Quote Originally Posted by Hamlet
And it's not that we haven't given them plenty of reasons to hate us. In the '50's the CIA -operating from the American Embassy-replaced a popularly elected leader with the Shah of Iran; a brutal son-of-a-bitch, but sympathetic to our interests.

When you're the little guy, getting fucked over and pushed around, the radical, crazy act gets the job done. Seems to be working too. Sure got us pissing our pants.
I thought that this thread was about Iraq - not Iran.

The main problem, in late 70's Iran, was the Carter administration - and the fact that the Shah wanted to bring the society, where the average education was 7th grade, into the 20th century. The idea of modernization was against everything that the Islamic fundamentalists believed.

The Ayatollah right through the present government of Iran was/are far worse than the Shah. The blame for this falls mostly on the Carter administration, when the White House was full of ex-60's pseudo-leftist radicals with big ideas.

You can find a lot of positive opinions from Iranians regarding the Shah. It was the hardcore Islamofascists that hated him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOBxcXpD4Co