Actually, from 1953 on, Iran was very much an autocracy under the Shah. They DID make a stab at democracy just after WWII but the Abadan Crisis put an end to that. The latter got kicked off in 1951 when their Parliament (with full backing of then-Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq) voted to nationalize the local oil industry, which the British had control of. The results: two years of coups, black propaganda and black ops meddling that left the Shah wholy in charge.
From there, you get the US backing Saddam Hussein, the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s (and the related Iran-Contra scandal), the invasion of Kuwait that ended Hussein's US support and of course the Iraq War. So screwing up with Iran is anything but new.
What the Shah was to the West was business-friendly. Like too many Cold War era autocrats (see Francisco Franco in Spain), as long as he kept the communists and Soviets and let them have the oil, the West could care less.
As to being less an ass...well, I have heard tell stories of torture dungeons under the Shah you definitely wanted to stay out of.
Do you really believe Iran when they say they moved all their nuclear materials prior to the attack? How do we know what's true and what isn't? And how will this come back and haunt Trump?
I don't know, but I will urge you to do this. Don't get obsessive with the news and concentrate with things you know are in your control, and to live your life.
Actually, from 1953 on, Iran was very much an autocracy under the Shah. They DID make a stab at democracy just after WWII but the Abadan Crisis put an end to that. The latter got kicked off in 1951 when their Parliament (with full backing of then-Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq) voted to nationalize the local oil industry, which the British had control of. The results: two years of coups, black propaganda and black ops meddling that left the Shah wholy in charge.
From there, you get the US backing Saddam Hussein, the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s (and the related Iran-Contra scandal), the invasion of Kuwait that ended Hussein's US support and of course the Iraq War. So screwing up with Iran is anything but new.
Ah okay, I got it. Still, it seems like the Shah was less of an ass than the Ayatollahs
What the Shah was to the West was business-friendly. Like too many Cold War era autocrats (see Francisco Franco in Spain), as long as he kept the communists and Soviets and let them have the oil, the West could care less.
As to being less an ass...well, I have heard tell stories of torture dungeons under the Shah you definitely wanted to stay out of.
Do you really believe Iran when they say they moved all their nuclear materials prior to the attack? How do we know what's true and what isn't? And how will this come back and haunt Trump?
Honestly I can't say. That's why I'm sitting back and letting things play out. Even if Iran was able to do it, they'd get caught rather quickly.
I just wonder what the consequences of all this will be. I don't know which stories out there are real and which ones aren't.
I don't know, but I will urge you to do this. Don't get obsessive with the news and concentrate with things you know are in your control, and to live your life.
Okay.