h2ohno said:
There are a lot of horrible stories you don't hear about in the media. For instance, about 200 Christians were massacred in Nigeria during Christmas week, and this week 7 Jews were killed when a rocket hit a synagogue in India - which was not a deliberate attack on those Jews but collateral damage from another conflict between two different ethnic groups that broke out last year. The biggest reason in this case is probably that the persecution hasn't resulted in killings for a while, and a persecution that has been going on for over 40 years with little change isn't news. Jewish media and Iranian opposition media are full of stories of the plight of Iranian Jews, as those tens of thousands of Jews who have left Iran are finally free to speak without fear of being arrested and possibly killed, and experts on Iran have written and spoken extensively on the subject. And the American government has condemned Iran for forcing its Jews to hold rallies condemning Israel. Turkey is actually the Middle Eastern Nation with the most Jews currently, as the number of Jews in Iran has fallen to around 8-9,000, while Turkey has nearly 15,000. A community does not drop from 100,000 to under 10,000 if they are being treated well and live without fear. The very fact that Jews are never seen in anti-regime protests such as the protests over Mahsa Amini is as telling, as in no other country are Jews so completely absent from protest movements because if they put a toe out of line in Iran they will be immediately accused of being Israeli agents and arrested. |
Iran is another nice example is US and UK meddling.
In 1953, amid a power struggle between Mohammed Reza Shah and Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.K. Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) orchestrated a coup against Mosaddegh’s government.
Iran was on the right path yet the West couldn't let this happen
His government's most significant policy was the nationalisation of the Iranian oil industry, which had been built by the British on Persian lands since 1913 through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC/ AIOC ), later known as British Petroleum (BP).
That set the stage for the White Revolution and later the Iranian revolution in 1978 which turned everything back in the name of 'make Iran great again', regressing to traditional religious values. Also Iran became hostile to the US, so the US backed Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war in the 80s.
The United States used a host of tools to weaken Iran. It encouraged Iranian revolutionary groups, imposed economic sanctions on Iran, and worked intensely to prevent Iran from building pipelines that could carry its oil and gas to nearby countries. This pressure intensified after Pres. George W. Bush took office in 2001. Bush famously listed Iran, along with Iraq and North Korea, as part of the world’s “axis of evil” and claimed in his second inaugural address that Iran had become “the world’s primary state sponsor of terror.” Vice Pres. Dick Cheney asserted that “Iran is at the top of the list” of world trouble spots. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Iran’s human rights record “a thing to be loathed.” All said they hoped diplomacy would find a solution to problems between the two countries, but many seemed to consider it a dead end.
Iran still supports groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon that militantly oppose the faltering Middle East peace process, yet even this seems open to negotiation. Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is seen by many as an absolute prerequisite to stability in the Middle East, and, although Iran has been no friend of the peace process, its very militancy could make it a uniquely valuable force if it could be enticed to moderate its position.
And nothing has changed since then. Isolating a country doesn't lead anywhere, see North Korea. Meanwhile the US keeps doing what it wants and indirectly keeps providing the Mullahs with plenty support. Just today again:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/baghdad-airstrike-kills-iran-backed-militia-leader
Just after Iran finally let Santiago Sanchez Cogedor go.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/spaniard-imprisoned-iran-after-visiting-grave-mahsa-amini-106043337
Maybe it's time to try something new, like leave the Middle East alone to figure out their problems among themselves. Problem is, we're addicted to their oil. Every action has a re-action, you can't force change. Change has to come from within. You can stifle change, and that's all what the West has been doing to the Middle East to protect their oil interests. Israel is as much a proxy of the USA to control the Middle East as Israel is dependent on the US. It's a toxic symbiotic relationship.
