Persian Realm

Reza Pahlavi

Great debate.
Firstly, I think it is a very well written letter.
I, and with many others in Iran would be extremely happy to have Reza Pahlavi as our leader of Iran.
He is a man with honor, and dignity, something you'll never find in of our so called representatives in Iran.

LOL by Anonymous MIsha

MIsha,
You keep chantting javid shah, Reza pahlavi NEEDS followers such as you. But allow me to explain few points about my postings:
#1 if u had bothered to read my previous posting you could have noticed that I personally hate Akhonds more than Reza Pahlavi and stupid dynasty he represents.
#2 $110 million in 1971 is equivalent to $675,000,000 in today's Dollar. your murderous SHAH - who is not better than Khalkhali and the gang- spent those money while country was going through worst drought in decades, As the other gentleman pointed out.
#3 most every intelligent person today agrees that the reason Akhonds a extremists Islamic murderers are in power now is because of what Pahlavi dynasty did to Iran.
So my friend, keep shouting you javid shah till u are blue in the face, its ur right, no matter how stupid ur affiliations are.

I shall leave you with what your brave(lol) shah said when he was FLEEING Iran like a RAT:
[Promise to the nation: You, the people of Iran, rose against injustice and corruption... I too, have heard the voice of your revolution. As the Shah of Iran, and as an Iranian, I will support the revolution of my people. I promise that the previous mistakes, unlawful acts and injustice will not be repeated.[39][40] This speech is said to have been written by the uncle of Shahbanou Farah and was given to the Shah in a rush, as the Shah had become fatigued due to the growth of his cancer.]
//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi
have a great day

i am so sorry

Is it shocking after 30 years, we the same stupid poeple?

does it matter if the spending is 100Million or 375Million.

that was not the problem . the problem was that the same year the state of Fars was going through the worst drought in years.

No one Iranian was in the cermony, (how is that makes mefeel)

we are bounch of Idoit who are looking goos talkand well wishing ( just remmber that Reza is promissing Democracy every day)

Charity Starts From Home

Reza Pahlavi is a great man. No one knows what happened. I don't believe anything from anyone. From what i can see now and the fact that he is committed to his personal life (20 yrs. married and no drama)amazes me. I adore him as an honest and faithful man. Being a great son,brother, husband and father is enough for a person. If all of us could be the same, we don't need any one to save us.

LOL

How islamically childish:

In October 1971, the Shah celebrated the twenty-five-hundredth anniversary of the Iranian monarchy. The New York Times reported that $100 million was spent.

Is that allllllll? Well for an "iranian" it was a celebration of iranian persistence. For an anti-iranian islamist or leftist it was a hollow excuse to take over the country and colonize it all over again.

We thought this was a big deal in 1971, but now compared to IRI corruption and waste that event cost only a small change.

Ayatollah Karrubi after the esraeeli attack on lebanon said that iran "donated $200M [twice was shah spent and criticized for to this day] to victims of lebanon war" on his web site, at the same time that children victims of bam earthquake were sleeping in tents in the streets. That was only a single item of IRI wastage that they admitted to with pride.

Everything is relative in this world, and in that relative space, pahlavis were saints and angels who brought iran out of her dark ages, but only for those who can see and for those who have enough morale not to bite the hand that fed them and educated them and dispatched them to the west to grow and make something out of themselves, although that proved to be so difficult for some.

For the sake of paying the islamists back for their 30 years of treason against iran and iranians, let's all say:

Payande Iran, Javid Shah the keeper of iran, Pirooz anything with iranian roots including the Monarchy, and Down with anything with non-iranian roots including the evil religion of arabs and its supporters and followers.

Anonymousww

Jamshid Niavarani, John Carpenter, James Smith, Jacob Cohen, Richard Tehrani, are all the same person. There are even more names.

Same grammar, same writing style, same tired old rhetoric. It's so obvious, even Stevie Wonder can tell it's the same person.

Great things your Shah of Iran did????

