Peace-making with Iran, American style

Why do Iranians fear, detest America? Experience, maybe?

This quote is from the book Web of Deceit by Barry Lando Via A Tiny Revolutions.

at the end of the Iran-Iraq war:

The Reagan administration, in effect, decided to undertake a secret war...Heavily armed U.S. Special Operations helicopters, stealthy, sophisticated killing machines that could operate by day or night, were ordered to the Persian Gulf. Their mission was to destroy any Iranian gunboats they could find. Other small, swift American vessels, posing as commercial ships, lured Iranian naval vessels into international waters to attack them...

Beginning in July 1987, the CIA also began sending covert spy plans and helicopters over Iranian bases. Several engaged in secret bombing runs...In September 1987, a special operations helicopter attacked an Iranian mine-laying ship...

The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency dispatched additional officers to Baghdad...they were planning day-by-day strategic bombing strikes for the Iraqi Air Force...in a twenty-four hour period, U.S. forces sank or demolished a destroyer and a couple of frigates, which represented half the Iranian navy.

If Saddam had not ultimately prevailed, the Pentagon had prepared an even more ambitious strategy: to launch an attack against the Iranian mainland. "The real plans were for a secret war, with the U.S. on the side of Iraq against Iran..." said retired Lieutenant Colonel Roger Charles, who was serving in the office of the secretary of defense at the time. This was confirmed by Admiral James A. "Ace" Lyons, who was commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. As he put it, "We were prepared, I would say at the time, to drill them back to the fourth century."

Relatively cooler heads prevailed. According to Richard Armitage, who at the time was assistant secretary of defense, "The decision was made not to completely obliterate Iran...However, had things not gone well in the Gulf, I've no doubt that we would have put those plans into effect."

Now, consider the rhetoric that is being pipelined from America into Tehran. The following clips come from Glenn Greenwald.







So, first Reagan supports Saddam as he attacked Iran, both militarily and logistically. Then, just for fun (No better reason has been presented) Bush 43 attacks Iraq and deposes Saddam, creating the greatest source of terrorists and terrorist training in the world, while killing at least 140,000 Iraqis (far more than Saddam ever did) and creating a Sunni Shiite civil war that has thrown the Shiites in Iraq into dependence on Iran. It is safe to assume that at least 2.5 times that number are severely wounded (another 350,000 people) and it is well known that there are at least 2,000,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, and another 2,000,000 internal refugees inside Iraq.

Consider the fact that Iraq has 27,499,638 (July 2007 est.) So 490,000 dead and wounded is 1.8 percent of the population. Refugees amount to another 14.5 percent of the population. All because the American President panicked after 9/11 and had a whim that attacking Iraq might give him political cover for incompetence in protecting America.

Consider also that President Eisenhower and the CIA overthrew the elected government in Iran in 1953 and replaced Mosaadegh with the dictatorial Shah (Operation Ajax. Should the Iranians have been surprised that Reagan was supporting Saddam Hussein after he attacked Iran?

The most dangerous enemy that Iran has had in the world since WW II has been the singly most powerful military nation in the world, the United States. That has been especially true during Republican administrations. America was the cause of the Iranian Revolution (by placing the Shah on the Peacock Thrown and supporting him and the Savak and is directly responsible for creating the Islamic government in Iran.

The threats and bluster from Cheney, Bush and the radical Republican Party contributes to the problem rather than preventing it. No honest observer could see it any other way.

Anyone supporting the Republican Party is by definition not an honest observer. Conservative Republicans are the most likely cause of war in the world today. They work hard to antagonize other nations, even going so far (as Bush did) as supporting the coup plotters who attempted to overthrow the legitimately elected Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Then the Republicans blame the nations that they have threatened for attempting to defend their sovereignty, and declaring them the cause of the wars.

Conservatism is a dangerous disease that needs to be eliminated. The judgment on the entire Republican Party is still out.