The purpose of my blog is to provide some historical context and/or comparison for what may be in the news recently while staying away from partisan politics. That’s pretty hard to do in the current political climate.
I’ve been reading a lot about the Iran deal. So much to say! Let’s start with the background to Iran’s nuclear buildup. It appears that the Iranian regime got serious about developing a nuclear program out of fear of the invasion of Iraq–that the U.S. meant what it said about imposing democracy in Iraq as a model for the other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
The historical roots go deeper than that. When the U.S. and its allies removed Saddam from Iraq, President Bush encouraged the Shia and Kurds to revolt. They did and Pres. Bush had second thoughts about helping them since it could dismantle Iraq.
So, Saddam could proceed to decimate the Kurds and the Shia. The U.S. and others acted with no fly zones to aid the Kurds successfully, but stood by while Saddam eviscerated the Shia and proceeded to drain their water lands turning it into a desert.
Those Shia who could get out went to the only place offering refuge–Iran. Iran took good care of them. Not surprisingly this encouraged the Sia refugees to be receptive to seeing the U.S. As the Great Satan.
When the U.S. Invades again and decides to hold free elections, it was a given that a Shia coalition would win. Who might they look to for support?
Food for thought.