REVOLUTION

Great article! Some thoughts.

Mani

Thank you for reading my comment and providing feedback. Some of your points I agree with and some I do not. Let’s see.

You are first claiming that nobody believes in this Revolution except a handful of Islamists, leftists and exiled people, but at the end, you are expressing your frustration at the 32 million Iranians who voted in the last elections...
So, can you please explain the contradiction in your statements and clarify your stance?

Indeed there are contradictions there. I asked the same question of many who claimed to disfavor the government as to why they voted. None of the answers I received were satisfactory for me. Here are some samples:

One said he voted because he had to live in that country and was afraid that his son would not be admitted to university if he did not vote.

Another said he voted for ahmadinejad since he wanted things to get really bad and fall apart.

Another person said she read the election pamphlet and ahmadinejad’s bio was quite mild and pro people.

Another who voted for rafsanjani voted because he wanted the lesser of two evils to be elected.

My conclusion: people are confused and not ready for democracy. Democracy is meaningless without being informed and without being responsible even for a single vote. Otherwise democracy becomes a tool of deceit, as we sometimes see even in the west.

I would like to remind you that the Shah, especially in the last years of his reign, did things that definitely contributed to his downfall:

I agree with your points, but I disagree that those were the “reasons”. Those certainly were the “excuses”. Let’s look at your points:

The imposition of the unique political party “Rastakhiz” in 1975 to which all Iranians were supposed to subscribe, therefore suppressing any political rights for other parties, be they left, Islamist, nationalist, socialist...

I do aggress that shah was authoritarian and did not allow political and speech freedom. Those I consider the empty 10% of the glass that should be balanced with other priorities for a backward country like iran. I do not know his motivation for creating Rastakhiz, but people did not “have to” belong to the party. Indeed I do not know anyone around my family who was registered in the party. Also, a recently published book in iran talks about history of the Iranian parliament, where in its early days people who were elected were likes of spice dealers of bazaar and like; representative of people yes, but in no position to guide the country.

The creation of the SAVAK, and the imprisonment and torture of thousands of students, activists, intellectuals, educated people who could have been the backbone of a liberal democracy had they been given more freedom and breathing space

I agree with fundamental notion of your comment, but you read too much into his savak. According to Baghi, the total number of prisoners who were executed or killed as a result of street fights were somewhere around 370-something for the entire period of 1963 to 1979 (excluding those killed during the revolution). These were of two groups, mostly responsible for taking arms against the government. No country on the face of the earth tolerates armed confrontation, even democracies, for political gains. I only mention a few: david koresh in America, IRA in Britain, Bask in Spain, etc. Out of those who were imprisoned and then released, a vast majority ended up being far worse than the shah when occasion arose for them to be in the position of power. Likes of rafsanjani, khamenei, rajavi, … were all political prisoners. But there were definitely a tiny minority that did not belong there: likes of bakhtiar whose intentions were well and lacked any personal ambitions. This was shah’s mistake, but then again there are many innocents imprisoned in any system including western democracies.

The celebrations of the 2500th anniversary of the “Persian Empire”, by spending god knows how much money from the State budget; celebrations to which average Iranians were no part

Again I agree with what you say in principle that it was a childish event. I have no problem with its celebration, but its implementation could be totally different in a way that would benefit Iranians directly. But that event which cost $100 M (according to NY Times) is not rare, even among democracies. Recent inauguration of new president in US cost $150 M and it repeats every 4 years. Again, we need to balance such mistakes with all the successes. Expecting him to be a perfect ruler is futile, and even if he was, he could not rule a country like iran, uninformed, religious, and incorporating nasty characters that we have come to know for the past 30 years.

The imposition of the “Shahanshahi” calendar which was a total aberration and insult to the country’s traditions and culture

Again, perhaps he wanted to wake up nationalism in Iranians, I do not know. This really was a minor event but a mistake. It was used, however, effectively against him.

If you look at the collective points that you raised; although they were mistakes, none (perhaps with the exception of savak) raise to a level that can justify throwing the baby out with the tub water, as these mistakes are common amongst leaders of even democracies. I count all of these as the 10% empty part of the glass. Even in the most severe of all these (the dirty works of savak) that I seriously object to, it is instructive to listen to a lecture by late bakhtiar on YouTube where he comes to the conclusion that (I am paraphrasing and interpreting) (a) these were excuses and once they remedied the revolutionaries were still not willing to continue without them in charge, and (b) that he unfortunately had to resort to violence to control the crowd who were after destroying the country.

