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I just finished this book. I didn't find it riveting although many reviewers did but I learnt a lot about how American crimes and follies have prevented good relations with Iran.
John Ghazvinian is an American of Iranian descent, his parents left Iran with him when he was one, he speaks Persian and researched this book in Iran’s archives after getting limited permission.
He shows that America has no reason to have any conflict with Iran except the influence of Israel, the bipartisan US Israel lobby, the hawks and the Arab states which don't want to share their influence in Washington.... and of course the media.
His book makes clear that Iranians will resist U.S. efforts to impose “regime change” as they opposed interference by Russia and Great Britain.
Oil was found in Iran as early as 1908 and was exploited by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which enabled the Royal Navy to convert from coal before 1914.
The concession was shockingly unfair to Iran while Iranian oil workers lived in slums in the oil port of Abadan.
British exploitation prompted resistance and in the early 1950s Mohammed Mosaddeq won a democratic election, tried to negotiate a better oil deal, failed and nationalised the company.
MI6 and the CIA organised a regime change operation which succeeded in toppling the popular Iranian leader and replacing him with the Shah, a not very impressive and cruel autocrat and US puppet.
A very similar thing was attempted in January but failed.
The Ayatollah Khomeini made his name in a 1964 speech denouncing the Shah’s decree that exempted American military personnel and their families from Iranian laws. Khomeini said: “They’ve given the people of Iran a status lower than that of American dogs.”
The Shah forced Khomeini into exile. The era of miniskirts and hard liquor was a good one in many ways but the opposition continued to grow and some of the largest demonstrations in human history eventually forced the autocrat into exile in 1979.
Americans blame Carter for the fall of the Shah but there was nothing he could do and anyway what right did he have to choose who ruled Iran?
Israel supported the Shah, and was also quietly sympathetic to the Islamic regime during the 1980s because it did not want Saddam Hussein to win the Iran-Iraq war.
British exploitation prompted resistance and in the early 1950s Mohammed Mosaddeq won a democratic election, tried to negotiate a better oil deal, failed and nationalised the company.
MI6 and the CIA organised a regime change operation which succeeded in toppling the popular Iranian leader and replacing him with the Shah, a not very impressive and cruel autocrat and US puppet.
A very similar thing was attempted in January but failed.
The Shah was a bit like the puppets America installed later in Kabul.
The Ayatollah Khomeini made his name in a 1964 speech denouncing the Shah’s decree that exempted American military personnel and their families from Iranian laws. Khomeini said: “They’ve given the people of Iran a status lower than that of American dogs.”
The Shah forced Khomeini into exile. The era of miniskirts and hard liquor was a good one in many ways but the opposition continued to grow and some of the largest demonstrations in human history eventually forced the autocrat into exile in 1979.
Americans blame Carter for the fall of the Shah but there was nothing he could do and anyway what right did he have to choose who ruled Iran?
Israel supported the Shah, and was also quietly sympathetic to the Islamic regime during the 1980s because it did not want Saddam Hussein to win the Iran-Iraq war.
But in the 1990s Israel chose to make Iran a bugbear and started issuing groundless warnings about Tehran’s nuclear program.
Ghazvinian says
"For Israel, the goal had never been to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb (something they knew Iranian leaders had little interest in). The goal had been to prevent a thawing of relations between Iran and the United States."
Eisenhower and Trump come out of the story very badly. Only Obama looks good but his attempt at a rapprochement with Iran was stymied by Israel, its lobby and the Republicans.
Ghazvinian says
"For Israel, the goal had never been to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb (something they knew Iranian leaders had little interest in). The goal had been to prevent a thawing of relations between Iran and the United States."
Eisenhower and Trump come out of the story very badly. Only Obama looks good but his attempt at a rapprochement with Iran was stymied by Israel, its lobby and the Republicans.
The great fault of the Jewish mind is an excess of solipsism.
ReplyDeleteThey hear "Chosen people," but they prefer not to hear "Chosen for service, not for privilege." Very human, but it can go terribly awry.
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