Iranian exiles whisper of return to monarchy
The National / Matt Bradley, Foreign Correspondent
30-Jul-2009 (2 comments)

CAIRO // Either due to force or frustration, the placards and protesters have all but disappeared from the streets of Tehran, where disputed presidential elections in mid-June brought thousands of supporters for reformist candidates, such as Mir-Hossein Mousavi, onto the streets.

But in Egypt’s capital, a restrained spirit of resistance remains among a small group of Iranian exiles. As Iranians in Iran shout their support for democracy and Mr Mousavi, the few members of the global Iranian diaspora who gathered here on Monday whispered of a return to a monarchy and wept for a different man: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s deposed shah, who died and was buried here 29 years ago this week.

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Sassan

gol-dust

by Sassan on

No, technically, it was not the Shah who gave us this mess, but rather, a massive conspiracy between the mullahs, England, America, the MEK, the Tudeh, and every other tratitor to the Iranian nation.

The West assisted in the destruction of the Shah for the same exact reasons they destroyed Mossadegh and Reza Shah. In 1976, the Shah had forcefully stated that Iran would not resign the oil agreements which were going to expire in 1978, and thus, Iran was going to be free to pursue an "independent" path in terms of its oil policies (the same goal of Mossadegh, who wanted to nationalize seemingly over night).

Couple that looming disaster for the West with the real squeeze the Shah was putting on the Bazarris plus the termination of the $80 million annual bribe the government was paying the mullahs, not to mention concrete plans to have free elections in 1979 (the Shah was acutely aware that his own kingship was in effect over because of his cancer and knew his young son had to rule as a constitutional monarch as per the 1906 Constitution, which scared the mullahs to death as they are deathly afraid of democracy because they truly believe that the masses are sheep and must "emulate" as in maraj-e-taghlid), and thus, you have a situation that is ripe for a conspiracy.

Did the Shah make many mistakes? Absolutely! But if you're objective and you don't rely on stale 30-year old revolutionary misinformation, you will realize that what the Shah and his father did for Iran was the real revolution and the Islamic revolution of 1979 was but a counter-revolution.

Even the former revolutionaries like Akbar Ganji have publicly admitted that the mullahs (and the US media) grossly exaggerated the Shah's crimes (just as the US exaggerated Sadam's WMD threat) in order to destabalize the Shah's regime and prepare the grounds for the Islamic revolution.

All in all, in order to objectively and honestly assess the Pahlavi Dynasty, one seriously needs to understand 19th century Iranian history. Iran was a monumental JOKE in 1925. "Persia" was a embarrassing source of laughter for Europe in those days! We were a joke -- the economical equivalent of Zimbabwe!

But instead of considering in 1978 as to "how far we had come since 1925," all the stupid, short-sighted youth (bombarded with misinformation and western propaganda) could think about was "how far we had to go" in order to be a first rate nation.

From 1925-1978 is exactly 53 years -- and 53 years is not a very long time, but in a short 53 years the Pahlavis managed to turn Iran from Zimbabwe to the economical equivalent of Spain (both Iran and Spain had the same exact GDP in 1978; by the way, today Spain has a GDP of over 1 Trillion dollars while Iran has a GDP of $150 Billion -- and Spain has NO oil to speak of!).

How sad is that?

And in point of fact, the Shah (and his father) could have ruled Iran like the old lazy Qajar Shahs, that is, they could've wasted their time having fun in his harams and palaces and kissed the back of the akhunds' hands, and Reza Pahlavi would be king today.

But the Pahlavi kings went up against a massive wave of reactionary forces, to their own personal detriment, because they had an idea of a modern and prosperous Iran in their minds -- not a backward and impoverished Iran, which was the mainstay of the Qajars. And anytime you try to bring so much change to a traditional society, it is all but guaranteed that you will make a whole lot of people with alterior motives very angry.

And in the very front of this line of furiously self-serving forces were the akhunds who were primarily worried about their own power base in Iran, for as we all know, the more enlightened the people, the less likely they will be fooled by an ignorant akhund.

In the final analysis, an objective reading of the Shah's record proves that the man was a patriot and he really wanted to improve Iran, except that he went up against history and his destruction ushered in one of the darkest periods in the history of Iran.


gol-dust

Thanks DK for never losing hope! Love it. You never give up!

by gol-dust on

when are you going to wake up? No matter how much we hate this regime, it is the shah who got us in this mess in the first place.

You really believe in recycling, don't you? Well, at least shah (US) got one vote.