History Lesson: Iran Before and After U.S. Intervention

 

This was the Iran of the 1960s and '70s:  Women dressed in the fashions of the day enjoying time with friends of both sexes, studying in universities and participating in the workforce.  The country had a secular democratically-elected leader and was considered a safe oasis in the Middle Eastern desert for Western countries like the U.S. and Great Britain.  The way Israel is seen today.







...and this is Iran from 1979 to the present day.  After Jimmy Carter formed a secret alliance with Ayatollah Khomeini, putting "U.S. interests" ahead of human rights and freedom for the people of Iran.  Like all the other presidents before and after him, he stuck his nose where it didn't belong & the locals of the region paid (and continue to pay) dearly.  To his credit, Carter seemed to feel great remorse about this for the rest of his life, making statements like the following: 

But the damage was done.  Carter's otherwise admirable legacy (well, compared to other presidents of the 20th-21st Centuries) was tarnished, forever blemished by the suffering he brought to the region.

While Carter gets most of the heat for turning Iran into an Islamic fascist shithole, I'm sure the CIA and other three-letter deep state agencies played an even bigger role in this massive, monumental fuck-up.  Just like they did by installing the "Jamaican Labour Party" (JLP) (read: CIA) puppet Edward Seaga in 1980s Jamaica and illegally funding the Contras in Nicaragua around the same time... to name a few of their Greatest Hits.

As an American I'd just like to offer my meaningless but sincere apologies to all the women & girls of Iran, past and present.  Please know that not all of us (or even fully half of us) support U.S. intervention and meddling abroad.  In fact many violently oppose it, whether for altruistic reasons or selfish personal ones like keeping our own people safe from terrorist blowback.  Like the Middle East, the U.S. is run by dogmatic hypermasculine aggressors who pursue their own selfish agendas at the cost of countless human lives.  Freedom and democracy are but an illusion and the few freedoms we do have are as fragile as those of pre-1979 Iran.  

Unfortunately too few Americans accept this, preferring instead to blame Islam or whatever belief/economic system the people of faraway lands subscribe to.  The truth is, Christian fascism, crony capitalism and Western neo-liberalism are every bit as dangerous to democracy and quality of life here as Islamic militancy, communism and Sharia law are to the people of our "enemy" nations abroad.