Maryamm, name one of the great things they did...

let me give you one of his achievements :
[In October 1971, the Shah celebrated the twenty-five-hundredth anniversary of the Iranian monarchy. The New York Times reported that $100 million was spent.[24] Next to the ruins of Persepolis, the Shah gave orders to build a tent city covering 160 acres (0.65 km2), studded with three huge royal tents and fifty-nine lesser ones arranged in a star-shaped design. French chefs from Maxim’s of Paris prepared breast of peacock for royalty and dignitaries around the world, the buildings were decorated by Maison Jansen (the same firm that helped Jacqueline Kennedy redecorate the White House), the guests ate off Ceraline Limoges china and drank from Baccarat crystal glasses. This became a major scandal for the contrast between the dazzling elegance of celebration and the misery of the nearby villages was so dramatic that no one could ignore it. Months before the festivities, university students struck in protest. Indeed, the cost was sufficiently impressive that the Shah forbade his associates to discuss the actual figures.[25][26]

However the Shah and the supporters of the Shah argue that the celebrations opened new investments in Iran, increased better relationship with the other leaders and nations of the world, recognition of Iran and keeping the history of Iran alive among other different arguments.[citation needed]

Cottam has argued that the longevity of the Shah’s rule was due largely to his success in balancing his security chiefs against each other.]

do u get it my dear friend?????

Shah of Iran

The late Shah of Iran passed away 30 years ago (true) but his Memories is very much alive and stays for ever in our hearts and in our minds. Nothing absolutely nothing and no one can take it away from patriot Iranian. The great things that Pahlavi Dynasty did for Iran could not be denied and whoever dare to deny it is absolutely a traitor.

Unhealthy Obession

The revolution cheerleaders' unhealthy obession with Shah's corpse reminds me of the Republicans' obsession with Clinton in the mid-90's. 

Get over it people.  He has been dead for thirty years.  You have been getting raped (on occasion literally) by the IRI for that same period of time.  Why don't you put all this effort in talking about the Shah into advocating freedom for your country?

Who is this Anonymousww?

I stand by my name and find it odd that someone would confuse me with another thought provoking intelligent Iranian American like Jamshid Niavarani. This anonymousww should post his name when attacking REAL IRANIANS or stop putting up anonymous posts. And what is this about a Ghajar princess? I am not a Ghajar. Whatever the Ghajars were, at least they are smart enough not to cling to an imaginary throne. If the Ghajars were involved in the drug trade then the Pahlavis must have been the drug users. And Farah Diba, the poor orphan, was probably the drug peddler of the Pahlavis. Anyone who believes that the Pahlavis did an ounce of good for Iran must be on crack cocaine. The Pahlavis committed the biggest theft from the Iranian treasury in over 2500 years of the existence of the Iranian monarchy.

J.N. is still J.C.

John Carpenter is an exiled Ghajar princess, bitter at pahlavis who ate their lunch, destroyed their harem, and interfered with their drug addiction.

JN = JC with the same obsessions.

Reza Pahlavi is an idiot theif. by Jamshid Niavarani

Your posting is very amusing its sad but true, LOOOOOL
God bless Iran and Iranians

by Anonymous abc .... my Alleged Rants an raves

Dear Anonymous abc
First of all, I am not going to get into personal attacks and judgments. You do not know me so you trying to read my mind is as stupid as ur analysis regarding the correlations between HISTORY and CURRENT EVENTS.

Simple dialectic dictates that
[1: Everything is transient and finite, existing in the medium of time (this idea is not accepted by all dialecticians).
2: Everything is made out of opposing forces/opposing sides (contradictions).
3: Gradual changes lead to turning points, where one force overcomes the other (quantitative change leads to qualitative change).
4: Change moves in spirals not circles. (Sometimes referred to as "negation of the negation")]

With those principles in mind, you trying to separate past occurrences and their profound effect on current mind set of a society is just like Sarah Palin trying to solve the Global Warming without considering the causes and history of the event.

I merely gave you a bit of history what really happened and who put Shah in Power, relating it to what Reza Pahlavi is trying to do with kissing up to Obama.

Mr. Anonymous abc, one can not and shall not dare to analyze culture of a society, specially one as ancient and as rich as Iran with out going back in history decades if not centuries. Most importantly, if your pick for salvation of Iran is Mr. Bakhtiari's and likes of him, with all due respect sir, how is he going to be able get away from " Manghal and Vafoor" let alone solving and modernizing a complex and YOUNG society as Iran.

