{"id":56247,"date":"2015-04-13T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=56247"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:25:52","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:25:52","slug":"seven-things-you-didnt-know-the-u-s-and-its-allies-did-to-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/04\/seven-things-you-didnt-know-the-u-s-and-its-allies-did-to-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Things You Didn\u2019t Know the U.S. and Its Allies Did to Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: Sipa\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n

7 Apr 2015 – <\/em>It\u2019s hard for some Americans to understand why the Obama administration is so determined to come to an agreement with Iran on its nuclear capability, given that huge Iranian rallies<\/a>\u00a0are constantly<\/a>\u00a0chanting \u201cDeath to America!<\/a>\u201d I know the chanting makes me unhappy,\u00a0since I\u2019m part of America, and I strongly oppose me dying.<\/p>\n

But if you know our actual history with Iran, you can kind of see where they\u2019re coming from. They have understandable reasons to be angry at and frightened of us \u2014 things we\u2019ve done that if, say,\u00a0Norway\u00a0had done them to us, would have us out in the streets shouting \u201cDeath to Norway!\u201d\u00a0Unfortunately, not only have the U.S. and our allies done horrendous things to Iran, we\u2019re not even polite enough to remember it.<\/p>\n

Reminding ourselves of this history does not mean endorsing an\u00a0Iran with nuclear-tipped ICBMs. It does mean realizing how absurd it sounds when critics of the proposed agreement\u00a0say it suddenly makes the U.S. the weaker party or that we\u2019re getting a bad deal because Iran, as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham put it, does not fear Obama\u00a0enough<\/a>. It\u2019s exactly the opposite: This is the best agreement the U.S. could get because for the first time in 35 years, U.S.-Iranian relations aren\u2019t being driven purely by fear.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The founder of Reuters purchased Iran in 1872<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>\n

    \"Paul<\/a>

    Paul Julius Reuter (Getty)<\/p><\/div><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Nasir al-Din Shah, Shah of Iran from 1848-1896, sold Baron Julius de Reuter the right to operate all of Iran\u2019s railroads and canals, most of the mines, all of the government\u2019s forests, and all future industries. The famous British statesman Lord Curzon called it<\/a> \u201cthe most complete and extraordinary surrender of the entire industrial resources of a kingdom into foreign hands that has probably ever been dreamed of.\u201d Iranians were so infuriated that the Shah had to rescind the sale the next year.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The BBC lent a hand to the CIA\u2019s 1953 overthrow of Iran\u2019s Prime Minister\u00a0Mohammad Mosaddegh<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If the Reuters thing weren\u2019t\u00a0enough to give Iranians a grudge against the Western media, the BBC transmitted a secret code to help\u00a0Kermit Roosevelt (Teddy\u2019s grandson) lay the groundwork<\/a>\u00a0for an American and British coup against Mosaddegh. (BBC Persian also assisted<\/a> by broadcasting pro-coup\u00a0propaganda on the orders of the British government.) Soon enough the U.S. was training the regime\u2019s secret police in how to interrogate Iranians\u00a0with methods a CIA analyst said<\/a>\u00a0were \u201cbased on German torture techniques from World War II.\u201d<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. We had extensive plans to use nuclear weapons in Iran<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        In 1980 the U.S. military was terrified\u00a0the Soviet Union would take advantage of the Iranian Revolution to invade Iran and seize the Straits of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf. So the Pentagon came up with a plan<\/a>: If the Soviets began massing their troops, we would use small nuclear weapons to destroy the mountain passes in northern Iran the Soviets needed to move their troops into the country.<\/p>\n

        So we wouldn\u2019t be using nukes on<\/em> Iran, just in<\/em> Iran. As Pentagon historian David Crist put it, \u201cNo one reflected on how the Iranians might view such a scenario.\u201d But they probably would have been fine with it, just as we\u2019d be fine with Iran nuking Minnesota to prevent Canada from gaining control of the Gulf of Mexico. \u201cNo problem,\u201d we\u2019d say. \u201cNuestra casa es su casa.\u201d<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. We were cool\u00a0with Saudi Arabia giving Saddam $5 billion to build nukes during the Iran-Iraq war<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          You probably know that, after Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980, Iraq went all out (with our help) trying to make biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, and actually used\u00a0chemical weapons on Iranian soldiers. What you probably don\u2019t know is that Saudi Arabia was funding Saddam\u2019s nuclear program with billions of dollars,\u00a0and the Reagan administration\u00a0knew all about it and didn\u2019t care<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

