As U.S. President Donald Trump runs amok on the world stage, there seems to be a global focus more on his erratic behavior, than on what it is he proposes. We must not overlook his oppression of the Palestinians, bombing of school children in Yemen or support for terrorists in Syria. But our own focus today will be on his treatment of, and attitude towards, Iran.
U.S. history with Iran is fraught with crime and repression. The decades-long reign of the U.S. puppet, the Shah of Iran, only came about after the U.S. orchestrated the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had been elected in 1952, and who promptly nationalized the oil industry. This was unacceptable to the U.S. government, which cared nothing at all about the will of the Iranian people. So instead of living with their democratically-elected leaders, the people of Iran endured twenty-six years of repression brought about by the U.S., which elevated the Shah to power. During those long decades, the U.S. got all the oil it wanted, and pulled the strings as the brutal Shah oppressed the people of Iran.
In February of 1979, a popular people’s revolution ended the reign of the Shah, and the Islamic Republic of Iran began. The U.S. was blindsided by the overthrow, and never expected the revolution’s leaders to sustain a government for any length of time. When it became apparent that those leaders had the support of the people, were quite capable of…