Did the Us Cause the Current Islamic Regime in Iran?

They are carefully one of the "axis of evil". There has been growing talk of potential troops operations in the country because of their attempts to build nuclear weapons. However, did the U.S. Government cause their rise to power? Perhaps, we need to look back with a more vital eye towards our history.

In the early 1950's, the new democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, tried to nationalize the countries oil and take power away from British and U.S. Interests in the nation. The U.S. And British governments responded through the the Cia to overthrow the newly elected minister. They wanted to continue to keep sway in the region, and more importantly they wanted to keep their economic interests flowing. They were prosperous and installed their own "ambassador" as leader, the Shah. The Shah was an authoritarian monarch who while supporting foreign interests did little to maintain the liberties and the needs of his people.

Nuclear Weapons

By 1979, the rule of Shah was no longer thorough to the Iranian people. Two groups were threatening a revolution-the Socialist party and Ultra-Conservative Islamic movement which wanted to set up a theocracy. As we know today, the Ultra-Conservative Islamic movement was able to overthrow the Shah and set up their own oppressive government. Since 1979, Iran and the United States have been at odds (except for Reagan's shameful Iran-Contra Scandal where the U.S. Helped maintain the Contras in Nicaragua with part of the money paid for by the selling of arms to an Iranian group). There was a similar trend throughout the Middle East. Many very conservative Islamic governments rose as dissimilar nation's autonomy and self rule were undermined by foreign troops (both Western and Soviet).

Some may question the reasons for talking about this now. The past is the past. However, there are some important lessons that we need to learn for today. The first is that misguided actions can have impacts that are not seen until years later. When Eisenhower supported the overthrow of the Iranian leader, he probably never conception that of the current scenario we have today. The same could be true of past U.S. maintain of figures such as Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in the late 70's and 80's. Obviously, this backfired greatly. The same can be seen in Latin America where much of the fiercely anti-U.S. Leftist movement can find its roots back in the U.S.'s unjust actions in the region.

More importantly, perhaps this can help us perceive about our current actions today. What we do for our own short-term benefit at the price of other population and nations will have effects that could haunt us 100 years later. We have to get past reasoning of the short term (how can we get Saddam Hussein out of power, how can the drug war be extensive in South and Central America) and perceive what the long terms and destabilizing factors that can occur as a succeed of our foreign policy.

On a personal level, this is also vital. Do we only live in light of our current circumstances or do we think how are actions are going to sway our time to come and the time to come of those around us? It is easy to only think in the here and now and for our wants and needs. However, perhaps we could learn to be enlightened enough to live our lives with our children's time to come in mind, and not do the easy and greedy thing at the price of doing what is right and just.

Did the Us Cause the Current Islamic Regime in Iran?