The points you are mentioning regarding the progress made during Pahlavi dynasty are valid, but these are the exact reasons why the Shah collapsed: the Pahlavis brutally imposed these measures on a people that was not fully ready to adopt them, rather than accompanying them with tangible political progress. On the contrary, the more Iran was progressing economically, the more it was becoming a dictatorship.

Again, your points are well taken, but your words are too strong. Brutality is too strong since it only dealt with 0.01% of the population who wanted participation (mostly for unholy objectives as we saw). The rest were after their daily chores and had no contact with savak. Once again, we know that the extent of the “brutality” the khomeini claimed was false by thousands of times according to Ganji. I also disagree with your last sentence that shah was a dictator. Authoritarian, yes; but a serious dictator, no (unlike saddam). Please see an old article by Fereydoun Hoveyda on this web site, where he claims that shah (once he became aware of his cancer) was seriously considering opening up the political system and copying Spain’s then new political opening. Had we allowed Bakhtiar to implement his plan, we would have achieved those political freedoms, but those who wanted to enjoy that political freedom were exactly the ones who grabbed power, never to share it with anyone else.

… more you educate people, the more you have to give the freedom they need, to speak, to assemble, to write, otherwise, people will become more and more dissatisfied and turn to radical ways to make themselves heard.

I agree with you fundamentally. But my point is that: a herd of goats cannot ask for democracy. Democracy needs maturity and is indeed a difficult system of government open to deceit and fraud as we saw when khomeini asked people to vote for Islamic republic (yes or no), or veiled women, or closed first newspaper, or… with no-one, right, left, secular, providing serious objections to it. People of iran were simply not ready for it. People of iran were NOT the elites of northern Tehran, but the villagers and small town citizens who were fighting tooth and nail with the government, not for freedom of speech, but to NOT send their daughter to school, to NOT see girls without hejab, to NOT hear music on radio, to NOT see kissing on TV, to NOT allow alcohol served in restaurants, to NOT celebrate noruz and chaharshanbeh suri, to NOT allow eating in public during Ramadan, to NOT interfere with mullas who were prescribing verses for anything from cure for disease to impotence, and on and on. These all offended religious sensitivity of people, the same way that your mention of calendar change offended people. But could we hide girls at home because otherwise religion and tradition of people would be offended?

Indeed, reza shah wanted to establish a Republic (like his counterpart Attaturk), but the religious ayatollahs disagreed with him, believing that Republic was “haraam” as it was a product of western thinking (see Prof. Katousian’s work), assuming that they could manipulate the shah better than placing the destination of the country that was falling apart in the hands of people. Only when reza shah realized that he could not implement what he thought was right for iran (like de-veiling of women or sending them to school) with the approval of mullas, did he turn against them and into a dictator of sort.

Re: Varjavand

I'd like to take a few minutes and expose a few of you lies.

You wrote about the Capitulation Law which "was passed by Iran’s parliament under the Shah’s regime and intended to further the debilitating subordination of our nation to the US and to its personnel in Iran."

The Capitulation Law protected US citizens and personnel in Iran in case they committed a crime. However, this was only under the condition that in return, the US agrees to aid Iran in the "know-hows" of a variety of technical fields.

In the entire period after this law was passed, there was not ONE instance where the Capitulation was applied. Not one case where a US citizen broke Iranian laws and applied the Capitulation law. Read it again: Not one case.

So at the end and in practice, it was Iran who ended up benefiting from this law through obtaining advanced technical know-hows in a variety of fields. One of these fields were helicopter manufacturing, to name just one.

Now, you want to take this and use it out of context to deceive others by making it look like the Shah's regime just wanted to "deliberately" be subordinated to the US.

Shame on you. Now answer two questions. I just gave them to you myself.

1. When was the ONE case that the Capitulation law was EVER applied?

2. What did Iran gain in return for passing this law?

You already know the answers.

I'd like to ask you for a favor: Please do not spread your ignorance.

You also wrote: "it (the IRI) has done a good job moving our nation toward self-sufficiency"

Self sufficiency? Iran IMPORTS most of its benzine and other petro products for crying outloud. You call this self-sufficiency?