We are all children of HISTORY and we are made out of all the events that happened in our past, as individuals and a society as a whole. In principle, I do agree with you in regards to " hell with Akhonds and hell with Reza Pahlavi" but you might get lot of benefit from reading the history of your people.

Have a wonderful day

Response to Anon. and Anon. Observer

John Carpenter is another fellow Iranian. I am Jamshid Niavarani. If other Iranians accept my correct point of view, so be it. It is what it is.

As for the topic of money and human lives I agree that human lives are worth more than all the money in the world. That being said, we must agree that there were executions and as you noted:

"bring back to life the tens of thousands of sons and daughters of our countrymen that it put in front of firing squads and hanged in the middle of the night with cranes."

Both Pahlavis father and son were noted as violating human rights by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

An objective body has already condemned the Pahlavi dynasty.

As for the current regime either it will correct itself in one way or another or it will end up like the Pahlavi dynasty. The Pahlavis were so hated that the barbarian Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had to flee the country. If the Shah had not fled more than 30 million brave Iranians would put him on trial and execute the dictator of all time, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Nazi lover, Reza Khan/Reza Mir Panj/Reza Shah.

Jamshid Niavariani

Fair enought...but since we are talking about events taking place within the past three decades, the Islamic Republic should also bring back to life the tens of thousands of sons and daughters of our countrymen that it put in front of firing squads and hanged in the middle of the night with cranes.

You would agree with me that those lives are worth much more than any money that the Shah may have taken, wouldn't you? 

Majid - That's OK

My comment still stands...thanks for the clarification.

J.C. = J.N.

John Carpenter = Jamshid Niavarani with same old language.

Reza Pahlavi is an idiot theif.

Reza Pahlavi should return the money that his father stole from 70 million Iranians. Reza Pahlavi is a loser. Reza Pahlavi has not worked for over 30 years. Reza Pahlavi is a welfare recipient. If Reza Pahlavi wants change he should once and for all call any type of monarchy in Iran wrong. He should apologize for his father and grand father's dictatorship. He should apologize for the trial and prison time given to Dr. Mossadegh. And from now until any future date, Reza Pahlavi should shut the F**K up. As a REAL IRANIAN I endorse this message. God bless America. And why not?

-YT

You are ranting as if it is still 1978, as naive and as inexperienced, repeating the same old conjectures, discredited and disproved small-part true large-part exaggerations. There are so much inaccuracies in your rants that I will not bother to go through, as you are basing most of your comment on shallow sources such as Wiki. Things have changed in the last 30 years, a great deal, and history has been re-written many times over. But let me answer your question at the end, maybe (if you are a sincere nationalist iranian) we can find some common ground (or maybe not!).

You asked:

my question is: do Iranians who have paid dearly, with ultimate sacrifice of their sons and daughters, whether being in Iran-Iraq war, or in the revolution that was lost to AKHNODS, want and deserve another Pahlavi to rule the Iran?

You cannot view iranians and iranian government as two separate entities, one is the product of the other if you believe in any minimal sort of democracy. A quick answer to your question of if they "deserve" any better is a harsh NO. They are the ones who fell for deceits of the khomeini and voluntarily voted, 98% of them, for the islamic republic and the vali-faghih constitution which makes whatever mullas have done to the country mostly legal.

I am all for a perfect democrary, but a perfect democracy requires informed people and wisdom to safely manuver through political tricks, deceits, manipulations, and corruptions. People of iran showed that they have not (yet) mastered any of those prerequisites of a healthy democracy. I know this is harsh, but facts are often bitter to hear.

Let me remind you, that even today, in the last election, 17 million people voted for ahmadinejad, and another 15 million voted for rafsanjani. You tell me, which one of those two has performed any better than the shah.

I assure you that the moment that an openning of freedom occurs in iran, another group of thugs would take over, if not by deceit, then by force, and we will repeat the whole cycle.

In the absence of the necessary backbones for a decent democracy, we need to resort to as perfect of solution amongst imperfect solutions.

