In March 2000, the secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, publicly acknowledged America's involvement in the coup for the first time. For those who like their spy data raw, the CIA's secret history is now freely available, thanks to a leak, on the ]
National Security ArchiveFifty years ago... the CIA and the Secret Intelligence Service toppled the democratically elected Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. His government had nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (the forerunner of BP) in protest against working conditions and British unwillingness to share profits evenly.
But that short-term success came at a painful long-term cost. The shah's brutality after his return inspired the anti-American Islamic fundamentalists who burst forth in 1979 and have flourished ever since.
Indeed, Iranians stormed the American embassy in part because the shah's return had been plotted there before and they did not want to see history repeated.
In Iraq, it took coalition forces only a month to oust Saddam Hussein, despite being outnumbered almost two to one on difficult enemy terrain. In Iran, the same period elapsed between presidential approval and the coup. Admittedly MI6 had already laid the groundwork by establishing a network of operatives. But it is still astonishing how readily Roosevelt and his Iranian agents found mobs-for-hire, happy to riot for pay with no questions asked. Mix mobs with a sustained press campaign and corrupt military officers, and voilą: regime change. The really cautionary tale of Mr Kinzer's book ["All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror"] is how easy it would be for any democracy erected by America and Britain in the Middle East to fall again.[/b]
Doing the same thing while expecting different results - a great definition of insanity.
Here is another quote from a great and understanding man, while I am at it:
In his last interview, published in Monday's editions of the Brazilian daily newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, Vieira de Mello warned that the vast U.S. military presence in Iraq was inciting attacks like the one that took his life a day later.
"This must be one of the most humiliating periods in history for these people. Who would like to see their country occupied? I wouldn't want to see foreign tanks in Copacabana," Vieira de Mello said in his interview.
miko