Iran still can't develop the most basic electronic components used in a variety of devices. It sometimes imports these components from countries like KENYA! Even Kenyans have done better. You call this self-sufficiency?

Again, on behalf of myself and others, I respectully request a favor: Please don't spread your ignorance. Remain ignorant if you will, but for god's sake, don't spread it.

Thank you.

To Mani Shahrokhi: The scale

To Mani Shahrokhi:

The scale of murders/oppressions and plundering of the IRI is far greater than the pahlavis' era..

History will reveal that no government in over 2500 years has caused more damage in terms of opportunity cost and squandering of irreplacable resources than the Islamic Republic. Future generation of Iranians will not look kindly to Islam or the IRI.

The so-called uprising of 1978 was a manufactured coup courtesy of "Great Satan", Britian, and Carter et al.

According to "The Real Jimmy Carter," a book by Steven Hayward of the American Enterprise Institute: "Kho-meini's regime executed more people in its first year in power than the Shah's Savak had allegedly killed in the previous 25 years." (SEE: Emad Baghi's Report; He is rehabilitated former collaborator of the IRI's regime)

"A Question of Numbers":

//www.emadbaghi.com/en/archives/000592.php

What really happened to the Shah of Iran and the role of BBC in manufacturing the coup of 1979:

1. "A century of war"://www.amazon.com/Century-War-Anglo-American-Politics-World/dp/074532309X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232661747&sr=1-1

Read some of Excerpts from the book,

//www.payvand.com/news/06/mar/1090.html

2. Report: U.S. Missteps Led To Shah's Overthrow NPR
//www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story...

3. The installation of Ayatollah by the West:
//www.williambowles.info/guests/2005/iran_cla...

4. Carter's Habitat of inhumanity:
//www.investors.com/editorial/editorialconten...

5. Complicity of France in Manufacturing the Iranian Revolution and Jimmy Carter's betrayal of the Iranian People
//www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1857

How long are we going to stay ignorant and perpetuate what the imperialists want you to believe?

U.S. policies may have contributed to Iran revolution, study says
//www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-f...

Re: Anonymousx

Thank you for your excellent post!

Don't analyze Iranain socity by western standard

I was in iran during so called revolution. There was no such a thing as thoughtful real reason for revolution. Iranians are mentally , socially and culturally retard. It is a painful fact.

To anonymousx

Sir, in the beginning paragraph of your message, you say:

"The only ones who still believe in any legitimacy of revolution are islamists, leftists, and left-over run-away revolutionaries, or those who are away from the oppression of IRI (“dasteshaan az aatash dour ast”), who are either uninformed or have no courage to a take a sip of the soup that they cooked for iran. It is hard to see anyone in iran, even those pretending to be with the government, to not regret what they did in 1979; and the youths object to their parents that: "why did you revolt"; silence and then the only response with shame and a tilted head: "we did not know".”

But at the end of your message this is what you say:

“It is a pity that those who screamed about lack of political freedom, voted for ahmadinajad and rafsanjani to the tune of 32 million votes in the last elections. Is that why they revolted, so they can vote for either the architect of hangings by cranes or someone who cares more about Palestinians than Iranians.”

You are first claiming that nobody believes in this Revolution except a handful of Islamists, leftists and exiled people, but at the end, you are expressing your frustration at the 32 million Iranians who voted in the last elections...

So, can you please explain the contradiction in your statements and clarify your stance?

I would like to remind you that the Shah, especially in the last years of his reign, did things that definitely contributed to his downfall:

- The imposition of the unique political party “Rastakhiz” in 1975 to which all Iranians were supposed to subscribe, therefore suppressing any political rights for other parties, be they left, Islamist, nationalist, socialist...
- The creation of the SAVAK, and the imprisonment and torture of thousands of students, activists, intellectuals, educated people who could have been the backbone of a liberal democracy had they been given more freedom and breathing space
- The celebrations of the 2500th anniversary of the “Persian Empire”, by spending god knows how much money from the State budget; celebrations to which average Iranians were no part
- The imposition of the “Shahanshahi” calendar which was a total aberration and insult to the country’s traditions and culture (the proof is that he retracted this measures after a few years).

The points you are mentioning regarding the progress made during Pahlavi dynasty are valid, but these are the exact reasons why the Shah collapsed: the Pahlavis brutally imposed these measures on a people that was not fully ready to adopt them, rather than accompanying them with tangible political progress. On the contrary, the more Iran was progressing economically, the more it was becoming a dictatorship.

