Ahmadinejad should be allowed to visit WTC site
Reader comment on: New York to Ahmadinejad: 'No'

Submitted by M. Delphia Block, Sep 20, 2007 03:05

Considering the egregious behavior of the U.S. in 1953 which overthrew Iran's democracy without provocation, I consider Mr. Ahmadinejad's cerebral gesture a very gracious and thoughtful one which should be welcomed by Americans! Americans want diplomacy, not confrontation! In early 1951, the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the facilities of the AIOC, a British company, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, which had controlled the extraction, production and marketing of Iranian oil. Mohammed Mossadeq, the main architect of Iran's nationalization policy, was elected prime minister. Mossadeq was ridiculed in the West as a hypochondriac but in his own country, Mossadeq was revered as a charismatic figure whose defiant opposition to British domination captured the imagination of the Iranian public. Britain responded harshly to the nationalization of the AIOC's facilities and imposed an embargo on Iranian oil in an attempt to wreck Iran's economy. It advocated a military takeover of the AIOC's oil refinery in Abadan, on the southern coast of Iran. The Truman administration opposed military intervention, fearing that it might provoke a Soviet invasion in Iran. Meanwhile, Britain's boycott devastated Iran's economy which in turn, caused Mossadeq to lose popularity, compelling him to govern in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Eisenhower took a harsher view of Mossadeq than Truman and in the summer of 1953, the CIA sent Kermit Roosevelt to Iran to recruit officers in the Iranian military to stage a coup against Mossadeq. Roosevelt hired local gangs to stage anti-government demonstrations in the streets of Tehran. With the city in chaos, the pro-U.S. Iranian army officers seized control of the government, replacing Mossadeq with a pro-shah prime minister. A consortium of foreign oil companies was allowed to control and market Iran's oil, with the AIOC surrendering a large share of the operation to American oil companies. Iran became a major recipient of U.S. economic aid. The shah himself was now deeply beholden to the U.S. At the time, U.S. officials thought they had won a splendid victory, but once the shah was reinstalled in power, he governed much more repressively than before. Ordinary Iranians came to see him as a puppet of Washington; the ultimate consequences of these perceptions were later to become clear in the Iranian revolution of the late 1970. I recount this history (The Great Courses - The United States and the Middle East: 1914 to 9/11 - Univ. of Chicago) to point out how the U.S. overthrew Iran's democracy. I believe President Clinton apologized to Iran for this tragic blunder. The similarities of the situation in Israel in the early 60s and the present situation in Iran is stunning! The concern that Iran's civilian nuclear power program would be converted to a weapons program is identical to the situation in Israel in the early 60s which I have recounted as follows: In the early 60s, before President Kennedy was tragically assassinated, he was attempting to influence Israeli behavior regarding two principal issues. President Kennedy wanted to prevent Israel from converting its civilian nuclear power program into a weapons program and he wanted Israel to permit the repatriation of Palestinian refugees, something Israel had refused to do since 1948, on the grounds that this would threaten the Jewish character of Israel. Not only had the Arab states called for Israel's repatriation of Palestinians, but in late 1948, the UN General Assembly had passed Resolution 194 calling on Israel to repatriate all Palestinian refugees who wished to return to their homes in present-day Israel. To induce the Israelis to make concessions in these areas, Kennedy agreed to sell them advanced antiaircraft guns, Hawk missiles. Kennedy did not establish a formal quid-pro-quo between the arms sale on the one hand and the refugee and nuclear issues on the other. Unfortunately for Kennedy, this lack of formal linkage permitted Israel to pocket the inducement without making significant concessions on the refugee and nuclear issues. On the nuclear question, Israel appeared to be cooperating with Kennedy, assuring him that the Dimona nuclear reactor was purely for civilian purposes. By evading and thwarting U.S. attempts to conduct meaningful inspections, Israel continued to develop a nuclear weapons capability. The similarity between America's attempt to inspect Dimona in the early 60s and the current attempt to inspect Iran's civilian nuclear power is overwhelming. Both Israel and Iran used religious holidays as excuses to thwart inspection. Both set very rigid ground rules for inspection. Both used numerous ways to delay, etc. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 during which time he was growing very frustrated with Israel. President Johnson was no more successful than Kennedy had been at keeping Israel from developing the bomb. Although the Israeli government insisted that it had no intention of acquiring a nuclear weapons capability, the U.S. intelligence community learned otherwise. Israel's standard statement on the question, "Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East"! It is believed that Israel acquired its first usable nuclear bomb sometime in early 1968. The visceral attack on Mr. Ahmadinejad by many Jews reminds us of the terrorist attack on the King David Hotel and the USS LIBERTY. Terrorism and Israel are synonymous. Begin, Shamir and Ben-Gurion all terrorists and all prime ministers of Israel and of course Sharon is the butcher of Lebanon. While Israeli troops stood by providing light from flares, the Phalangist entered the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. There were no PLO fighters there. They found only old men, women and children and slaughtered several hundred. The Kahan Commission found Sharon indirectly responsible for the massacres at Sabra and Shatila. Sharon was dismissed as Minister of Defense by Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The crimes of Ariel Sharon are many. Ariel Sharon, the man who in 1983 was not fit to be "minister of defense", was called, "an enemy of the people" and "worse than evil" became Israel's prime minister. Ben-Gurion - Haganah, Menachem Begin - Irgun Z'vai Leumi and Yitzhak Shamir, all terrorists, all prime ministers of Israel! Israel was born out of terrorism. Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir -- all terrorists and all prime ministers of Israel! Chagrined, M. Delphia Block

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