69 million page views

Read some history

Reader comment on item: Washington Puzzles over the Mujahedeen-e Khalq
in response to reader comment: I met these folks

Submitted by The Historian... (United States), Nov 19, 2006 at 12:49

Is there a statute of limitation on acts of terrorism?

THEY KILLED AMERICAN military and civilian advisors during the dictatorship of Shah Palavi.

Does the fact that they commited assassinations of foreign government officials, and attacks on their embassies on the soil of 13 other countries make it right?

Just because the leadership of that government is one that we opposed?

And as of this week, we are now asking that same government for help with mess in Iraq, tellling them its THEIR responsibility to help fix this problem even though we "broke It."

I might suggest before you can accurately form an intelligent opinion about a foreign policy issue, it helps FIRST know something about its history, otherwise you end up in the mess we have now.

And the by the way, could the recent actions and posture of the Iranian government(including the election of a hard-liner) be a reaction to our own posturing?

Let me give you a little history lesson on some of their largest areas of contention with us:

- Iran once had a Parliamentary style government that was overthrown by the British and American clandestine services and replaced with a puppet (Enter the future Shah of Iran). This was after their democratically elected Prime Minister asked the Standard Oil company (now BP) for a more equitable distribution of oil proceeds...50-50 as opposed t o 80-20 (Guess who got the "20").

Oh by the way....go to BP Oil corporation's website and read about the origin of the company. It says it was "Persian"...that's Iran!

-This illiterate and somewhat incompetent military officer was in turn overthrown in a peoples revolt in the 50s, but guess who re-instated him for the SECOND time? And this time we helped him develop a brutal secret police force known as SAVAK which he used to torture dissidents(even in the basement of his palace).
Many Iranian based human rights advocates gave us plenty of warning about how the Shah's cruelty was creating a ground swell of anger years before the Iranian Revolution began, but they were not given only lip services. And THAT was the START of the Islamic Revolution movement . . .

- They have not forgotten the fact that we supported the Iraqs in their 8 year war against the Iranians that cost between 750,000- 1,000,000 casualities... a war in which we were supporting both sides(ie: The Iran-Contra scandal).

- They are surrounded by American forces on 3 sides....we've labeled them as part of the Axis of Evil, and and have threatened to attack them for the last 5 years.

How else would they react?

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Submit a comment on this item

<< Previous Comment      Next Comment >>

Reader comments (17) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
correct me if I'm wrong... [337 words]Peter HerzNov 29, 2011 22:13191314
more on MEK [101 words]Peter HerzDec 1, 2011 05:55191314
revised thinking [147 words]russell wohlfordMar 7, 2013 11:19191314
linkage [8 words]Consul-At-ArmsJun 24, 2011 12:19186743
Arabs need a secular dictator [90 words]MotkeJun 17, 2010 01:11174480
Now, should Israel trust Clinton's umbrella [60 words]Yuval Brandstetter MDAug 12, 2009 11:05160103
Regarding Mujahideen-e Khalq [74 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Debanjan BanerjeeMay 11, 2009 20:51155254
The MeK is a secular alternative -- they deserve our benign support at least [143 words]Charles MartelAug 13, 2009 11:20155254
Remember Mossadeq [121 words]Charles MartelAug 16, 2009 05:34155254
As for Mossadegh... [117 words]Kepha HorNov 29, 2011 21:53155254
Seems to me that Mr. Kepha needs to study history more [369 words]Debanjan BanerjeeDec 4, 2011 11:26155254
Dear Debanjan [227 words]Kepha HorDec 9, 2011 16:49155254
Dear Kepha [743 words]Debanjan BanerjeeDec 10, 2011 12:27155254
2I met these folks [518 words]russell wohlfordAug 24, 2006 11:2053901
Read some history [436 words]The Historian...Nov 19, 2006 12:4953901
response to "The Historian" [1093 words]russell wohlfordNov 22, 2006 02:4053901
Response to "the Historian" [305 words]RSTAug 9, 2009 00:0653901

Follow Daniel Pipes

Facebook   Twitter   RSS   Join Mailing List

All materials by Daniel Pipes on this site: © 1968-2024 Daniel Pipes. daniel.pipes@gmail.com and @DanielPipes

Support Daniel Pipes' work with a tax-deductible donation to the Middle East Forum.Daniel J. Pipes

(The MEF is a publicly supported, nonprofit organization under section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law. Tax-ID 23-774-9796, approved Apr. 27, 1998.

For more information, view our IRS letter of determination.)