The more you educate people, the more you have to give the freedom they need, to speak, to assemble, to write, otherwise, people will become more and more dissatisfied and turn to radical ways to make themselves heard.

When the Shah called on Bakhtiar to form a new government (December 78), it was too late. The revolution was in full motion, and Bakhtiar, although a great man, could not do much to stop it.

Abarmard

Your piece made sense to me for the most part. Empowering the people, does sound like a noble goal for us in diaspora. I believe in helping the people through direct contacts with the NGO's (the ones that are still open?!) involved in sheltering the deserved needy, feeding the hungry unemployed and their families, and supporting the talented hardworking youth who need relatively very little to become productive in their educational goals. 

For the empowering movement to benefit those who deserve it in Iran, there needs to be a much more focused coalition task force than the people I often find on this or other sites, going for each other's jugular on each topic related to ME. My perception simply there is not enough unity and focus on the main goals. Empowerment of people withing Iran needs definition, colaboration and real efforts of really devoted people. I m hopeful to read more constructive ideas on your suggested topic than what I have read so far. Thank you for your piece.

Dear varjavand

Thank you for your note. I am ashamed for my careless rush to send this article. I do fully understand and it should have been economic rather than economical. 

Thanks again and have a wonderful weekend. 

give it up! Free Market Economy failed!

Nice bit of satire for the morning! Thanks, Abarmard!

Indepedence: another bogus slogan of 70s

You want independence, you should move to Cuba or N. Korea. Oh I forgot, you can't even tolerate living "in" semi-independent islamic republic.

Independence has no meaning in this day and age except for doing what is best for the country at reasonable cost. Independence does not mean isolation, neither does it mean for a third-world country to bribe left and right, selling natural resources of iran at fire sale price, to 25-year contracts to india and china for a useless lousy vote in UNSC that is never delivered. Or is it losing Caspian oil for which we had a legal and binding treaty.

Iran was far more independent during shah's regime than it has been anytime in the past 30 years that has voluntarily bribed all and everyone from Yaser Arafat and Hassan Nasrollah to china and india on massive scale, and for what.

At least shah would get something in return - usually something far more important for iran - than what he delivered.

What was it that shah did exactly that was not beneficial to iran considering that he had good relations with the west that could send so many there to get educated, to buy arms to protect the country from likes of saddam, to transfer technology, to even purchase nuclear reactors with full fuel cycle?

I assure you that had shah been dependent on the west he would still be there in place.

Leadership is an act of give and take. A good leader "should" prostitute anyone and any country for the benefit of his country. Iran and S. Korea were at the same level of progress in 1979; with iran (and N. Korea) supposedly being "independent" and S. Korea being "dependent" since then; where would you like to be today; prosperous like S. Korea which "owns" the market for electronics, or iran which "owns" the market for thuggery and oppression.

Grow up: "ina vaaseh faati tomoon nemisheh". Iran will not be fixed until people grow up and think about what is good for iran rather than living by outdated meaningless slogans. Iran must become independent of internal oppression and anti-iranian islamic republic thugs first.

Devolution was a fraud; khomeini was a Madoff

Fantastic write-up, Anonymousx! I wish Shahis (monarchists) would put together a really great site with a lot of statistics and facts, historical records to clearly show what happened; to show where we were, which way we were headed and how it all changed; to show how those who wanted a revolution destroyed the country and didn't even have the courage to at least apologize. Such a documentation would be a great service to those who worked hard for Iran and would expose so much those who betrayed Iran. It would also help map a road for future. Monarchists, instead of being very emotional in discussions, should create such a site.

I totally agree that average Iranian was ungrateful and ignorant. Tehranis and the educated ones were ungrateful and stupid and the villagers and the uneducated were just ignorant altogether. But I also consider the hand of foreign powers in this, the KGB on one side, the CIA/MI-6/Mosad on the other side. They all had their own agenda and they agreed on one thing only: destruction of Iran. The British intelligence has always been well known for starting disasters around the world. Would be interesting to research that line and find out what exactly they did and how they pinched Iranian's nerve and got them all emotional - just like Hitler did with the Germans.

