But what did appear were myriad commentaries about what the US has done to damage Iran. And the lists are substantive and the items don’t even overlap entirely. A sane person can kinda understand why the hostage crisis occurred; so much pent up frustration in Iran suddenly released with the downfall of the Shah. For Iran, it was a sudden kind of expression of freedom and an almost spontaneous outburst of sheer, youthful anger at a meddling US Meddling for decades, too.
One can cite all sorts of Western or US meddling: As far back as 1872 Nasir al-Din Shah, Shah of Iran from 1848-1896, sold Baron Julius de Reuter the right to operate all of Iran’s railroads and canals, most of its mines and forests, and all future industries. (Back then Iranian oil resources were hardly even known.) Outrage was so intense at this insane “sale” that it was soon rescinded. The American and British coup against Mosaddegh in 1953 was a nightmare for Iran and soon enough the U. was training the regime’s secret police in how to interrogate Iranians with methods based on Nazi torture techniques. Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 and Iraq went all out (with US help) trying to make biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and actually used chemical weapons on Iranian soldiers. Saudi Arabia was even funding Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program with billions of dollars and the US knew it and did not care. And there have been a myriad of other outrageous actions by the US The shoot down of an Iranian civilian airliner. Other threats, including nuclear, even from morons like Sheldon Adelson, a Jewish billionaire with deep tentacles and money influence in a corrupted US government, including that of Donald Trump.
One could go on and on citing ways the US has been cruel to Iran, but the prime question is why, aside from the influence of various foreign lobbies and fifth columnists inside the US? In my view it comes down to this: Iran, by opposing US Mideast policies and imperialism exercises a CONSTRAINING influence or effect on US strategies in the region. And this is an important point, because it suggests than animosity is not the result of some core, fundamental cultural dissonance between, say, the American or Iranian people, and maybe even not especially political, too. But rather because a major country with 80 million people, Iran, wants to be left alone, does not want to be threatened, and does not appreciate US meddling – for selfish gain – in neighboring countries, and these objections alone create a fair bit of obstacle to US or Western hegemony in the Mideast.
It’s not only a good thing for the Mideast, but also it’s good for the American people at large. The US, as even former Congressman and Presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul said in December, could well crumble as the Soviet Union did in 1990. He has suggested it could happen to the US most anytime. Frankly, I am not placing bets on this happening right away, but stranger things have occurred.
Objections to US foreign policies are potentially good for the American people because it’s difficult to discern what recent US administrations have done to boost longer term prospects for the US generally. The infrastructure is crumbling, the debt is out of control both personal and governmental, poverty is rising fast, the two major political parties are dysfunctional and despised by most Americans, and the monetary system is at grave risk of dissolution. And why? Because, in large part, of overseas military interventions since the Vietnam War and other costly attempts to create a world where mere objections, including Iranian objections, are not heard.
And meanwhile, Average Americans who fail to demand fair representation in government and refuse to believe how narrow and corrupt representation has become, and who fail to try to put a halt to warmongering by the Military Industrial Complex and its cronies in government, and who fail to recognize injustices perpetrated overseas, are setting "THEIR" country up for failure eventually, as well as their own prospects, as Dr, Ron Paul suggests. Trump would have those who voted for him believe that he is delivering the country back to the average citizens as a result of his victory last year, but this is not the truth, and the tax "reform" legislation bears that out, as well as his insane view of what "national security" mandates (more of the same hegemonic blather).
MNA/TT