current religous leaders.

And, lets not forget that the U.S. backed one Saddam Hussein in the long running and horrific Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s.

So, there is a rich history of western involvement in overthrowing the Iranian goverment. Based on that, it's plausable for the Iranian goverment to use the spectre of our influence as an excuse for what's happening now in their attempts to shift attention and blame.

Check out the info on the US-backed coup on Wikipedia here.

All of this goes a long ways to explaining why the Iranian government is saying what it is about the west right now, and it also helps inform why President Obama is not projecting a loud and aggressive tone on this issue right now.

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