Mr. Abarmard; Your

Mr. Abarmard;

Your central point is valid. I completely agree with the substance of your article; the desire to create an independent Iran was, in fact, the goal of Islamic Uprising. Thos of us who are old enough remember that the Islamic Revolution was rooted in, and started with, the Khomeini’s public objection to Capitulation Law more than 45 years ago. This law was passed by Iran’s parliament under the Shah’s regime and intended to further the debilitating subordination of our nation to the US and to its personnel in Iran. Therefore the independence was the main drive to revolution. And I also agree with you, given the circumstances and the multifaceted  pressures on this new government, it has done a good job moving our nation toward self-sufficiency. Concern for Human rights is another issue.

I do want to make one minor correction, however, with due apology. I believe when you say “economical regulation" or "economical pressures", you mean ecomonic not economical, the latter world simply means chaep and inexpensive.

Good Luck,

Varjavand

to: Pahlavan

You talk of independence, yet you don't seem to know the meaning of it. Does Independence mean losing the Caspian Sea? does it mean changing the name of Persian Gulf to Arabian Gulf? Is a weak and uninfluential country in the world who's bullied around by foes (US and Israel) as well as "alies" (russia, china and gulf states) 'independent'?.

Bravo and thank you!

Abarmard--- & Moderators Please Take Notice

This comment has nothing to do with your piece, and I am sorry for placing it here.  But I feel compelled to respond to an irrelevant and disturbed individual with delusions of grandeur who has been stalking and slandering me on various threads (which I am not even on) for the past few days.    

The comment refers to a blog that I had posted a few days ago.  It was an objective blog discussing Hamas’s role in the latest conflict in Gaza, while, at the same time, bringing into attention Israel’s much more prominent role in that tragedy.  There were a few supportive comments, a commenter with whom I had a few constructive exchanges, a couple of bombs thrown at me by people who apparently had not even read the piece, and then entered this disturbed individual who began to spam the blog with page after page of profanity laced paragraphs (bolded and underlined, of course) using word such as “s***t”, “a**s”, etc.  I briefly posted an in kind response to her, but then realized that the thread was getting out of hand and was becoming a forum for extremists and nut jobs to post irrelevant garbage.  I noticed that there was no room for a rational discussion there, which was the objective of my blog, and I did not want to engage in back and forth name calling.  So, I did the only reasonable thing:  I pulled the blog.  In retrospect, that may have been a mistake, because it appears to have given bullies and nut jobs a reason to celebrate and claim victory, but what can I say, I was trying to do the right thing. 

Now, this seemingly disturbed individual is going around every thread on this site posting links to that page (she usually posts links to her own comments) taking credit for the blog being deleted, insinuating that I had some fear of her incomprehensible comments!!!!!!  Her comments on other threads were so offensive that they were deleted by the moderators.  I hope that they do the same here, as I have no desire to engage in a debate and a back and forth with this unintelligent individual.  She should realize that her “comments” are nothing more than gibberish, are incomprehensible and are not worthy of a response, and that linking one piece of rubbish comment of hers to another doesn’t make either one of them credible.      

Removed by myself.

Midwesty,

To Abaramard, NIAC and all apologists

Your worries are over since your smiling prez is back!!

"Former Iranian president Sayyid Muhammad Khatami has announced his candidacy for the June presidential elections, the Iran-based Fars news agency reported."

AND for "bazargarmi" he further spewed the following "sherover"!

"I am in a very difficult position," Khatami said on Tuesday, according to Iran's Students News Agency (ISNA). "My nomination must aim to serve the people, but if there won't be a possibility to do so, then what's the point?" said the former president"

hahahahahahahahaha! now like good obedient children go and vote for him.

P.S. JJ please do not delete

Some Notes

The idea expressed here is a "political Independence", which is different than a country closing its borders and survive without outside contact. That old fashion description is now comical. Although one can argue Iran today is capable of providing all the needs of its people.

The important message is unity of Iranians to empower Iranians. That's not to say I or anyone knows what Iranians want, but let the Iranians inside decide their future. To empower I suggest for the Iranian communities to unite and voice their opposition to economic sanctions.

People tend to look at any situation in the scope of the time. Iranians also at those days believed that West would not leave Iran alone and we can never decide our future. Today there are people from the older times that still believe the entire revolution and changes in Iran was planned by the West and everything that Iran does today is based on the old fox policies and what the West wants! The political independence was a great achievement of the Islamic Revolution for the majority of Iranians.

Finally I have never claimed that these are my ideas and I am the inventor or creator of the idea of empowering Iranians, although I always advocate it. 

