Remember this: Iran gave us Ronald Reagan.

[cascadiance]

28. It's hard to blame just one entity in this mess... Hell, we could perhaps blame BP the most!

Since it was the company that eventually became BP that was being "threatened" by Iran's democratically elected leader in earlier times who was looking to perhaps nationalize oil company operations at the time that lead to Great Britain getting the U.S. to help them oust that leadership and replace it with an unelected dictator in the Shah with the likes of Savak secret police wreaking havoc on the population of Iran for decades up until they revolved in their revolution.

Do I like who's in charge now of Iran? Hell no. The Ayatollah and his crowd were opportunists that utilized the problems associated with the country having horrendous literacy rates while under the Shah to rally support locally around the country with the mullahs, etc. to help them throw out the Americans then and give them powers they shouldn't have.

The ironic part of the Ayatollah's leadership is that they helped promote literacy a lot to encourage Iranians to read more religious Islamic texts that they sought to control being the staple of what they read. But instead, they got a far more educated and literate populace with the next generation of Iranians who weren't a part of the hostage taking crisis, etc. then that:

1) were able to bypass these restrictions when the internet started to rise to prominence. The internet gave them the view of the rest of the world that previous generations didn't have. And the current Iranian regime's attempts to control access to the internet and information in general is more at odds with the freedoms that they see on the internet and that they want.
2) no longer suffered directly at the hands of the Savak secret police of the Shah, which was the core of many Iranians hatred of the U.S. who worked with that entity a lot during the Shah's time.
3) with the U.S. having no direct complicity after that arms deal in any of the current actions of the government, many of them feel it hard to blame the U.S. for their current problems the way that previous generations blamed the U.S. for the actions of the Shah's regime.
4) have had direct effect through protests and recent elections in the recent changes of Iranian's leadership (even though the reins are still held by the religious elites) to be less inflammatory in its rhetoric on the world stage.

Now that being said, if we "teach Iran a lesson" by attacking them, or doing something else that's equally provocative in trying to take them back to the times that they hated under the Shah, we will completely lose the wins that we might have for the future with this new generation of Iranians. We need to utilize this generation as an opportunity to restore some search for more democratic rule there, and hopefully when the new generation can gain more power as the older Ayatollah's elites die off, we might have a decent ally, if we don't have a foreign policy dictated by protecting oil supplies and the corporate entities that control that that have screwed us there and so many other places in the past.

As I said, I don't "love" Iran's government and many of the people there are problematic on the world stage, but there are many people I know personally that have been a direct part of events from then who I do love as good friends, and appreciate their perspective that helps shape my feelings and understanding that I put forth here.

Another country that's going through some of its own crises recently though quite different in many ways, has similar internal tensions and battles for control of their future direction is Turkey, where I lived a good portion of my childhood during the times of the Shah that lead up to the point of the revolution not long after that time. By keeping up with events there, I also see a country that has many problems but many accomplishments, and many good and bad things happening to it that need a more nuanced and detailed look at before making judgements to do some extreme measures to respond to what is happening there too.

What we need to do rather than send Iran a message of not putting up with what happened in the hostage crisis, is to send a strong message that we will come down hard on the Oliver Norths and other corrupt entities in our own government that have screwed both Iran AND the middle class and the American populace in general over the years. If we want more influence in world events and be looked on as a voice of leadership there, fixing the fascist elements in our own government that have been a part of the ills that happened in Iran and other places, and has hurt us as well would be far better than flexing our military force muscle that has gotten us in to trouble more than it has helped us impose our will every where else.