The Barbaric & Criminal Recent History of U.S. Relations with Iran

The typical imperialist rhetoric that spews from the U.S. towards anyone they don’t agree with, whether you are talking about Cuba, Venezuela, the previous Libyan Jamahiriya, Bolivia, North Korea, Iran, etc., is always that the country target of the week is evil and dangerous to the “security” of the U.S.  By security, what they want everyone to believe is that all these countries are working night and day to develop and/or implement the capacity to kill people within the U.S.  Despite the fact the U.S. has existed as a so-called “independent” country for 244 years – and besides Pearl Harbor 79 years ago (which we would argue the U.S. permitted to happen for a collection of political reasons), not one entity has physically invaded the U.S.  Regardless, this criminal regime works tirelessly to convince people here that their lives are in danger, not from U.S. imperialism, but countries fighting simply to survive and develop on their own.  Today, the evil bear is the sovereign country of Iran. 

Besides the fact about 95% of people in the U.S. couldn’t tell you what language people speak in Iran, what popular foods or music is there, etc., this power structure bangs the drums of war by appealing to the fears of the populace here because the ruling classes know people here have developed slim to no capacity to critically assess their criminal efforts to exploit humanity.  So, Iran is the latest chapter of this primitive and brutal approach to interacting with the rest of the world.  The sad thing is if people in the U.S. knew even the most basic information about Iran, they would know that Iranian people have spent the last 40 years being sabotaged by the U.S. military, U.S. intelligence (the Central Intelligence Agency – CIA), and U.S. policy making through economic sanctions, embargos, etc.  The absolute last thing those people want is conflict with the U.S. or anyone else.  So, I’m telling you here that the Iranian people are absolutely 100% no threat to anyone within the U.S., period, outside of defending themselves.  In order to understand the truth in this statement, you would have to know something about the history, at least the most recent history.

In 1953, the U.S. helped Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – the Shah of Iran – come into power.  As is the case with every neo-colonial regime, the main purpose for Pahlavi was to brutally oppress the Iranian people while making sure Iran’s mineral wealth, specifically oil rights, were available for exploitation by the large oil manufacturers at reasonable prices to refine, etc.  And, Pahlavi did that for 26 years until 1979 when the Ayatollah Khomeini, backed mostly by youth, staged the “Iranian revolution.”  The U.S. Embassy was held by these rebels for 444 days.  One note:  The new people making decisions in Iran immediately released all the African and women employees in the Embassy (except those they suspected of being CIA employees) because they said those segments of people were “oppressed in the U.S.” and not responsible for the oppression the Iranian people had suffered due to Pahlavi’s policies, supported wholeheartedly in concrete material ways by the U.S.

Now, it should be noted that the new regime under Khomeini, despite their effort with the African and women hostages in the embassy, should never be confused with a progressive government.  Dedicated to their vision of Islamic fundamentalism, Khomeini’s regime drastically limited women’s rights and imposed other oppressive practices designed to eliminate and intimidate anyone who was not on board with their vision of the world.  The succession of leadership in Iran that has come forward since Khomeini’s death in 1989 has not proven to be any more progressive.  Still, the latest violence inflicted by the U.S. against Iran e.g. the assassination of Iranian military commander Soleimani, occurred strictly because of U.S. imperialist interests in the region.  This rotation of U.S. enemies in the Middle East is always nothing except the effort by the U.S. to destabilize countries that it perceives to be any potential threat to its political interests and the interests of the multi-national (oil) companies that mostly dictate U.S. policies in that region of the world.  Iran is now in the U.S.’s crosshairs.  This all belies a history since Pahlavi’s government of insane criminality, brutality, and immorality by the U.S. as it relates to Iran.

In the early 80s, the U.S. found itself having to figure out a way to finance a surrogate army the CIA was creating in Central America to illegally overthrow the democratically elected government of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.  In office only one year, the government regime of Ronald Reagan found that even the bourgeoisie members of U.S. Congress were so outraged by the illegal practices of U.S. intelligence and military operatives in El Salvador, Nicaragua, etc., that Congress created the Boland Agreement in 1982, designed to eliminate the ability of the U.S. government to fund any military operations in Nicaragua.  The Reagan regime desperately wanted to overthrow the Sandinistas because of their fear that growing socialist revolutions, following Cuba’s example, would rise up throughout the Western Hemisphere.   With the Boland deal in place, the Reagan administration had to resort to secret and illegal means to raise money for the contras.  That’s when the Reagan regime proliferated selling weapons to Iran.  These arms transactions came to be known as “Iran/Contra” or “Iran-contraegate” once the practice of U.S. arms sells to Iran became public.  These transactions were controversial because an arms embargo had been implemented against Iran by the U.S. in 1979 after the Iranians seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran.

The immoral process of getting these weapons to Iran consisted of the U.S. funneling the weapons through the illegal Zionist state of Israel.  Once Israel, also a public enemy of Iran, secured payment for the arms, they in turn supplied the monies to the U.S. to serve as funding for the contras in Nicaragua.  Of course, another illegal activity utilized by the U.S. to finance the contras was the facilitation of the sales of crack cocaine throughout African communities in the U.S.  This method served multiple objectives.  Raise money from crack sales to finance the contras while ensuring crack served to devastate and frustrate the capacity of the African liberation movement throughout the U.S. (one of the most common refrains heard throughout the inner-cities in the 90s and 2000s, etc., was that during the 80s and 90s, the people mostly out at night “in the ghetto” were crack dealers and their customers, whereas during the 60s and 70s, the streets were packed with Black Panthers selling papers, protecting people, organizing, along with the Nation of Islam doing the same along with other groups).
Once word of these arms sells to Iran were leaked to the public in 1985, the Reagan regime used the justification that the arms transactions were necessary to coax the Iranian government to help the U.S. negotiate the release of seven U.S. “citizens” who were reportedly being held captive by Hezbollah which is the political/military group based primarily in Lebanon that has a strong relationship with the Iranian government. 

An investigation into Iran/Contra was launched based on pressure from the public and Reagan’s regime appointed a three-person committee to facilitate the investigation against itself.  What the team produced, in conjunction with the U.S. congress, were indictments against 11 lower level persons within the Reagan government.  The George Bush Senior presidency pardoned all 11 once it was elected in 1988.  An unintended result of this investigation was that it inadvertently revealed to the public that the arms sells actually started in 81, thus invalidating the Reagan regime’s lie about the hostages being the reason for selling weapons to Iran because the kidnappings had not even happened until after 1981.  So much for caring for U.S. hostages.

The importance of this history is that as a result of these arms transactions, weapons manufactured by the U.S. account are the majority of weapons owned by the Iranian government today.  In other words, whatever weapons the U.S. now claims threaten people in the U.S. are most likely weapons the U.S. supplied to Iran. 
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As usual, more tricks and deception from U.S. imperialism and as usual, millions of people in this country, lacking critical thinking skills to even properly understand the workings of the National Football League or the National Basketball Association they always argue about, will unwittingly go right along with the lies and criminal endeavors of an illegal empire.  Even the most dedicated court jester would have to recognize that this strategy and approach is never sustainable for long.