Removed by myself.

Midwesty,

Thanks for a very nice writing .....

I particularly like your statement (my emphasis on the word prosperous):

"Empowering Iranians. It is more important to recognize that no foreign government is setting goals to make Iran a PROSPEROUS country. This is the task that belongs to Iranians and must be resolved by Iranians. "

This is so true. Some people both inside and outside of Iran may think that the US or Britain should come and help, as if iranians are hopeless. The fact is that Iran is our country and if there is ANYONE who cares more about it, it is us.
(as usualy, please ignore the Israeli agents' comments and discouragements on this forum)

Devolution was a fraud; khomeini was a Madoff

The only ones who still believe in any legitimacy of revolution are islamists, leftists, and left-over run-away revolutionaries, or those who are away from the oppression of IRI (“dasteshaan az aatash dour ast”), who are either uninformed or have no courage to a take a sip of the soup that they cooked for iran. It is hard to see anyone in iran, even those pretending to be with the government, to not regret what they did in 1979; and the youths object to their parents that: "why did you revolt"; silence and then the only response with shame and a tilted head: "we did not know".

Revolution was nothing but a massive fraud, a Ponzi scheme, perpetrated upon iranians, motivated by greed, jealousy, arrogance, and lack of knowledge about iran and Iranians as well as the outside world. It had no admirable aim and achieved nothing but misery for the masses and wealth for a few.

Maybe shah's regime was a police regime and savak was monstrous according to the revolutionaries that wanted to take us where we are without knowing what police state and monster meant and that we had much bigger monsters amongst us. And that any better regime than the shah could not tame those monsters that we came to know today. As Ganji claimed, they exaggerated corruption of the shah by some 100 times, and delivered to khomeini; and khomeini, unaware of the built-in exaggeration, would re-exaggerate by another 10 to 20 times, handing people, who trusted him, intentional lies 1000 times far from the truth.

Shah's failure was that he did not keep those monsters on tighter leash. 99.99% of iranians were free, enjoying free education, jobs, and progress from a country that a generation earlier had only 3% literacy rate and traded in opium and human and animal feces to make a living - not much different from afghanistan of today.

The cause of the revolution was nothing but the incurable disease of Rabies (“haari”). Pahlavis got rid of widespread "kachali", "tarakhom", "vabaa", “vabaasir”, "saalak", “aabeleh”, “aabeleh morghoon”, tuberclosis, head-lice, stomach worms (“kerme kadou”, “teniyaye mosallah”, “teniyaye namosallah”), skin worms, ... in a single generation and educated sons and daughters of opium traders and peasants and raised the literacy rate from 3% (7% if one counts reading of Koran too) to near 70%, opened medical schools and clinics so iranians could cure their diseases there instead of appealing to Emam Reza and Hazrate Masoumeh in Mashhad and Qom for healing. Mules and camels were replaced with Paykan and Peugeot, “korsis” wamed up with “pehen” and coal were replaced with kerosene heaters, “baadbezans” were replaced by fans and air-conditioners. Local water wells that were dug next to feces wells, which were the source of many diseases, were replaced by pipe water and sewage system. Radio and television stations established. Paved roads were built. Airports and airplanes developed. Steel mill factory established. And even the first research nuclear reactor was built by General Electric in University of Tehran. “Maktabs” were replaced by schools and universities. Girls were mandated to attend schools. The first silicon chip fabrication facility was established in Tehran. Batches and batches of Iranian students, to the tune of 50,000 at a time only in America, were dispatched to the west to be educated – sons and daughters of those who often could hardly read and write ended up being doctors and engineers. All of these and more in a single generation. But no, that was not enough, the greed wanted more. Alas that those were just excuses.

Iranians forgot where they came from and forgot who facilitated their education and their metamorphosis from the way their parents lived in poverty and disease to a decent living in a single generation. That was just too much to bear. They got "haari" and became arrogant. They not only did not credit the shah for the catalyst that he was, but also blamed him with “eeraade bani esraeeli”. They were just not comfortable with and could not adjust to the fast progress of the country and felt no connection to the shah or the clean-cut newly-borne middle class.