I do not know if you are arguing about the past or the future. If you are arguing about the past and you still believe that the dark revolution of 1979 was the right thing to do, then we are miles away and no point in arguing, as you are condoning iranians to tolerate the outcome of the revolution. I should also add that, iranians had a better choice in 1979, Bakhtiar, but the same thugs that I am talking about did not allow him to succeed as the only acceptable solution for them was a solution with them in charge. Post-revolution lectures of Bakhtiar, available on YouTube, is a bitter reminder of how iranians lost a golden opportunity to achieve what they seemed to be asking for (freedom and democracy) while not losing the progress that we had made.

If you are talking about future, the chance of Monarchy returning to iran in the same form that it was before the revolution is pretty much zero. However, in the absence of any other recognized political leader, we should allow anyone, including RP to do whatever he can for iran; RP has repeatedly said that his intention is not to be the king of iran, but to bring self-determination to the people of iran and then he would be whatever iranians want him to be. You are demonizing him, not based on his activities, but based on him being son of the late shah; this is a legacy of Bolshevik and khomeini's revolutions and not a sign of rule of law, that all are equal in front of the law, and that law is void of emotions, and that all are innocent until proven guilty, the rule of law that you are trying to preach; not to mention that you are trying to decide on behalf of all iranians that they cannot choose RP, again an oxymoron in your support for collective self-determination. Besides, if you have a better recipe, besides wait and see for another 30 years till maybe someone shows up on the scenes and can survive brutalities of mullas, let us hear from you. If you know of any such person, by all means, place him in front of us, the iranians, to evaluate.

One last thing: you are obviously outside iran and do not seem to have really felt the day-to-day difficulties of iranians when dealing with this regime. Iranians have moved on and have gradually replaced their emotions and ideologies with a dose of reality, self-soul-searching, and an appreciation of what shah did for the country (the half-full part of the glass) as opposed to run-away intellectuals frozen in 1978 still insisting that they were so right. Many times when a cab driver, the commonest of iranian commoners, is asked to take one to Vali-Asr Ave, or Enghlab Sq., etc. he says that for him, it is Pahlavi ave or 24-esfand sq, etc. Do you know why?

I saw it with my own eyes when an arab tourist asked a minor shop-keeper where Emam mosque was, he responded that he did not know where Emam mosque was but the Shah Mosque was around the corner. Two being the names of the same mosque!

Anonymous observer

I think you misunderstood my comment, It was supposed to be sarcastic " he IS", that's that , he's alive, walking, breathing, consuming grocery, and that's ALL.........LOL

Oops....I almost forgot.....and issuing a letter once in a blue moon az sar e bokhaar e me'deh, ya'ni "MAA" hanooz hastim, and as long as we "ARE" hope lives!

who cares what 1/4 Pahlavi says?

He has singularly made monarchy irrelevant.

Mr. Fozolie

Taazi is always Taazi

That's why i hate your mirpanj family! They stole revolution 100 years ago(his grand father)! PPL of iran were always ready for democracy,thats why they took ghajar out of the power! go read the history about that revolution,which became mashrooteh later! Amire bozorg be killed,and that revolution failed so mulla trash(AGAIN) took over that revolt whith help by englands goverment, usa startin became super power after ww2,and mashrooteh was 100 years ago! Thats why your fahlavi failed! They try modernity?? It dosen't come modernity,first! PPL should get the knowlige and know and read their histori and their background,then is modernity! The west did not started by modernity,they started by age of Enlightenment! Your dear mir panj get the order of their MASTERS,stop the revert to their roots! Both English and arabs knew it,it whould be the END OF THEIR EMPERA! soo,how much u AnIrani love them the truth IRANIANS hate them! A damn mulla started and a damn mulla whith mir panj(pahlavi) family finnished it! BUT go read the middle of that revolution's history! Your empera of islam is over! It dose not matter is a mulla a shah mir panj or islamics leftis! Go and surch why 2 revolution and the third is coming soon in only 100 years are killing our soul and blod! Fore peace and justice in my beloved IRAN! U dont get the messege,but is your problem! REJIM change is not,enough anymore!  Dont fool yourselves and dont kill yourselves! IS OVER! Iran gonna be rull by IRANIANS!

