The infamous showdown during the Republican presidential primary debates between Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani, led to Dr. Paul explaining the CIA term “blowback” and he specifically brought up the 1953 American-led coup in Iran and it decades-long consequences. The Huffington Post’s Robert Naiman makes many interesting points here:
“When President Obama told al-Arabiya, “if countries like Iran are willing to unclench their fist, they will find an extended hand from us,” the most widely reported Iranian response was President Ahmedinijad’s suggestion that if the U.S. truly wants good relations with Iran, it should begin by apologizing for U.S. “crimes” against Iran, including U.S. support for the coup that overthrew Iranian democracy in 1953.
Not surprisingly, there hasn’t exactly been a groundswell of popular support in the United States for President Ahmadinejad’s suggestion. Just 11% of U.S. voters think America should apologize for “crimes” against Iran, according to a poll from Rasmussen.
Of course, if you know anything about the United States, you wouldn’t leap to the conclusion that Americans, as a country, are a bunch of jerks who can’t admit when they’ve done anything wrong. Occam’s Razor suggests a simpler explanation: most Americans have little knowledge about the history of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. As far as they know, the U.S. hasn’t done anything wrong. So why should we apologize?
Unfortunately for us, outside our borders U.S. foreign policy isn’t judged according to what we know, but according to what our government does and has done. And it is well known in Iran and throughout the Middle East that the U.S. (at the urging of and with the assistance of the UK) organized a coup against the democratically-elected Iranian government of Mohammed Mossaedgh in 1953, in retaliation for Mossaedgh’s stubborn insistence that Iran’s oil belonged to Iranians. And for the next twenty-five years, the U.S. kept in power a dictatorship in Iran, actions justified in no small measure by the alleged need to protect “our oil” that God had misplaced “under their sand.”
17 Comments
The problem with apologizing for past events is: where do you stop?
I mean the reality of the situation is that Iran is a Nazi nation. It was called Persia before WW2 but actually changed their name to Iran which translates to “Aryan”. They aided Hitler at every turn during the war and so after the war the Western world wasn’t exactly their friends…
So maybe we shouldn’t have overthrown their government, or maybe we should have? Maybe instead of doing it in secret we should have gone over there and helped to establish a democracy, I’m sure the world would have loved that, right? Oh wait, no they didn’t respond very well to that kind of thing in 2002…
Iran is the center for 7th century throwback barbarians who want to kill all Jews and kill or convert everyone else. We’re not perfect by any means, but I don’t really see how apologizing to a bunch of terrorists is a good idea.
Tom,
People like you are culprit by default in our government’s wrongdoings – just by the your ignorance. Read and learn a little before you talk.
Bijan,
Well said…
Iran has always had a very large Jewish population going back to the Babylonian exile—you know quite a few decided to stay. In addition, Iran through their embassy in Paris issued passports to many European Jews during the Nazi years by allowing them to claim distant Iranian relatives and thereby escape the concentration camps—an Iranian ‘Schindler’s List’ But of course, why should we let facts interfere with our prejudice, they are obviously the devil’s spawn.
To call Iranians Nazi’s is making many dead jewish people turn in their grave with anger and hatrad towards these false accusations. In fact, if you read most books of the time – Iranians embassy in Germany was aiding throughout the war with issuing passports to get jewish people out. How can “TOM” try to lie such a horrible manner. Jews were rescued by the Persian army when they were being masacared (have you read the bible lately?). Jews outside Palestine/Israel had only one place they could really call home without being second class citizens or witout being persecuted – and that was IRAN. I have seen 20+ years of biased, demonizing, dehuminizing media reporting on Iran – until this article. THIS IS WHAT MOST IRANIANS WANT ::: an apology for killing our people in order to help the British steal our oil, rob our children of their birthrights, and depriving our nation of its chosen leaders …. it is normal that we are angry – because we were deprived of the life that we should have had but were robbed of. Elham.
My Ignorance? That’s the pot calling the kettle black if I’ve ever seen it.
