Reality Check on the State of World Economics and Geo-Politics Part 2

Part 2: The Middle East

The Middle East goes through periods of tranquility and periods of rage. The Middle East is bearing witness to governments toppled by uprisings of the general population and the Western World hopes for a new age of liberty in the troubled region. Such Optimism lacks perspective. Periods of tranquility are not truly peaceful but rather the military suppresses discontent through military dictatorships funded by oil sales to the Western World.

Liberty based societies supporting dictatorships is a contradiction to the ideals of personal liberty. The reason Western populations support such suppressions is that volatility in world economies shakes the confidence of capitalist consumers. The oil in theMiddle Eastis the main reason that the Western World does not support democracy since the transition to a republic is an unpredictable process. In military power the Western World finds reliability and the ability to calm a region, at least it looks serene on the surface.

A regime that forces silence will always be subject to revolt periodically by citizens straining for liberty but without the full support of democratic nations abroad, democratic movements stand almost no chance for success. Instead opposing political parties utilize the revolts towards personal power acquisition and try to topple a regime and take control in a similar fashion. In Egypt, the military was in control the entire time and it redirected public anger towards Mubarak and away from itself. The removal of Mubarak by the citizens allows the military to slowly re-assert its power on the nation. Nothing changed for the citizens of Egypt and the Western World continues to support the military in favor of perceived stability over personal liberty.

The United States decided to experiment with direct military stability by invadingIraq for reasons that are less than opaque. The result was complete civil war for a short duration than replaced by an oppressive military occupation. The Iraqi government is far from being a true democracy and the citizens of the nation have not gained a morsel of additional personal liberty. Once the United States removes its military completely political agents from Iran and Saudi Arabia will battle for control over Iraq's oil and the Western World will be satisfied if this means no visible volatility.

Citizens of Western nations care little for others’ personal liberty regardless of the rhetoric there’re elected representatives spew. In fact, few citizens of republics truly understand the concept of a society cultured in the belief that personal liberty should be held above all other ideals including that of religion. For example, the majority of United States population has never read the Constitution, Common Sense, Articles of Confederacy, The Federalist Papers, or the other works that defined the United States as the first society dedicated to liberty regardless of its flaws. These works recorded the struggle of defining not only personal liberty but also the role of government to protect and enforce liberty.

Systems of government will never be perfect but the pursuit of perfection by a liberty based society will create a superior system of political economy than any other governing process in the world. So until the Western World defines what liberty means for itself, the citizens of the democratic nations will continue to support oppressive regimes across the globe in the name of stability. The "Arab Spring" died before it began and even if governments fall they will be replace by power hungry political parties that will lie and oppress again with the blessing of our Western governments.

Against Democracy: How America Created a Radical Iran Part 1

This week United Nations started to squeeze the Iranian Republic just a little more and further increasing the control of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the people of Iran. The reason for the newest wave of sanctions is centered on the disputed Iranian nuclear program and the inability for Iran or its western opponents to come to a consensus. Fiery rhetoric has been the weapon of choice for American politicians towards the defiant Middle Eastern country and most American probably agree that the Iran is a danger to peace. However, only President Obama has briefly hinted that the monster that has become Iran was created by the United States. At some point the U.S. public is going to have to reap what its leaders sowed so many years ago and hopefully it will be a lesson how our empire is almost never a defender of democracy.

The battle for Iranian democracy is one of the most heroic and tragic histories in the 20th century. In 1906 a rebellion outside of the British Embassy was able to persuade the middle and trading class of Tehran to form a Parliament. The aging Shah had tried to stop the constitution rebellion in 1905 but had become sick and was near death when the first Iranian parliament was formed. The parliament moved quickly and modeled their new constitutional monarchy after Belgium. The Shah signed the constitution into law and died five days later. However, the new democracy was short lived and in 1907 exiled royalty swayed the Russian and British Empires to invade and control Iran for its oil reserves. Russian and British control would remain in place until 1950.

Mohammad Mosaddegh was an aristocrat from Iran that passionately opposed the interventions by the Russian and British powers. In 1951 he was elected prime minister by a new Iranian parliament and quickly nationalized the oil industry in Iran. The main reason for British and Russian interventions had been oil and the puppet shah government gave extremely favorable terms to a British oil company that would later become British Petroleum. Mosaddegh wanted to use the oil to increase the Iranian budget to modernize the impoverished nation. When the British government refused to accept the terms of the new Iranian democracy it blockaded oil exports from Iran.

Mosaddegh cut the Shah’s powers drastically and assumed control of the military after a protest in Tehran. However, his democratic actions were being drastically undercut due to the British oil blockade and the country was suffering severe economic depression due to the lack of oil sales. Britain was extremely bitter over their loss of control of the Iran oil industry and the oil blockade was not bringing the crisis to a quick conclusion. The United States had been in favor of Iranian democracy because of Mosaddegh’s open hate of socialism and communism but as Britain became increasingly desperate to regain control of Iran Winston Churchill appealed to the new President of the United States, Dwight D Eisenhower.

Winston Churchill told his old war ally General Eisenhower that Mosaddegh was moving towards communism. Being the height of the cold war that was all the United States needed to reverse its support of Iran and denounced Iran’s policies. The CIA was given almost unlimited monetary backing to bribe the Shah and the Iranian military to create a coup d’etat. The CIA hired criminals and tribal strongmen to stage massive protests in Tehran and over 300 people died in these fake revolts. The bribed military leaders than deployed to ensure peace and arrested Mosaddegh and held him accountable for the revolt. Mosaddegh was found guilty buy the CIA agents and was held under house arrest for the rest of his life. The unpopular and oppressive Shah returned in 1953 and quickly made deals with American and British oil companies with the urging of CIA agents. In trade for almost all of Iran’s oil the CIA funded the Shah’s oppressive military and secret police force. The CIA had single handedly crushed the only democracy in Asia Minor, for oil.

As for the 1979 Iranian revolution we all know about the hostage of the American embassy workers. The new Iranian republic was democratically elected but much more aggressive and radical compared to Mosaddegh. The chance to support a real and peaceful democracy in Iran was supplanted for oil. We now have to face a radical Iranian Republic that hates America more than it hated the Shah and is trying to create nuclear weapons. Who knows how much more peaceful the Middle East could have been if we had supported Mosaddegh?

Americas should be ashamed of our governments dealings with Iran, because like it or not, we gave and continue to give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an enemy that threatens the Iranian people which he uses to oppress the people of Iran. Instead of recognizing our mistakes Americans iclaim the reason Iran hates us is because we are a democracy, that Iran hates our freedom, that Iran hates Christians. No, Iran hates us because we killed their democracy single handedly. In part two, I will describe how America helped kill millions of Iranians in retaliation to the 1979 revolution.

Sometimes America makes me sick and I am ashamed to be part of this “great democratic nation.”



Sources:

A Concise history of Iran, Saeed Shirazi

The Devil We Know: Dealing with the New Iranian Superpower, Robert Baer.

Mohammad Mosaddegh and the 1953 coup in Iran, Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne