If you don't know why Iran hates our guts...

[Sir Jeffrey]

this may be of interest to you.

<snip>
"Written in 1954 by one of the coup's chief planners, the history details how United States and British officials plotted the military coup that returned the shah of Iran to power and toppled Iran's elected prime minister, an ardent nationalist.

The document shows that:

Britain, fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry, came up with the idea for the coup in 1952 and pressed the United States to mount a joint operation to remove the prime minister.

The C.I.A. and S.I.S., the British intelligence service, handpicked Gen. Fazlollah Zahedi to succeed Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and covertly funneled $5 million to General Zahedi's regime two days after the coup prevailed.

Iranians working for the C.I.A. and posing as Communists harassed religious leaders and staged the bombing of one cleric's home in a campaign to turn the country's Islamic religious community against Mossadegh's government.

The shah's cowardice nearly killed the C.I.A. operation. Fearful of risking his throne, the Shah repeatedly refused to sign C.I.A.-written royal decrees to change the government. The agency arranged for the shah's twin sister, Princess Ashraf Pahlevi, and Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the father of the Desert Storm commander, to act as intermediaries to try to keep him from wilting under pressure. He still fled the country just before the coup succeeded."

More here:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/world/mideast/041600iran-cia-index.html

It may also help to read up on one of the most beloved figures in Iran at the time...no not Khomeini, Dr. Ali Shariati, who was murdered by the SAVAK, operating under CIA direction.

http://www.shariati.com/bio.html

[Fenris]

1. I knew all of that, but thank you for posting it anyway.

Others on DU should enlighten themselves with this post.

[JanMichael]

2. This is one of those nights that I shudder at our reality.

I'm confused, angry, and just sick of it all.

We kill and buy hamburgers, that about sums it up...

[blm]

3. Every schoolchild in Iran knows this about the United States.

Only a small percentage of adult Americans know that this is the root cause of the regional distrust of the US and why we have been living with and dying from the blowback.

[oasis]

4. Many are unaware of the origins of Iranian hatred of the west. Education

by informed posters such as you will be a key to their understanding.

[dreamcollector]

5. Iran is only one of many

Read John Perkins's CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN. Then weep for the world.