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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   35825 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025

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a revolution overthrowing a US-backed monarchy,

That is certainly one way to put it.

The gist of the matter is that in 1941, Iran was a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament (not a very well working one, though). Then in 1951 their prime minister voted to nationalize British oil interests, so the US and the Brits backed a military coup in 1953, after which the shah regime became your typical tinpot dictatorship. Then in 1979, the ayatollah overthrew the shah with a lot of popular support, and Iran has been a theocracy ever since.

In other news, it is a complete mystery why Iran hates the US, when their goal is to bring democracy and economic freedom to the world.

ayatollah overthrew the shah

Though the Iranian regime (and neocons) prefer this narrative, communists (and fellow travelers) and friends overthrew the Shah, then islamists stabbed them in the back (cf. the Bolsheviks). The Shah had thousands of communists in his prisons, not islamists. Khomeini was only invited back to Iran, after the Shah lost power, by the new civilian-military government. It took them a few years (until 1982) to definitively wrestle control, executing most of the military leadership and various leftists. Worse yet, the US helped Khomeini enter. Two examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Mojahedin_Organization_of_Iran#1979_Iranian_Revolution_and_subsequent_power_struggles and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudeh_Party_of_Iran#Islamic_Republic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-wing_guerrilla_groups_of_Iran

Tangentially, Mossadegh also backstabbed the communists:

Next the royalist officers moved to overthrow Mossadeq. On August 16, three days after the shah left for the Caspian to take a “rest cure,” Colonel Nasiri of the Imperial Guards arrived at the premier’s doorstep with a royal decree replacing Mossadeq with Zahedi as premier. The attempt, however, was a complete fiasco, for the pro-Mossadeq chief of the army, tipped off by the Tudeh military network, surrounded Nasiri and his Imperial Guards as they approached the premier’s residence. The following day the shah fled to Bagdad, the and the Tudeh crowds poured into the streets, destroying royalist statues. In some provincial towns, such as Rasht and Enzeli, the Tudeh took over the municipal buildings. The next morning, Mossadeq, after a fateful interview with the American ambassador, who promised aid if law and order was reestablished, instructed the army to clear the streets of all demonstrators. Ironically, Mossadeq was trying to use the military, his past enemy, to crush the crowd, his main bulwark. Not surprisingly, the military used this opportunity to strike against Mossadeq. On August 19, while the Tudeh was taken aback by Mossadeq’s blow against them, Zahedi, commanding thirty-five Sherman tanks, surrounded the premier’s residence, and after a nine-hour battle captured Mossadeq. Acoustical effects for the event were provided both by Sha'yban “the Brainless,” who led a noisy demonstration from the red-light district to the bazaar, and by the gendarmerie, who transported some eight hundred farm hands from the royal stables in Veramin to central Tehran. - Iran Between Two Revolutions - Ervand Abrahamian

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