Dear anonymopus abc (Wow, that is islamic reliability!)

Mr/Ms Anonymous abc
I am not a monarchist nor am I an Islamist( as you put it).
To begin with, word Islamist does not exist, so i assume you have made that word up as you have made up rest of your conclusions. allow me to quote a small history of your BRAVE shah and his family.

//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_of_iran
Oil nationalization and the 1953 coup.

In the early 1950s, there was a political crisis centered in Iran that commanded the focused attention of British and American intelligence agencies. In 1951 Dr. Mossadegh came to office, committed to re-establishing democracy and constitutional monarchy, and to nationalizing the Iranian petroleum industry, which was controlled by the British.From the start he erroneously believed that the Americans, who had no interest in the Anglo-Iranian Oil company, would support his nationalization plan. He was buoyed by the American Ambassador, Henry Grady. However, during these events, the Americans supported the British, and, fearing that the Communists with the help of the Soviets were poised to overthrow the government, they decided to remove Mossadegh. Shortly before the 1952 presidential election in the US, the British government invited Kermit Roosevelt of the CIA to London and proposed they cooperate under the code name “Operation Ajax” to bring down Mossadegh from office.
In 1951, under the leadership of the nationalist movement of Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, the Iranian parliament unanimously voted to nationalize the oil industry. This shut out the immensely profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which was a pillar of Britain's economy and political clout in the region. A month after that vote, Mossadegh was named Prime Minister of Iran.

Under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt, Jr., a senior Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and grandson of former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the American CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) funded and led a covert operation to depose Mossadegh with the help of military forces loyal to the Shah. This plan was known as Operation Ajax.[4] The plot hinged on orders signed by the Shah to dismiss Mossadegh as prime minister and replace him with General Fazlollah Zahedi, a choice agreed on by the British and Americans.
Despite the high-level coordination and planning, the coup initially failed, causing the Shah to flee to Baghdad, then Rome. After a brief exile in Italy, the Shah returned to Iran, this time through a successful second attempt at the coup. The deposed Mossadegh was arrested, given a show trial, and condemned to death.[citation needed] The Shah commuted this sentence to solitary confinement for three years in a military prison, followed by house arrest for life.[citation needed] Zahedi was installed to succeed Prime Minister Mossadegh.

The American Embassy in Tehran reported that Mossadegh had near total support from the nation and was unlikely to fall. The Prime Minister asked the Majles to give him direct control of the army. Given the situation, alongside the strong personal support of Eden and Churchill for covert action, the American government gave the go ahead to a committee, attended by the Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, Kermit Roosevelt, Ambassador Henderson, and Secretary of Defense Charles Erwin Wilson. Kermit Roosevelt returned to Iran on July 13 and on August 1 in his first meeting with the Shah. A car picked him up at midnight and drove him to the palace. He lay down on the seat and covered himself with a blanket as guards waved his driver through the gates. The Shah got into the car and Roosevelt explained the mission. The CIA provided $1 million in Iranian currency, which Roosevelt had stored in a large safe, a bulky cache given the exchange rate of 1000 rial = 15 dollars at the time.
The Communists staged massive demonstrations to hijack the Prime Minister’s initiatives. The United States had announced its total lack of confidence in him; and his followers were drifting into indifference. On August 16, 1953, the right wing of the Army reacted. Armed with an order by the Shah, it appointed General Fazlollah Zahedi as prime minister. A coalition of mobs and retired officers close to the Palace, attempted what could be described as a coup d’etat. They failed dismally. The Shah fled the country in humiliating haste. Even Ettelaat, the nation’s largest daily newspaper, and its pro-Shah publisher, Abbas Masudi, published negative commentaries on him.[6]

During the following two days, the Communists turned against Mossadegh. They roamed Tehran raising red flags and pulling down statues of Reza Shah. This frightened the conservative clergies like Kashani and National Front leaders like Makki, who sided with the Shah. On August 18, Mossadegh hit back. Tudeh Partisans were clubbed and dispersed.[7]