Khomeini was a blessing from heavens for them. He was the only one who could take them back to where their fathers came from and whom they could make connection to and see in him their own image. That is why ALL, islamists, leftists, intellectuals, lined up behind him to commit national suicide and condemn many generations to the disaster that we see. Iranians went deaf and blind. The deaf Iranians could not hear that khomeini the savior for the 21st century could hardly speak a single Farsi sentence correctly; and the blind Iranians could not remember the face of the moon when they newly discovered the face of Emam on the moon and his beard between pages of Koran. None had bothered reading his "tahrir-ol-masa'el", where he talks the language of 7th century arabia: how to clean up your bottom, how to flirt with an infant girl, and what to do with the donkey after you had sex with it, and before screaming "rahbar faghat roohollah".

Revolutionaries were screaming about Savak and killings of pahlavis for decades; but the first thing that they did upon taking control of iran was murders (remember Yazdi and Khalkhali and Khomeini, remember all those mofsedo-fel-arz and moharreb-ba-khoda) in scales unseen before and ALL cheered.

Revolutionaries were screaming about thievery and corruption of pahlavis for decades; but the first thing that they did was loading of planes with iranian assets headed for lebanon (remember montazeri’s sons trying to take off planes from mehrabad airport full of gifts for their mentors in lebanon?).

The question to ask is that how many of those revolutionaries who came to power after decades of fighting against the shah and his regime can we count as decent human beings today. I know NONE.

And what happened to all those students who were staging marches in europe and america routinely in opposition to the shah. They have shut up!

Revolution was nothing but a massive fraud, a stupidity, and a national suicide no matter how the revolutionaries, old and new, would spin it. Shah’s regime was not perfect, but neither is any other regime in the world; but it was a glass 90% full, and with time and good intentions it could further improved. But no, people rejected bakhtiar's regime who promised to deliver what people were asking for. Alas that those were all excuses, and iran and Iranians were nothing but pawns in the game whose objective was nothing but access to power and wealth and due respect for ideologies which had nothing to do with iran or Iranians. The first thing that the new regime did was to curse iranianism and its major symbol, the Noruz, that they tried very hard to suppress. They cursed all the kings and assembled to destroy Cyrus' tomb that had survived for 2500 years as the symbol of iranian continuum. They tried very hard to feed the people that they were moslims first, not Iranians (remember khomeini and khalkhalis), and they were good for nothing but sacrifices for islam (remember khomeini), and that a good moslim should obey the ayatollah who owns the wealth of the country (“beit-al-maal”) and knows how to best spend it. It is a pity that those who screamed about lack of political freedom, voted for ahmadinajad and rafsanjani to the tune of 32 million votes in the last elections. Is that why they revolted, so they can vote for either the architect of hangings by cranes or someone who cares more about Palestinians than Iranians.

But of course, those who brought us here have neither the courage to admit mistake, nor the empathy to feel the severity of the disaster that they created for those who left behind in iran to really come to feel the true meanings monsters and police state; they just ran away.

The arrogance and greed of self-righteousness paid off after the revolution. They now have to suffer in iran or run away. Even the hot IRI supporters voice their support in exile as they cannot bear to live under what they preach, the Islamic republic. All that is left for them is to regurgitate the usual rhetorics, allegations, and exaggerations of 70's with still no hard evidence, a mish mash of nonsense: zionist, imperialist, dictator, corruption, foreign influence, dependent, savak, ... is all that shah was; oh but we could not even come barely close to shah's achievements in the past 30 years that non-zionist, non-imperialist, arab-loving, free, independent IRI have had free hand in iran. Fortunately the number of fools falling for the same old trick is rapidly diminishing.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceiVQbwBAPw&feature...

The old wise man

Listen to a real Iranian, talking about how he regrets participating in the revolution. I love the Isfahani accent.

look up independence in a dictionary

How long you been living in the west Abarmard? Do you even read the news about Iran, because you seem to know little about Iran or Iranians. Well, as someone who left Iran 5 years ago and have visited Iran 3 times ever since as oppose to the "quick glance" of a "traveler", I will tell you that everybody that I know and have talked to regrets the revolution, from former lefty students (like my father) who started the revolution to common people who joined in just to go with the flow. They don't regret the revolution because the Pahlavi Regime was perfect or there were no problems under Shah, they regret it because the life they had under the former regime was much better compared the one they have under Mullahs. You sit comfortably in the west, and declare that Iranians are 'happy' because of the revolution and the "independence" it brought, while people suffer in Iran due to economic (and diplomatic) mismanagement and absolute incompetence of the dictartors in power, who don't give a damn about Iran or Iranians, and whose only concern is staying in power.

