In 1953 the United States backed a coup to install the Shah in place of Mohammad Mosaddeq who was the democratically elected leader. In the long memories of Iranians this caused a great resentment among their people. When the Shah was eventually overthrown the U.S. Embassy went down with it and the story of the hostages began.
Now the U.S. has backed another coup leader in President Gen. Pervez Musharraf even though he is not wanted by the people of Pakistan. When he is eventually overthrown we should expect an increasing resentment from their people against the United Stated because of our intervening foreign policy. And oh by the way...Osama Bin Laden is hiding out in Pakistan...and oh by the way again...they have a nuclear weapon.
Our policy is right now creating the very Iran we're afraid that could emerge...except it's in Pakistan.
1 comment:
This is the same sort of thing that Rudy Giuliani bashed Ron Paul for during the debates.
Lucky for you, I'm not nearly as ignorant about Middle Eastern political history as Giuliani, so I won't question your patriotism or tell endless 9/11 stories.
People too often forget that it was the USA that forced the Shah on Iran. It shouldn't come as any surprise, since we've done the same thing in just about every country in South America, supporting one iron-fisted dictator after another in order to thwart Communism.
In the case of Iran it was a far worse excuse that brought us into the area. Mossaddeq made noises about nationalizing the oil industry. Boom...no more Mossaddeq. The Shah was ruthless and cruel and they have long, long memories in that part of the world.
Now we have Pakistan. As far as I know, we aren't responsible for Musharraf being in power, but now that he's floundering, it seems like Bush is disowning him as fast as he can forget the man.
Musharraf is cracking down on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but he's really going after the fundamentalists of his own country. They all want to kill him, so he's doing what any good iron-fisted dictator would do.
And Bush has Condi Rice denouncing his anti-democratic tactics. Careful, he's our only ally over there. If you call that an ally. Still, Musharraf is currently persecuting people who are our enemies, and the enemy of our enemies is our friend.
I guess my point is; after a hundred years of interferring in other nation's politics, why are we picking now to suddenly pretend to walk the high road?
Confused? So is Bush. Don't expect him to manage this latest crisis very well. I hope Hillary..er, the next President, I mean, is able to clean up Bush's nightmarish mess.
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