Tudeh had no choice but to accept defeat. In the meantime, according to the CIA plot, Zahedi appealed to the military, and claimed to be the legitimate prime minister and charged Mossadegh with staging a coup by ignoring the Shah’s decree. Zahedi’s son Ardeshir acted as the contact between the CIA and his father. On August 19 pro-Shah partisans, organized with $100,000 in CIA funds, finally appeared, marched out of south Tehran into the city center, where others joined in. Gangs with clubs, knives, and rocks controlled the streets, overturning Tudeh trucks and beating up anti-Shah activists. As Roosevelt was congratulating Zahedi in the basement of his hiding place, the new Prime Minister’s mobs burst in and carried him upstairs on their shoulders. That evening, Ambassador Henderson suggested to Ardashir that Mossadegh not be harmed. Roosevelt gave Zahedi $900,000 left from Operation Ajax funds.

There is a saying in navigation and goes like this " Captain of a sinking ship stays with his vessel" but in case of your hero Shah, he fled the country like a RAT he was and forever will be. not once, but always.

my second point is his SO CALLED liberation of women. Below i am quoting part of his interview with renowned author/reporter Oriana Fallaci
"On the role of women

* Women are important in a man's life only if they're beautiful and charming and keep their femininity and... this business of feminism, for instance. What do these feminists want? What do you want? You say equality. Oh! I don't want to seem rude, but... you're equal in the eyes of the law but not, excuse my saying so, in ability... You've never produced a Michelangelo or a Bach. You've never even produced a great chef. And if you talk to me about opportunity, all I can say is, Are you joking? Have you ever lacked the opportunity to give history a great chef? You've produced nothing great, nothing!... You're schemers, you are evil. All of you.
...Oriana Fallaci, Interview with History. New York; Liveright Publishing, 1976. pp. 270-272.

As his fathers before him, Reza PahlaviII is nothing but a traitor to Iran and Iranian. As Shah was FLEEING the country for the last time this is what he said " Promise to the nation: You, the people of Iran, rose against injustice and corruption... I too, have heard the voice of your revolution. As the Shah of Iran, and as an Iranian, I will support the revolution of my people. I promise that the previous mistakes, unlawful acts and injustice will not be repeated.[39][40] This speech is said to have been written by the uncle of Shahbanou Farah and was given to the Shah in a rush, as the Shah had become fatigued due to the growth of his cancer."

my question is: do Iranians who have paid dearly, with ultimate sacrifice of their sons and daughters, whether being in Iran-Iraq war, or in the revolution that was lost to AKHNODS, want and deserve another Pahlavi to rule the Iran?????????
I think not....... -YT

Another Interesting Hypocrisy

Has anyone noticed the inherent hypocrisy in the "status quo" screaming crowd?  On the one hand, they cheer a destructive "revolution" and ridicule the attempts of people like Bakhtiar to bring internal, gradual change to the Shah's regime, but at the same time, they are the biggest advocates of the "change from within" fantasy about the IRI, a regime with the degree of brutality-and intolerance of opposition-- that surpasses that of Shah by the Nth degree!!!

For Goodness sake,

For Goodness sake, Monarchy/Khalifeh/Eslami days are over in human history. It was unfair in principal and is an insult to human fairness and dignity. They had 25oo thousand years to get it right and they couldn'nt . People all over the world have reached the conclusion that a Parlimentarian regimes with a relatively short term elected leaders works best. Thats it, anyone talks about Monarchy as an alternative in my opinion is backward in my mind and not in touch with todays thinking.
Anyone visting Iran seriously from here would realise that Iran has changed and we (X-pats) have changed and although we have many similar and common grounds on the surface, underneath, Iran is run and understood by those that live there. They are changing and realising their mistakes and trying to improve and in many many occasions take backward steps, never the less, they are best left alone. Our country is in a very important phase of self discovery. It can't or will not be a copy of any other nation. It has to find itself. If you ever loved anyone truly in your life ,you know, You would love that person for what it is, and not for what you want it to be. I believe Iran will merge from this phase and become a secular progressive country.

The Essential Question

Majid Jaan,

These people just don't get it.  Whenever someone criticizes their "revolution" they--in a knee jerk fashion-- call him a monarchist, a word which has been drilled into their heads for the IRI.  The poor souls don't event realize that they are being used as an IRI propoganda tool.

