I hate to start off my first post with a negative tone but when you decide to write about relations between Iran and the West then you honestly don’t have much of a choice…
If you’ve been following the news then you are aware of this showdown of egos that is going down between the United States, their sidekick Briton, and the iconoclastic ‘villain’ Iran.
While we sit and watch our television sets, the glowing incandescence reassures us that we are indeed in a new Cold War and that this one is just as frightening and as valid as the first. A clash of cultures is what this is says FOX and CNN, they hate us for what we are and what we have.
If it were only that simple.
Iran doesn’t disagree with the West because they are primarily Christian and they enjoy a vastly ’superior’ standard of living. No. They are tired of the meddling. They are tired of living in fear of the U.S. hegemon.
Why fear the West and the U.S. in particular? In 1941 Iran was invaded by the U.K. and the U.S.S.R. based on fears that the Germans would utilize the nations vast oil reserves. Then in 1951 Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was popularly elected to the position of prime minister by the Iranian people, however one of his first acts while in office was the nationalization of the Iranian oil fields. The British and the U.S. quickly plotted his overthrow with Operation Ajax. Mossadegh was replaced with the puppet Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi whose autocratic rule was so vicious that he was overtthrown in 1979 by a people’s revolt. THEN from 1979 to 1988 the U.S. supported Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, support came in the form of military equipment and direct involvement in warfare.
Fast forward to today and you can understand why Iran is so suspicious of the West. Are they building a nuclear program to develop nuclear weapons? Perhaps. It is the only realistic strategy of keeping the U.S. war machine off their back. Or perhaps they are developing nuclear technology for the generation of electricity, it would enable them to provide energy to the populous at lower costs and would allow them to sell more oil for more profit. It’s a tough call; Iran says they’re intentions are good while the U.S. declares that they’re out to herald the coming of Muhammad with the backdrop of nuclear war. Take your pick, it’s hard to trust anyone these days.
All I know for sure is that we have a new day to mark on the calendar, April 9th is now the ‘national day of nuclear energy’ (in Iran at least).
