Iran's Islamic Revolution

by Ed Sawicki

I keep hearing that we should support Israel because it's the only secular democracy in the Middle East. Well, whose fault is that?

Consider this photo taken before Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1978. It shows ordinary Iranian citizens. Like Ukrainians, these Iranians in Western dress (and the redhead's chic haircut) looked like us before the Revolution.

What caused the revolution? The U.S. and U.K. spy agencies engineered a coup d'état that overthrew Iran's democratically-elected secular government in 1953 and installed Western puppet Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The Shah converted Iran's democracy into a brutal authoritarian government.

The coup occurred because Iran's secular, progressive government wanted to use proceeds from the sale of their oil for social programs. The U.S. and British oil companies didn't want to pay market rates for the oil. They're accustomed to getting it cheap by undermining governments.

There's a straight line from the 1953 coup to the protests and violence in Iran today.