Perspective on Iran

[RobH4413]

Just finished taking a course on Islam in Iran this semester and it blew my mind how little I knew about Islam and the Middle East. Especially the US involvement in the 1950's.

Thought I should share, and hear some of the thoughts of others on the board.

Iran wasn't always the big bad radical state it now is. It actually had a democracy, and we overthrew it. Some argue that if we didn't do it, then the Soviets would have, so it was necessary. While I understand the Soviet threat was real, I personally don't buy it.

This quote from a prisoner during the 1979 hostage crisis kind of gives you perspective on some of what this country does under the radar, and the blowback that comes with it.

Originally Posted by http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/3/stephen_kinzer_on_the_us_iranian

He said, “I had been sitting in my solitary cell as a hostage for about a year, when one day the cell door opens, and there is standing one of the hostage takers, one of my jailers. And all of my rage and my fury built up over one year sitting in that cell just burst out, and I started screaming at him, and I was telling him, ‘You have no right to do this! This is cruel, this is inhumane! These people have done nothing! This is a violation of every law of god and man! You cannot take innocent people hostage!’” He said, “I went on like this for several minutes. When I was finally out of breath, the hostage taker paused for a moment, and then he leaned into my cell and said, in very good English, ‘You have no right to complain, because you took our whole country hostage in 1953.’"