I am growing tired of the anti-Iranian orthodoxy. Really, I don’t want to live in a nation of Mullahs, and I would like to see Iran go down. But, I don’t want to live in a nation of Christian fanatics, either. I hardly see the difference between the Mullahs and the Evangelicals anymore. The State promotes wars based on one of three things: economics; religion; demographic destiny. None of these reasons is worth a damn. According to the “state,” I’m supposed to worry about a nuclear-armed Iran. Quite frankly, I’m more worried about a nuclear armed Israel. What has that useless country done for us lately? Israel is either a “launch pad” to protect our oil (the practical reason) or a “holy destiny” to protect our Christian roots (the philosophical reason). Well, how about we buy our oil, like most other countries, and bring some holy rocks back home so we can worship them here? Frankly, there’s a lot of Elitist propaganda going on–and the Christians are clinging onto it. Wake up. The US government is being led around by “old-world” think from Kennan in the 1950s, about circling the Russian Empire. It’s done, over, finished. The world is multipolar, no longer dominated by the US. All we are doing is wasting money, lives, and time by trying to promote the “manifest destiny” of the US. There’s just no good reasons anymore to stoke up wars in the Mideast.
Thanks for this piece, Jack. Yes, absolutely we should apologize. It’s the right thing to do. Whether or not you like Iran is irrelevent. If you do something wrong you apologize. That’s common sense. It’s not as if apologizing would do us any harm. We’re long past due climbing off our high horses anyway. I would wager a pretty penney that 99% of American citizens haven’t the slightest inkling about the Coup of 1953. The uninformed American populace is an all too embarrasing reality. Our heads are filled to the brim with delusions of grandeur while we prance around believing we’re #1 no matter what we do in the world.
Hey, America! Let’s put away the Made In China American flags for a second and have a sobering moment of self reflection.
To Tom #1,
First, this country is called Iran for thousands of years. WEST used to call it Persia (Where Parsi live), then they broke the habit.
Second, America must apologize for the coup, but this apology goes to the Iranian people not this tyranic government.
Third, Iran must apologize for the hostage crisis in 1979.
But, to tell the truth, Islamic republic will never negotiate with America, and it’s complicated to explain why.
Great piece with much truth Jack. Keep up the good work!
THE CORPORATION – [DVD]
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN – [Book]
CREATURE FROM JEKYLL ISLAND – [Book]
rense.com
.
I’m trying to understand we must apologize for coups but not for slavery (I’m referring to Jack’s “No apologies for slavery by the Southern Avenger” essay, available on youtube).
Isn’t it up to those who organized the coup whether they will apologize?
For the rest of us, is it not enough to recognize that the coup was wrong?
I’m trying to understand why we must apologize for the coup but not for slavery (I’m referring to Jack’s “No apologies for slavery by the Southern Avenger” essay, available on youtube).
Isn’t it up to those who organized the coup whether they will apologize?
For the rest of us, is it not enough to recognize that the coup was wrong?
The name Iran literally translates to “Land of the Aryans”
I’m not making this stuff up, it’s all easily located on a multitude of websites.
Iran aligned themselves with the Nazi’s so they became Britain and Russia’s b*tch. You reap what you sow.
Honestly though, if anybody needs to apologize here it’s the British and French for colonization of the Middle East in the first place, leading up to the mess that we have today.
Hey Tom, I guess shooting down Iran Air Flight 655 with the loss of 200 innocent people was something you think you dont need to apologise for. You happen to be a typical redneck with the idea you own the whole planet and everything on it. But your right Tom, the people who sit behind the middle east problems are the Brits, French and anyone else who is not you hey. Because America is perfect and all those in it are just innocent bystanders who do not know what their own goverment does to others. Your full of it and I ask you to go and live where your country has had a hand in it and live thier lives for a week, you wouldn’t make it coward. You are a gutless poeple under all your bravado…
Iran has been called Iran for as long as there have been Iranians. It was only called Persia by “Western” countries (who took up the tradition after Greece). Reza Shah properly asked for the rest of the world to call Iran by it’s own name. Yes Iran did try to gain Germany’s favor but that was after Russia and Iran had spent years usurping Iran’s central government.
by “Russia and Iran” I mean Russia and UK, my bad
We should topple their government rather than apologize-what is the worst that could happen?