You talk of independence, yet you don't seem to know the meaning of it. Does Independence mean losing the Caspian Sea? does it mean changing the name of Persian Gulf to Arabian Gulf? Is a weak and uninfluential country in the world who's bullied around by foes (US and Israel) as well as "alies" (russia, china and gulf states) 'independent'?. Today's Iran cannot refine most of its oil, cannot even exploit its own resources properly and is losing 100s of billions of dollars because its neighbours do have the ability to exploit the shared resources, neighbours that were light years behind Iran 30 years ago.Todays Iran does not have any importable Industrial product.

As a child of revolution (being born after the revolution) I do blame Shah of Iran, but not for his economic policies not for his foreign policies, definitely not for western social freedoms that existed in Iran back then, and not even for the so called "lack of independence"; I blame him for SAVAK and the lack of political freedom, for banning books and keeping people ignorant so that they would follow a thug like Khomeini, for fleeing Iran and letting the revolution happen. He was more independent than the Mullahs could ever hope for, more than the Qajar kings and even his father. As revealed by the latest unclassified CIA files US wasn't happy with Shah because he wasn't a stooge and stood up for Iran's national interest, because he didn't lower the price of oil when they asked him to, because he was building a powerfull army (ranked forth in the world at the time) with the eventual goal of complete independece from the west and turning Iran in to a world power, because they were afraid of a powerful Iran that could refuse their demands.

Personally I am hoping for another revolution in Iran, only this time people are aware and educated. However, unlike you I don't assume to know what Iranians in Iran want I just hope for it.

Regards,

Pahlevan,

Dear abarmard, I am going to use jaleho's analogy!

I read your article and to be honest with you , if I was not familiar with your ideas, I would have thought that your an IRI apologist!!! but since jaleo ( an IRI apologist) is drooling over your article??? This article has lost it's relevance for me... She just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and mind!! tastes like kalagh seyah!!!

you'r kidding right????!!!!!!!!!!!

no offense abarmard, but I don't think your piece is accurate AT ALL. you're guessing that iranians would do it all over again, if given the chance???!! No way in hell would that happen- have u any clue what has happened to our society over the past 30 dark years????
girls being sold to arabs, millions are drug addict, persopolis is in danger of being flooded by the akhoonds, millions of lives wasted in a war that would have never happened under the shah....and on and on.
and you really think these idiot akhoonds have enough intellect to actually overthrow a regime??? you really think that the british, carter, french did not have anything to do with shah's demise? give me a break, if you read some books, you will see that there is OVERWHELMING evidence this so called 'revolution' was nothing but a orchestrated coup to throw iran back into the dark ages, and for the brits and french to get free oil. how do u think the most influential officers such as badrei were murdered in a single night at their homes???
the foreigners are up to their necks in the crapfest that is iran today, so don't try to rewrite history brother

iran

your article is correct in most areas, i also think this artcle is got nothing to do with israel, i do not know why zion jump into conversation anyway. gooz be shaghighe che rabti dare. i do not like regime, but at least we are getting nuke.

This article is neither

This article is neither about Hamas nor Israel.

"Islamist reformists" Inc. and their kool-aid drinking leftist fanatics truly believe "economic growth" is the panacea to what ails the Iranian society and government. Abarmard repackaged ideas have been refuted many times on this site.

Just read the article below:

//iranian.com/main/2008/remove-sanctions

Zion, you said.

"especially if you completely ignore the role of Hamas and the likes who are the real culprits behind palestinian suffering and instead focus all your tears and anger against "the evil Israel","

Actually myself and few others, discussed at length to show how absurd this statement is, in another blog. Unfortunately, the good discussions that followed, made the author  delete his own blog, see:

//iranian.com/main/blog/anonymous-observer/how-hamas-betrayed-palestinian-people 

But, you know that you got your answer there, if you recall. I don't want to change the subject of Abarmard's article by writing what I have already written in Anonymous Observer's blog, which he felt he had to delete. But, I will address that issue somewhere else again which will be kept for reference, since you seem to repeat it often.

Removed by myself.

Midwesty,

Dear Abarmard,

When you see that the most passionate Israeli defenders, those who advocate the Israeli line of sanctions and war against Iran,  immediately come out to object to your article written about Iran, then rest assured that you have said something RIGHT!