“May you live in interesting times” is an old Chinese curse. The Chinese are very polite, even when they are cursing you!
We are living in interesting times. Our accidental president, Donald Trump, who is not content to fight the two wars which he inherited from the two previous administrations and the one he initiated himself, now has worked himself into a lather over Iran. The war drums are beating (can you hear them, dear reader?), and the rhetoric is growing in intensity (can you feel the hate, dear reader?). Trump has National Security advisor, and chief attack dog, John Bolton, who has advocated war with Iran for the past two decades, whispering in one ear, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo whispering in the other one. Cooler heads are nowhere in sight.
I ended my previous essay with the well-known George Santayana quote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Once again, history is repeating itself. The fact of the matter is that the United States has had a long-standing grudge against Iran, and this grudge steadily has eaten away at America’s innards.
Let us hop into the trusty time machine, shall we?
At the outbreak of World War II, Iran remained officially neutral, but it maintained friendly relations with Nazi Germany and provided it with oil. Protests by the Allied forces fell on deaf ears, and the Western powers invaded the country in August 1941 for the purpose of controlling Iran’s oil fields. Then ruler, Reza Shah Pahlavi, was deposed and his son, Mohammed Pahlavi, was installed on the throne.
The new monarch quickly took steps to modernize Iran, following the example of his father. His efforts were roundly criticized by his subjects as being too fast and superficial. The Muslim clergy was especially outraged by the loosening of religious practices, including the wearing of Western clothing by men and the discarding of the hijab by women.
In 1951, prime minister Mohammed Mosaddeq took steps to nationalize the British-controlled oil fields. He was briefly removed from office, but a popular uprising restored him. He forced the shah into a brief exile in August 1953. In retaliation, the American C.I.A. engineered a coup and forced Mosaddeq out of office. The new prime minister suppressed all opposition to the shah. Thereafter, Pahlavi ruled with an iron fist with the support of the United States and his secret police, the SAVAK.
The despotism of the shah, his forced secularization, and the American influence became the foundation of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Wide-spread demonstrations forced Pahlavi into permanent exile, and Iran became an Islamic republic in April 1979. Industry was nationalized and all Western influence banned.
The shah found sanctuary in the United States, which protected him, despite demands from Iran to hand him over. In retribution, Iranian students, the forerunner of the Revolutionary Guard, stormed the U.S. Embassy in November 1979 and held its staff members as hostages for 444 days. An attempt by the Carter administration to rescue the hostages by military force failed miserably, and the U.S. was required to buy back its citizens. This event became the grudge which has lasted to this day.
The Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sought to take advantage of the upheaval in Iran by coveting the oil fields in the western part of Iran. He invaded Iran in September 1980 and there followed a long war of attrition. The United States, through the C.I.A., supplied Saddam with money, weapons, and intelligence for no other reason than to get even with the Ayatollah. America’s meddling, and its indifference to Saddam’s use of chemical weapon, prompted Iran to build up its military, to engage in a nuclear-energy program, to expand its influence throughout Southwest Asia, and to aid Shi’ite Muslims against Sunni Muslims.
Since then, the war of words between the U.S. and Iran has continued unabated, particularly after Trump withdrew from the agreement of 2015 to limit Tehran’s nuclear capability. Any deal which did not involve him was, ipso facto, a “bad deal,” and he made new demands on the regime. The Iranians have met his threats with some of their own. In response, the U.S. has reared the ugly head of gunboat diplomacy.
Threats and insults do not a foreign policy make. That’s how the U.S. came to be involved in Southwest Asia in the first place. That’s how the U.S. got involved in Vietnam in 1963, in the Caribbean in 1898, and in Mexico in 1846. Do you see the pattern, dear reader? Do you see the consequences of not being able to learn from history?
Cause-and-effect: A never-ending cycle.
Just a thought.