Originally posted by Elfie
If the British were involved also, why do people on this board accuse ONLY the US for the coup that destroyed the democratic government in Iran in 1953?
You must know a little bit more of iranian history to understand some of the historical development in Iran.
In WW1 Iran declared itself neutral and this neutrality was ignored by the Ottoman Empire, England and Russia who used northern Iran for their battles.
In WW2 Iran again declared its neutrality - and this time it was not only used as an battlefield for foreign nations.
This time - because Iran was cooperating with the German Reich and refusing to join the allies - it was occupied by the UK and USSR. The Shah - a man highly respected by the iranians - was deposed and sent to exile in South Africa where he died.
His son - a weak person - was installed as a puppet and Iran became a member of the Allies.
The hate against the involved countries was growing.
After WW2 Iran had a new friend - the USA. The USA helped Iran by forcing the USSR and the UK to leave Iran. Even the soviet puppet state of the Kurds - the so called "Kurdish Republic of Mahabad" which was on iranian territory in the soviet occupation zone - could be recaptured by the imperial iranian army only because the USA put political pressure on the USSR not to intervene anmd help the kurds.
The USA was something new for the iranians. Unlike the foreign nations which have been in the region for so long - like the UK and others - the USA was considered as a friend.
And when in the 50ties prime minister Mossadegh managed to depose the Shah in an unbloody revolution and sent him to exile to Italy Iran had a great chance to become a democracy.
Just try to imagine what the region could look like today - if the major non-arab power there beside Israel and Turkey would today be a stable democracy.
But the CIA with its command centre in the US-embassy in Teheran - coordinated the reinstallation of the Shah.
The reaon was simply: Oil.
Mossadegh made the mistake to cancel the oil contracts with the foreign companies.
And so Mossadegh - a man loved and highly respected by the iranian people - was sentenced to death and put into house arrest for the rest of his life after the "counter revolution" of General Zahedi.
But that was not the worst thing what happened.
To ensure that the puppet Shah couldnt be deposed again the CIA supported the imperial iranian secret police in training and so on. The SAVAK - the name of this organisation which acted like the Nazi GeStaPo - tortured and killed thousands of iranians year by year.
Many iranians - most of them those who were favorising Iran to become a democracy - simply dissappeared. The name EVIN was causing fear in every iranian. Its the name of a huge prison-complex which still exists today and where prisoners are tortured to death because of political reasons.
The years of the Shah after the 50ties were not like shown in western media. Not a nice and modern Iran with happy people but pure terror where your relatives could dissappear when they said something against the Shah.
And the people blamed the USA for this. Not that they were right by doing so - but for them the Shah was only a puppet of the USA.
And so history went on and despite all his army despite all his secret police and despite all his terror the Shah wasnt able to avoid that the people threw him out of Iran in a very bloody revolution with so many losses.
Ans so Iran got the next terror regime - after the Shah the mullahs came. After all these years of terror most of the liberal democrats have been killed and only the radicals - like the communist Tudeh-party or the shiite mullahs have remained.
The SAVAK was renamed in SAVAMA and the terror continued.
Saddam and his Iraq attacked Iran and they fought a bloody 8 years war.
But there was still hope in the future.
In the last decades Iran managed to reduce the power of the mullahs and make some small steps toward democracy.
But then after 9/11 and the definition of Iran being a member of the "Axis of Evil" the radicals were getting again more power.
Thats the situation of Iran today. If the iranians are allowed to handle with their problems alone - I am sure that the mullah regime will be overthrown within the next 5 years and Iran becomes a democracy and a stable one, because it will be a devolopment from within. Done by iranians.
You cant create democracy by ordering people to do so or by occupying a country.
Iraq and Afghanistan are good examples how such plans are failing.
And these are - compared to Iran and its population - small countries.
The 60million people of Iran still have a chance to become a democracy - but not by war. Only if they make their development within Iran, they will succeed and finish what Mossadegh started in the 50ties.
