Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxb.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihuxb!reza
From: reza@ihuxb.UUCP (Reza Taheri)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Re: Closed Eyes to the raping of a nation.
Message-ID: <888@ihuxb.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Nov-84 15:41:06 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxb.888
Posted: Wed Nov 28 15:41:06 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Nov-84 06:14:09 EST
References: <4181@tekecs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 46

> >> stuff.  Our technique is different -- that's all.  We get the Shah
> >> of Iran to kill thousands (literally!) of his subjects.  We get the Death
> >> Squads to do the dirty work in El Salvador.  Morally, we are simply in
> >> no position to complain.
> 
> We got the Shah of Iran to kill thousands??? Certainly the Shah did kill 
> thousands, but we had nothing to do with it! Explain to me why on Earth 
> it would have been in our interests to kill thousands of Iranians. Are you 
> so naive to believe that we could compel a leader to kill his own people,
> or that we would even want to??? Garbage. We were a strategic ally of the 
> Shah of Iran. His internal problems were of his own making. He brought 
> about his own downfall. Don't place the blame on the US for the actions of the
> Shah, and especially don't use the word "we" because I won't accept that.
> (After the Ayatolla (forgive my spelling) dies and the thousands (literally!)
> that he executed are remembered, are you going to blame that on us too?)

   I will explain to you why it was in your interest to kill thousands
of Iranians.

   Until 1953 the Iranian oil was drilled by the British for the benefit
of the British; Iran got a mere 16% of the profits.  In 1953, prime
minister Mosaddegh of Iran nationalized the oil and kicked out the British
and the Shah, who wanted to keep the status quo and his throne.  The Shah
was later brought back to power by a CIA sponsored coup.  This is not
just a "blame-it-all-on-America" fairy tale; consult any history book.
It was in the interest of the US to keep the Shah in power (and keep
the cheap oil running) at any price.  Furthermore, with the crises
in the Middle East, a man to do the dirty work for America was
badly needed.  Shah was that man and did everything from invading
Oman (to keep the US out of another Vietnam), to buying the surplus
Jordanian citrus product (and let the Iranian citrus product rot
away) to help the Jordanian economy when the US wanted to show a
friendly gesture to Jordan.

   Of course the Shah has to get a lot of the blame, and so do many
Iranians who had a hand in murders and the destruction of the Iranian
economy.  But none of that would have been possible without the
support of the US government.

   Believe it or not, I do think that the US is partially to blame for
Khomeini!  If the US hadn't kept the Shah in power for so long, chances
were he would have been replaced by a more moderate regime.

H. Reza Taheri
...!ihnp4!ihuxb!reza
(312)-979-7473