SECTION ELEVEN
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COLUMN
SIXTY-SIX, DECEMBER 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 Al Aronowitz)
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ANOTHER FUCKUP BY THE CENTRAL IGNORANCE AGENCY
Subject:
If the CIA Had Butted Out ...
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 10:35:20 -0400
From: portsideMod@netscape.net
Reply-To: portside@yahoogroups.com
To: portside@yahoogroups.com
Los
Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-000083832oct21.story
COMMENTARY
If
the CIA Had Butted Out ...
By
AHMED BOUZID
Ahmed
Bouzid is president of Palestine Media Watch. Web site:
October
21 2001
Imagine
if Aug. 19, 1953, had come and gone, uneventfully. Imagine if Operation Ajax,
coordinated by the British MI6 and the American CIA, which toppled the
flourishing democracy in Iran of Mohammed Mossadeq, had never left the drawing
board. Imagine if the Western-educated Mossadeq, a charismatic leader who was
massively backed in Iran by a burgeoning middle class, had been allowed to
peacefully lead his country to become the first truly Muslim democracy in the
Had
the coup never taken place, Iran probably would have gone on to build a sturdy,
inclusive democracy that would have brought about a far more durable stability
than what the shah---forever tainted in the eyes of his people as a weak, easily
manipulated Western puppet---ever managed to deliver.
Had
the coup never taken place, democratic Iran would have long ago done away with
the myth that Islam and democracy are incompatible. More important, nationalist
and anti-colonialist as it was, Iran would have handsomely served as the model
to follow for the dozens of Arab and Muslim states that had recently gained, or
were about to gain, independence from colonial occupation, thus averting their
alignment with the Soviet bloc as well as the rise of homegrown thugs and
dictators.
Had
the coup never taken place, the ayatollahs, who had supported the coup against
Mossadeq, would never have gained their political clout. Indeed, the shah saw in
the conservative ayatollahs the perfect partners against the radicalism of the
left and the liberalism of the middle class.
Had
the coup never taken place and the ayatollahs never been given the political
clout they had enjoyed under the shah, the June uprising of 1963, which was
fueled by the clerics' unhappiness with the shah's attempts at modernization,
would also have never taken place.
Hence
no harsh crackdown would have followed the uprising, nor would have a
little-known cleric, a certain Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, gained international
attention as the spiritual leader of that confrontation against the shah.
Had
the coup never taken place, Khomeini would have remained a little-known cleric.
Instead, he was exiled for 14 years, a time during which he cultivated his image
from that of a charismatic leader to that of a sacred returning messiah. And
during those 14 years, the prospect for the emergence of a truly democratic Iran
grew dimmer while Islamic radicalism, associating all that is
Had
the coup never taken place, there would not have been a hostage crisis, and
neither would the U.S. have severed its relations with Iran and imposed economic
sanctions. Both actions, more than 20 years later, remain in effect to this day.
Had
the coup never taken place, Saddam Hussein would have never dared invade Iran in
September 1980. The U.S. would never have sided with Iraq's dictator and neither
would it have committed itself to a policy of ensuring that Iraq not lose the
war. It would not have supplied Hussein with crucial assistance or turned a
blind eye to his egregious crimes against his people.
Had
the coup never taken place, Hussein would not have found himself by the end of
the war against Iran as the commander of one of the largest armies in the
More
important, he would have never been under the impression that, as long as he
restricted his aggression to fellow Muslims and kept off Israel, the world would
only decry and condemn him but never act.
Had
the coup never taken place, chances are that Iraq never would have invaded
Imagine
a new era of foreign policy---an era in which international law is taken
seriously, respected, in which sovereign democracies are encouraged, nurtured,
applauded, rather than fought against, stifled and killed. Imagine if we
abandoned, once and for all the poisonous doctrines of "Iron
Chancellor"
How
many millions of lives would we have saved, and how much safer and more
prosperous would the world be today? ##
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