Should we Trust Iran? Yes. Should Iran Trust the US?? History says No Way!

Neocons, AIPAC, and war mongers, who want the US to fight a war with Iran, argue against the nuclear treaty hoping this might lead to their desired war. One nefarious argument they pose is that Iran cannot be trusted to abide by the treaty. Because this is an irrational argument, as Iran would be the most inspected nation on earth, let’s do a reversal and look at Iranian mistrust of the US.

The US and the CIA overthrew a democratically elected leader of Iran in 1953, and helped install a brutal dictator who ruled for 25 years. This is no secret, but naturally it has been unreported by corporate media.  In fact, for years the CIA even bragged about this overthrow, for it was their first “success”. The Shah of Iran ruled for years by oppression and terror, and was aided by his deeply feared brutal Secret Police called Savak, trained and funded by the CIA. Why did the US overthrow the democratically elected leader of Iran??  Because he wanted to nationalize the oil companies and turn the oil revenue over to the Iranian people via social programs.  Using oil revenues to help his people? Heaven forbid, we could not allow that!! The Iranian revolution was successful in that Iranians managed to rid themselves of the US backed and supported dictator, yet American’s were absolutely stunned when, during the Iranian Revolution Americans were taken as hostages and held for more than 400 days. Not having been told of the role of the CIA in restoring and maintaining a brutal dictator who killed thousands with the help of the CIA, Americans were puzzled by the taking of US hostages. It should be noted that the hostages were fairly well treated, with no one being water boarded, tortured, or subjected to infamous “enhanced interrogation techniques”.

Neighboring Iraq, was ruled by yet another US supported dictator Saddam Hussein, who decided to attack Iran, fearing the Iranian revolution might spread to his country. After helping overthrow a democracy and install a dictator in Iran, we supported the neighboring dictator Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran, resulting in approximately one million deaths. The US supplied our friendly dictator Saddam Hussein, who would later become Satan after his usefulness to the US no longer was worthwhile, with money, weapons, and satellite imagery in his war with Iran.  Gee, I wonder why those Iranians don’t trust us?

In 2010 President Obama asked for international help in getting Iran to renounce any attempt to develop nuclear weapons, by asking Brazil and Turkey to help. The two nations quietly went about their negotiations with Iran, found Iran very co-operative, and signed an agreement which in substance was exactly what the US had been demanding from Iran for years.  Hillary Clinton, chief architect and champion of the disastrous bombing of Libya, was instrumental in leading the charge to kill any agreement with Iran, which left the three countries totally mystified.  They were asked to do something, and to the great dismay of the US, the Iranians agreed, which the US had never really anticipated nor wanted. The US had hoped for failure, which would then have given some diplomatic cover for a possible attack on Iran.  Foiled again by those cooperative Iranians!!! Gee, I wonder why Iranians don’t trust the US government?

Next came years of brutal sanctions against the people of Iran because we wanted to overthrow their government.  US policy was to deprive Iranians the necessities of life, and they would rise up and overthrow their government.  We imposed brutal sanctions and severely punished the Iranian people, but they never did rise up and overthrow their government. Gee I wonder why the Iranians might not trust the US government? 

Now we have a treaty  the prevents Iran from becoming a nuclear power, which is a great thing for all  of mankind, but the warmongers and  supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu hate the treaty, and are trying to convince their congressional minions to vote down a treaty that prevents the spread of nuclear weapons.  Various presidential candidates have already stated, if elected they might not abide by the treaty, even if it passes, and despite the treaty, many politicians, including Obama, have said we still reserve the right to attack Iran.   Gee I wonder why those Iranians might not trust the US government?

Despite this history with Iran, neocons and warmongers argue against the treaty saying Iran cannot be trusted. To paraphrase a famous movie line: “You want the truth?? You can’t stand the truth!!”