This is where we part in a big way. The Islamic fundamentalists in Iran are not angry that we overthrew a secular, democratically elected leader(Mossadeq) - they hated Mossadeq. Why? Because he was secular and democratically elected. They had assassinated the previous democratically elected leader themselves and would have done the same with Mossadeq. To say the removal of Mossadeq is the source of their grievance is a profound misunderstanding of their motivations. The Islamic fundamentalists in Iran are not interested in secularism or democracy. Surely you realise this?
[/quote]
Can you talk more about this?
I have a naive understanding of Iran’s history starting with Mossadegh, mostly from Wikipedia.
[/quote]
There were three factions:
Soviet backed nationalists and Communists who wanted to nationalise the oil.
Western backed faction who wanted the Shah.
Islamic fundamentalists who wanted neither.
We removed Mossadeq because he was going to nationalise the oil. This pissed off the Soviet backed nationalists and Communists. It did not piss off the Islamic fundamentalists because they hated both the secular Soviet backed nationalists and the Shah. They didn’t want a secular Soviet backed regime nor a secular Western backed regime. When they came to power in 1979 they actually banned people from displaying Mossadeq’s image and demonstrating for a return to democracy. Khomeini said “we don’t want people crying over Mossadeq’s bones” - he also said that if the west hadn’t removed Mossadeq they would have.
As I said, prior to the removal of Mossadeq the Islamic fundamentalists assassinated the democratically elected PM in 1951(Haj Ali Razmara) - they would’ve tried to assassinate Mossadeq too. They didn’t want a secular government backed by the Soviets or the West. They wanted a hard line Islamic fundamentalist regime.
If I remember correctly, Mossadegh did nationalize the oil. The company he kicked out, and whose funds he seized, went on to be renamed BP. This did not make the British very happy, but I haven’t seen any communist or Soviet connection to Mossadegh. If there is one I would be interested in hearing about it.
I did find some Soviet connections to some a very evil Soviet trained Dr. Aziz al-Abub, who specialized in mind control techniques aka torture. This mad scientist was also associated with some of the hostages they were trying to rescue which led to the Iran-Contra fiasco, which occurred not too long after the Iranian revolution.
These hostages were in Lebanon, and the Iran/Hezbollah connection I am not familiar with, but there is a definitely more to be looked into there. I have not heard this mentioned in relationship to Iran-Contra before, and I would offer that these are mitigating circumstances in what gave the Reagan administration a black eye.
So, there is some evidence of Soviet sponsored/trained terrorist activity in relation to Iran. The more I dig, the more interesting it gets.
…He lists 9 proxy wars being fought simultaneously and currently in Syria and the middle East. No wonder the situation is so messed up. It’s Game of Thrones on steroids.
It sounds like a great school, but read the list of notable graduates.
[/quote]
Not to be un-American, but we did that too:
The list of the graduates includes Noreaga and the founders of the Zeta cartel. In our defense, it is kind of hard to predict when these guys will go off the reservation.