          To understand how this looks to Iran, remember that at least 0.75% of Iran\u2019s total population died during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, the per capita equivalent today of 2.4 million Americans. For comparison\u2019s sake, we still constantly talk about World War II \u2014 in which\u00a0400,000 Americans died, then 0.3% of our population \u2014 70 years later.<\/p>\n

            \n
          1. U.S. leaders have repeatedly threatened to outright destroy Iran<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

            httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o-zoPgv_nYg<\/strong><\/p>\n

            It\u2019s not just John McCain singing<\/a> \u201cbomb bomb bomb Iran.\u201d Admiral William Fallon, who retired as head of CENTCOM in 2008, said<\/a> about Iran: \u201cThese guys are ants. When the time comes, you crush them.\u201d Admiral James Lyons Jr., commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the 1980s, has said<\/a>\u00a0we were prepared to \u201cdrill them back to the fourth century.\u201d Richard Armitage, then assistant secretary of defense, explained<\/a> that we\u00a0considered whether to \u201ccompletely obliterate Iran.\u201d\u00a0Billionaire and GOP kingmaker Sheldon Adelson\u00a0advocates<\/a> an unprovoked nuclear attack on\u00a0Iran \u2014 \u201cin the middle of the desert\u201d\u00a0at first, then possibly moving on to places with more people.<\/p>\n

            Most\u00a0seriously, the Obama administration\u2019s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review<\/a>\u00a0declared\u00a0that we will not use nuclear weapons\u00a0\u201cagainst non-nuclear weapons states that are party to the NPT [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]\u00a0and in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations.\u201d There\u2019s only one non-nuclear country that\u2019s plausibly\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0in this category. So\u00a0we were saying we will never use nuclear weapons against any country that doesn\u2019t have them already \u2014 with a single exception,\u00a0Iran.\u00a0Understandably, Iran found having a nuclear target painted on it\u00a0pretty upsetting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

              \n
            1. We shot down a civilian Iranian airliner \u2014 killing 290 people, including 66 children<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \"Funeral<\/a>

              Funeral for victims of downing of Flight 655. (AP)<\/p><\/div>\n

              On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes<\/em>, patrolling in the Persian Gulf, blew Iran Air Flight 655 out of the sky. The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> had editorialized<\/a> about \u201cMurder in the Air\u201d in 1983 when the Soviet Union mistakenly shot down a South Korean civilian airliner in its airspace, declaring, \u201cthere is no conceivable excuse for any nation shooting down a harmless airliner.\u201d After the Vincennes<\/em> missile strike, a Times<\/em> editorial announced<\/a> that what happened to Flight 655 \u201craises stern questions for Iran.\u201d That\u2019s right \u2014 for Iran<\/em>. Two years later the U.S. Navy gave the Vincennes<\/em>\u2019s commander the highly prestigious Legion of Merit commendation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

                \n
              1. We worry about Iranian nukes because they would deter our own military strikes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                Our rhetoric on Iran seems nonsensical: Do U.S. leaders actually believe Iran would engage in a first nuclear strike on Israel or the U.S., given that would lead to a quick and devastating retaliation from those well-armed nuclear powers?<\/p>\n

                Even conservative U.S. foreign policy experts know that\u2019s incredibly\u00a0unlikely. They\u2019re not worried that we<\/em> can\u2019t deter a nuclear-armed Iran \u2014 they\u2019re worried that a nuclear-armed Iran could deter us<\/em>.\u00a0As Thomas Donnelly, a top Iran analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, put it in 2004<\/a>, \u201cthe prospect of a nuclear Iran is a nightmare \u2026 because of the constraining effect it threatens to impose upon U.S. strategy for the greater Middle East. \u2026 The surest deterrent to American action is a functioning nuclear arsenal.\u201d<\/p>\n

                This perspective \u2014 that we must prevent other countries from being able to deter us from waging war \u2014 is a bedrock belief of the U.S. establishment, and in fact was touted as a major reason to invade Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n

                ____________________________<\/p>\n

                This article has been updated since publication with an additional item.<\/em><\/p>\n

                Email the author: jon.schwarz@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

                Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                A proposed nuclear deal is the first time in 35 years that U.S.-Iranian relations aren\u2019t being driven by fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}