The US did this!
Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:
The people of Iran deserve freedom and self-determination. In fact, Donald Trump told the world last Saturday that one of the reasons for his (illegal) war was to help the Iranian people. That is when he directly addressed the “great, proud Iranian people,” telling them, “I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand…When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.”
Well, the reality is the people of Iran had democracy decades ago. But the corporate media is once again covering a war in the Middle East without giving any of historical context. And this case, it’s likely because the Trump regime will be angry if the media reminds Americans that Iran once had a democracy—but guess what country ended it?! (I bet you know!) Let’s take a step back. In 1941, during World War II, the Allied powers invaded Iran which caused the leader of Iran, Shah Reza Shah—who had close ties to Nazi Germany—to abdicate. At the time, his young son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was crowned as the new king (shah). But the end of the father’s rule ushered in a democratic parliamentary form of government where the people of the country actually were able to vote for their leaders.
These elections led to the rise of populist leader Mohammad Mosaddeq, the son of an Iranian public official. Mosaddeq grew in popularity given his zealous nationalism including calls for nationalizing the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. In fact, in March 1951, the Iranian parliament passed Mosaddeq’s oil-nationalization act and the National Iranian Oil Company was formed so that the people of Iran could be the main beneficiaries of their oil—not foreign nations. This made Mosaddeq so popular that the Shah was virtually forced to appoint Mosaddeq premier in 1951. Mosaddeq was even named Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 1952.
But as you might imagine, western powers did not like this development. Nationalization of oil means less profits—or no profits—for Big Oil. Given the Shah’s close ties to the West, he attempted to dismiss Mosaddegh as leader of the government. However, in response, mobs of Mosaddegh’s followers took to the streets and instead forced the Shah to leave the country. The Shah then appealed to western powers to reinstall as leader of Iran him with promises of access to oil. That is why just days later, the CIA together with British intelligence stepped in. They devised what came to be known as “Operation Ajax” to remove Mosaddeq from power and reinstate the pro-Westen, pro-big oil Shah.
The CIA and Britain’s MI-6 orchestrated the arrest of Mosaddegh, who was charged and convicted of treason. He lost power and remained under house arrest for the rest of his life. (In 2013, the CIA finally admitted their role in removing Mosaddeq.)
That ended democracy in Iran. In return, the Shah gave the Western oil companies exactly what they wanted and that was massive profits from Iranian oil by way of a new agreement. But the United States under various administrations was far from done with the Shah and oppressing the people of Iran. From there, the Shah began to dismantle the judicial system, suspended civil liberties, extinguish dissent, etc. And worse, he did it with the help of the United States. As one Iranian dissident detailed in 1979, The Shah created his brutal secret police known as SAVAK that suppressed dissent using torture and killings, all “under the friendly guidance of the CIA.” In the 1970’s, Amnesty International reported the Shah’s methods of torture included “whipping and beating, electric shocks, extraction of teeth and nails, boiling water pumped into the rectum, heavy weights hung on the testicles, tying the prisoner to a metal table heated to a white heat, and rape.”
[...] The Shah’s brutality, clamping down on freedoms together with the nation’s economic struggles all fueled the desire of the Iranian people to rid themselves of his rule. And on January 16, 1979, the Shah finally fled Iran when it became clear that that the U.S. could no longer prop him up. It was just fourteen days later that the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran. And where did the Shah—who brutally repressed and slaughtered his own people--end up seeking refuge after visiting a few nations? The United States. That is why within a few weeks of the Shah’s admittance to the U.S., the U.S. embassy in Tehran was infamously attacked and 52 Americans who worked there were taken hostage. The new Iranian regime demanded the return of the Shah to Iran to stand trial for his crimes. That never happened. Instead, the hostages were held more than a year and the Shah died in 1980 of cancer. But let’s be clear: The current Iranian regime has been barbaric. As Amnesty International detailed, the Iranian regime has suppressed the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly—often using torture and murder. Women and girls, LGBTQ people, and ethnic and religious minorities experienced systemic discrimination and violence. Plus the Iranian regime has sponsored terrorism across the Middle East—resulting in the deaths of U.S. troops and civilians.
The US and UK-aided overthrow of Mossadegh in 1953 was the start of Iran’s spiral towards autocracy.
