It is noteworthy of all Americans to know that when, "Dwight Eisenhower took over the White House, he ordered the CIA to embark on one of its first covert operations against a foreign government." As a result of this coup, "Some 300 people died in firefights in the streets of Tehran."
In many previous pieces, I have written of our disastrous foreign policy and its blow-back affect, so as one reads, "The crushing of Iran's first democratic government ushered in more than two decades of dictatorship under the Shah, who relied heavily on US aid and arms. The anti-American backlash that toppled the Shah in 1979 shook the whole region and helped spread Islamic militancy." If we are angry with Ahmedinejad's election as well as his leadership of that country, we only have to look in the mirror to see how it happened.
As many rage against Islamic militancy in this current day, they should take a look at history to see how it evolved and summarily came back to bite us.
If we demand of Ahmedinejad that he believe in the holocaust, we must also demand of ourselves how our meddling in other countries affairs has brought about much bloodshed. Iran was not our only venture.
In a previous piece written for another e-publication, I wrote, “The other night, I watched a chilling video feed called: The Secrets of the CIA which I strongly suggest my American readers to watch. Prepare to sit down for an hour and a half to witness what has been done in your name. You will witness that it is not just Iraq where we illegally invaded and toppled the Head of State and we did it on so many occasions. We did so using US taxpayer's money and the sheer amount spent by the CIA has not been reported.”
The CIA was directly involved in our invasion of Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia. Many, like me, feel that our present-day war in Iraq mirrors. In those invasions we lost over 58,000 soldiers and will never know how many civilians died.
In Cambodia our direct involvement led Pol Pot's iron fist rule of that country. All of which led to economic strife where professionals were systematically murdered and where a mass grave of 20,000 was found. In trying to bring a democratic society, we failed on so many fronts.
Our involvement in Angola led to the longest civil war in modern history and my guess is that we are repeating that in present day Iraq. As we take Ahmedinejad to task as to what is happening within his own government, when South Africa lived under apartheid, they one of the biggest supporters of the United States.
Some Americans try to claim a moral superiority in relation to the rest of the world and it serves us best to look at our own history.
In the aftermath of 9/11, Pres. Bush’s former press secretary, Ari Fleisher had this to say when warning journalists, “Watch what you say” We have seen freedom of speech erode in this nation since Bush took office, we have seen both Patriot Acts made drafted and enacted into law. We have seen the Military Commissions Act of 2006 enacted which defiles our Constitution as it strips those targeted of Habeas Corpus. Dare I say; that some do see Bush as a, “a petty and cruel dictator”?
In conclusion, I would say that it is Bush who is the cruelest by launching this illegal invasion into a sovereign country in which he targeted the wrong people and as a result over one million innocent Iraqis have died. This invasion came about because our elected officials took him at his word and failed to read the intelligence reports provided to them which proved the opposite. Had they challenged him, they would see for themselves that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.
Yet, many of these same politicos, pundits, broadcasters, and protesters come out full throttle against Ahmedinejad? Perhaps as they rebuff him in challenging the historical authenticity of the holocaust, all should be looking at our own which is still open for all to read.
Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
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