Have you seen this video regarding U.S & the Middle East?
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raven860 (
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September 12th, 2013
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17 Answers
The woman’s voice drives me crazy, but the comments on the bottom are interesting. As for the facts in the video, I’d need to see citations to believe all of it.
It’s pretty accurate, it is what has been well documented. Much of this was touched upon in the movie Argo.
Wikipedia gets you most of what you need…
Mohammad Mosaddegh
1953 Iranian coup d’etat
Iranian Revolution
Iran hostage crisis
Ayatollah Khomeini
Iran Iraq War
Iran Contra
I think the video seems fair, if slightly biased against the side that isn’t currently discussed in the US (intentionally). I like that it focuses on the history and education rather than convincing the viewer. The questions at the end lead people to at least look at how they would feel in the same situation.
That said, it doesn’t cover Ahmadinejad at all and he’s been very vocal and inflammatory. (9/11 was orchestrated by the US, the holocaust was a myth, etc) People get worried when world leaders start talking crazy in public, worried about what they’re saying but also just the fact that they seem to hold ignorant views and don’t care who knows it.
New elected leader, hopefully a more informed view and willing to build a new history with the US.
So?
What does the past have to do with the religious insanity now running Iran?
@Neodarwinian
America is responsible that the Ayatollah is now in power.
I believe all the facts stated are more or less spot on. This is an example of classic post colonial fubar. Now we are in a situation where we can’t fix it and can’t ignore it.
Amazing video! Lots of facts to ponder. I already knew most of it, a few tidbits are new. I hope that we as a nation can learn from this, whatever happens, and stay out of business that isn’t ours in the future.
Most of the information is true and is for the most part pretty much common knowledge.
@Neodarwinian
Well to me, the point of the video sheds light on the following issues with Iran.
1) Why/how did their society become so oppressed and how did the current leaders climb to power?
2) Why do some of them have anti-American semitism? ( Of-course, I don’t mean the legitimate terrorists)
3) Sheds a light on U.K and how it toppled a nation just to have cheaper oil.
4) If Iran was left alone, then people like Mohammad Mosaddegh would have brought Iran a peaceful and prosperous future.
5) It’s not a nation of “crazies” and “bombing the f out of them” is probably the most self-insulting statement one could make.
@ragingloli
” America is responsible that the Ayatollah is now in power. ”
Hardly. The religious are responsible for having anything such as these monsters in power. We, the US, have been elsewhere and with more damaging effect, but the outcome here is purely religious insanity let loose.
@raven860
” 5) It’s not a nation of “crazies” and “bombing the f out of them” is probably the most self-insulting statement one could make. ”
It is a nation led by crazies and how they got there has as much to do with religious excess as US interventionism. If Mohammad Mosaddegh had stood, how long would he have stood? Look to Turkey to see the process in it’s beginning stages. Religion, especially as practiced by too many in this area, poisons everything.
Google East Timor for an example of the crazies real problem with the West.
@Neodarwinian
The reason the religious sect got into power was because they were the only dominant power available to oust the sultan.
Mohammed was very popular…the fundamentalist leaders would have lost against him. Fundamentalist leaders rose to power because of a power vacuum at a time when an organized force was needed to oust the sultan and step in his place.
Also at your response to ragingoli…
You can’t be serious. Like I explained before, religious fundamentalists came to power because a power vacuum. The U.S is to blame for Iran’s current condition. They destroyed a prosperous nation and handed it to a less than adequate leader…the sultan. He was the first person to come up with oppression ( it was not based of religious ideas but it was oppression nonetheless). The U.S knew about it and did nothing.
@raven860
Your vision is too constrained by your ideology.
” the fundamentalist leaders would have lost against him. ”
Really? As they have lost to good leadership everywhere? From Tunisia to Indonesia they are winning because they are enough when they are not the majority.
Power vacuum?!? Are you serious? There is no vacuum when in the most liberal of muslim countries apostasy still brings the reaction it does and cartoons can cause the death of hundred to thousands and women are still chattel.
” the sultan. He was the first person to come up with oppression ”
Really?
I suggest again that your ideology shortens your vision. Look back further; eight or nine hundred years ought to be just far enough to see the real problem here.
@Neodarwinian
Your video did not work. Apparently it was removed by the uploader.
Muslim countries in modern times are terrible….I would not want to live in one. I am not aware of the situations in each one of them but as I just said…I would not want to live in one of them. That is because majority of them are in chaos and others where religion and politics are mixed…they are not my cup of tea.
As for history…I am talking about recent times within the last century. In fact, my mother as a child once lived in Iran and she has fond memories of that time. She speaks of how her brother would hop into a cab to go to school (when he was suppose to walk) and then their parents were given a bill at the end of the month. People were nice and easy going…
At the time Saddam was not in power…he was guy#2 in power or guy#3 down the chain.
THIS was in an era when the U.S still had racial issues going on and so I would not be quick to wag a finger towards the MiddleEast.
Also, it was only within the last 100 years that women rights were recognized, blacks were initially given the equal but separate and then eventually the equal citizenship treatment. So I would once again not point towards the Middle East for being ignorant people.
Lastly, as far as history is concerned…one of the most prosperous time for the Middle East was during the Persian Empire. It was wealthy, tolerant of others and had very learned people. Here is a video if you want to learn about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFXfMfE43jI
” Muslim countries in modern times are terrible ”
There are no ” modern times ” in muslim countries and this has been that way for a long time.
” THIS was in an era when the U.S still had racial issues going on and so I would not be quick to wag a finger towards the MiddleEast. ”
Oh, gee wilikers!! You mothers memory does not impress me and now I know why you came back to this post.
In the worst of times the US could not sink to the level of a muslim country that existed in the last 900 years.
Women’s rights?!?! Slavery?!?
Muslim countries are these things; slaves and woman as chattel.
Persian Empire?!? BCE?!?
The religion then was Zoroastrianism, not islam. We know what the muslims, even before their fall from sensibility, thought about and did to the Zoroastrian religion. They still do that today.
Defend your 13th century contemporaries but until this insane religion is de-fanged as the crazy christains were then the world is in danger and the muslim peoples suffer.
@Neodarwinian
Lol, and why do I come back to this post? If you think Iran is where my mother is from…then no. Her father was on a diplomatic mission to the country at the time and so her entire family moved to Iran for a period of five years roughly.
Modern times = today. I am not sure what your understanding is.
Um, if you just like to throw out direct accounts of what people have experienced first hand then…it seems you are not very objective.
“In the worst of times the US could not sink to the level of a muslim country that existed in the last 900 years”
Lol, you have to be kidding me… it is one thing when a extremist religious sect take over the country and oppress people and another when it is the norm for an entire country to discriminate based on skin color.
Persian empire? It was the same region of people that have the same cultural values. They are the ancestors of the people living there today. Maybe in a few minute I will post to other examples in the post-islamic days I guess.
If you really think, Islam is the reason for a lot of the problems in the Middle East then you are either bigoted against the region for some reason or you are not very smart. If you have seen the world, you would agree that there are two types of people…good and bad. Apart from the people are very much the same.
Finally I really like this quote by Ghandi. “I like your Christ but I do not like your Christians”.
The values of a religion and the way its self-proclaimed followers follow it can vary greatly and does not represent a religion or its views. There are very few people who can actually be called Christians, Muslims, Jews etc.
Your last sentence just makes me think that you are a Islamaphob.
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