The Daily Grasshopper

Mark Twain once said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” (I resemble that remark!) A good example of what he meant can be found in yesterday’s Boston Sunday Globe, which ran an L.A. Times story by Jeffrey Fleishman entitled “Isolated Iranians slam US policies” (The World, p. A19). You can read the article here:

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/012/nation/Isolated_Iranians_slam_US_policies+.shtml

The article, while informative, features a glaring omission, one that anyone who is concerned with our country’s reputation as a defender of democracy and human rights should be aware of. The article ends like this:

“The public animosity between the two countries, however, can sometimes be likened to a game of retaliation. For example, US authorities have been interrogating and fingerprinting people of Middle Eastern descent, including Iranians living in California, as part of the war on terrorism. Iran responded by fingerprinting and questioning American journalists entering the country. The chasm between the two nations emerged in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution delivered the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power. The 1997 election of reformer Mohammad Khatami as president suggested that relations might improve as diplomatic back channels were opened and President Clinton lifted symbolic economic sanctions on carpets and pistachios.”

To say that “the chasm between the two nations emerged in 1979 when the Islamic Revolution delivered the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to power” is like saying that the rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees began in 1999 when Roger Clemens started wearing pinstripes. Yes, that was an important development, but hardly the seminal moment in a much longer tale of tribulation. Same with the U.S. and Iran. Some people might get the impression from yesterday’s paper that Iran started the whole mess by taking a bunch of our citizens hostage during the Carter administration. Not quite.

In August 1953, the democratically-elected prime minister of Iran, Mossadegh, was overthrown by a CIA-backed coup. His offense? He wanted to nationalize the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (are you surprised to see oil implicated? Be honest). The coup returned the Shah of Iran to power, a position he would hold for 25 years (until the Ayatollah came along, at which point our intrepid L.A. Times reporter picks up the story). What were some of the characteristics of the U.S.-backed Shah’s rule? According to a 1976 Amnesty International report, Iran had the “highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts, and a history of torture that is beyond belief. No country in the world has a worse record in human rights than Iran.” But the oil was safe.

Our government’s record in the Middle East does not exactly match our leaders’ rhetoric, as the people who live there know all too well, and Americans understandably have a difficult time finding out the truth of the matter when reporters like Fleishman (either out of ignorance or willful deception, it matters little) fail to provide critical information. The facts of the CIA’s involvement in Mossadegh’s overthrow are well-known. As well-known as the facts of the CIA’s involvement in Salvador Allende’s overthrow, Patrice Lumumba’s overthrow, Jacobo Arbenz’s overthrow, etc., ad nauseam. The U.S. is all for democracy and human rights until some country goes and elects someone who dares to challenge U.S. supremacy. At that point, all bets are off. And if you’re an newly-elected leader who’s come to power promising to stand up to the Imperialist Yankees, you’d better be sure you know who's preparing your dinners, who’s got your back at all times, and you better sleep with both eyes open. And even then, I don't like your chances.

You can read all you’d like about the overthrow of Mossadegh here:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Iran_KH.html

Or Lumumba:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Congo_KH.html

Or Allende:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Chile_KH.html

Or Arbenz:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/Guatemala_KH.html

You get the idea. There’s a bunch of them:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/KillingHope_page.html