2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: The Iranians are not MY enemy. [View all]Martin Eden
(12,847 posts)Iran is the Islamic Middle Eastern country with a history of democracy ... which we sabotaged in 1953 when we helped engineer a coup to ovetrthrow their democratically elected government, installing the repressive rule of the Shah.
The Islamic Revolution a quarter century later was an unintended consequence of our own actions, and yet Iran today still has a larger measure of democracy than the autocracy in Saudi Arabia ruled by the royal asses we kiss for oil and military bases. The Saudis impose a fundamentalist version of Islam on their people (especially women) and fund Wahabbi madrasahs throughout the Islamic world.
Iran has a very large population of young people who value personal liberty & democracy and are enthralled with Western culture & fashion. Time is on our side, unless we commit another atrocity against the Iranian people they will not forget or forgive.
Democratic leaders who are strong and smart would better serve the interests of our country and of the world if they stop using Iran as a bogeyman for justifying the excesses and disastrous policies that only serve the interests of the military industrial complex and of politicians who manipulate the American people through fear.