The US needs to confront its record of overthrowing nations

Editor: The United States and Israel have launched airstrikes on Iran, reportedly to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. President Trump asserted in his statement on the attacks: “(T)o the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered…. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations”.

Notably, the United States and the Central Intelligence Agency carried out a coup in Iran in 1953 that overthrew popular Prime Minister Mohammad Mossaddegh to protect British and U.S. oil interests. With approval of the Iranian parliament, Mossadegh had nationalized the Iranian oil industry. Iranian oil had been controlled by the British Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP).

After the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was reinstated as authoritarian ruler, he signed over significant portions of Iran’s oil fields to U.S. companies.

The coup ended Iran’s first experiment with democracy and ushered in over two decades of dictatorship under the Shah. His regime was notorious for human rights abuses conducted by the secret police (SAVAK), which was trained by the CIA and Israel’s Mossad.

In the words of Mossaddegh: “Yes, my sin…is that I nationalized Iran’s oil industry and discarded the system of political and economic exploitation by the world’s greatest empire”.

Until the U.S. confronts its record of overthrowing other nations’ governments, its claims to defend freedom will ring hollow. It cannot expect to gain the world’s trust, and its wars will keep breeding the very instability it claims to prevent.

Terry Hansen

Wisconsin