I am not a monarchist.  In fact, I believe that monarchy is a terrible way to run a counrty.  I believe in a secular republic.  But no one here is willing to address the essential question, which is: royalty in Iran had to go, but at what cost?  Was it worth it for Iranians to get out of "chaah" and fall into "chaaleh" with the IRI?  Was it worth the millions of lives that have been lost through executions and a bloody war (which would have never happened if Shah was in power because Saddam was scared shitless of Iran under Shah)?  Was it worth losing our standing in the world stage?  Was it worth being associated with terrible terrorist institutions such as Hezbulllah and Hamas?  Was it worth our economy being driven into the ground?  Was it worth our women losing most of their individual rights, inheritence rights, custody rights and even being told what to wear?  Was it worth our legal system being replaced by an absured 7th century bedouin Arab legal code (something that even most Arab countries shy away from)? 

Mindlessly insisting that the revolution was right at any cost is no different than Karl Rove and George Bush mindlessly insisting that the Iraq war was right because the "world is a better place without Saddam Hussein" (the answer to which is the same as here: obviously, but at what cost?). 

The Iranian people have paid a heavy price for the orgy of 1979 revolution.  The price that they have paid makes that revolution a very bad bargain.  A much more prudent way of getting rid of the monarchy in Iran would have been to allow Bakhtiar to implement his changes, which would have essentially reduced the monarch to a powerless figurehead, which, in turn, could have easily been removed down the road.  But then, this brings me back to my previous point, which is that because of Iranian people's irrational devotion to Shia Islam, and their belief that any mullah with an ammameh was the ultimate personification of rightouseness, once Khomeini and the clerical system came into the picture, such gradual democratic change became virtually impossible....and the result is what we see today.

That brings us to the current situation.  You see poeple here, and in Iran, still bashing the poor Shah and regreting that he "got away" without answering for his crimes.  Can you believe this nonsense?  The same people who tell us that we are stuck in Iran's ancient history are themselves still obsessed with a guy who died thirty years ago!!!  After thirty years of the akhoonds imprisoning them, raping their wealth, raping and executing their sons and daughters (some as young as 12), dragging them, their wives, daughters, sisters and mothers on the street for a few strands of hair showing, torturing them in midieval style prisons, and doing everything else to them but demanding to sleep with their wives (which I assume will come soon via a fatwa), they are still bitching and moaning about Shah!!!!!  That's why I say: "khalayegh har cheh layegh"---mobarak basheh!  Inshallah ke shoma va jomhoori islami be payeh ham peer sheed". 

> a few points

I saw him twice in Washington Dulles airport back in 2005 : a very simple guy, no rolex, no gel, ect.

He travels with a Monaco passport, wich I understand. I mean let's be realistic : he lives 5 miles away from Langley VA, where a bunch of CIA geeks planed how to ruin our country in the mid-70s and kick his father out, so having a US passport would be very ironic...

Napolian, you're the man. Damet garm

Crush...

I see much more prominent, successful Iranians who love Iran and have had the courage to go there. Name One! And where is there? Beheshte-Zahra?

BTW: Monarchy threw out Arab Caliphs too in 200 A.H.!

Oh he can dethrone my "caliph" anytime. I could care less

If you think this is about me loving IRI, you're a lost cause. That's the trouble with you monarchist extremists. You don't even listen, you are so narrow minded. 

The guy is a failure and a dozd. He is an insult to everyone's intelligence, and yours, if you had some? I see much more prominent, successful Iranians who love Iran and have had the courage to go there.  

Hey Crush...

Why are you so 'yellow'? I am really worried about you! Does RP hit your nerves? Are you jealous of HIM? Or maybe you have a crush on RP too, and you just don't know it!

Don't worry so much, RP will not dethrone your Caliph any time soon. Remember Alexander the Great's legacy remained in iran for 200 years after he set iran to fire and destroyed everything that he could, but eventually Monarchy came back and threw the Macedonians out. This time we will be all long gone by the time the Mullas are displaced in 2179.

Give up on Alex(ander the great) and be content with RP. Haven't you heard that siliye naghd beh az halvaaye nesiyeh.