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April
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April 22,
2003
Iran's Reza Pahlavi
A Puppet of
the US and Israel?
by JOHN STANTON
The omnipresent neo-conservative kingmakers are
at it again, this time with the eloquent and dashing Crown Prince
Reza Pahlavi, eldest son of the former enigmatic Iranian King
of Kings, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi, who ruled Iran from 1941
until his exile in 1979. The rest, as the cliche goes, is a history
well known to the world. That painful past for Americans, Iranians,
and Iraqis includes the Ayatollah Khomeini's authoritarian rule,
former President Jimmy Carter's debilitating US Embassy Hostage
crisis, former President Ronald Reagan's damaging Iran-Contra
Affair, the horribly futile Iran-Iraq War in which the US supported
Iraq, and, now, as history continues to weave its ugly tapestry,
Iran finds itself a bona-fide member of current President George
Bush II's Axis-of-Evil.
Thanks to the flesh and blood versions
of Mattel Toy Company's line of pull-string Chatty Cathy dolls--which
utter the same statements over and over and over again--the US
seems destined to continue that notorious relationship with Iran.
The formulaic logic used to justify the destruction of Iraq has
now been set in motion for Iran by Richard Perle, Jim Woolsey,
Mike Leeden, Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld,
affectionately known as "neo-cons". And, as another
cliche goes, the world is subjected to their "broken record"
comments that are repeated ad nauseum each news cycle.
What journalist hasn't tired of mentioning
them?
Pull the string on any of them, let's
say the Chatty Cathy Leeden version, and this is what one gets:
"There is now a clear recognition that we must defend ourselves
against them [Iran and Syria]. They are an integral part of the
terror network that produced September 11. Left undisturbed,
they will kill us in Iraq and Afghanistan, and mount new attacks
on our homelands. We will see the day when not one turban rules
these countries."
These ideological cousins of right-wing
Israeli strategists such as Yitzhak Shamir and Ariel Sharon are
prepping the world with more pronouncements of regime change
for the double-barreled purposes of American Empire and a Greater
Israel. Today it's Iran; tomorrow it's Syria. Smart money is
on Iran due to their oil. On the other hand, Syria would be easier
to crush given their antiquated military. Then again, both the
USA and Israel have got Reza Pahlavi dancing on strings.
Cool Dude
So what's a cool guy like Pahlavi, a
USC graduate and US Air Force trained fighter pilot with a wonderful
family here in the USA, doing mixing it up with guys like Leeden?
Why not take it easy and stay out of the messy and brutal business
that being a king involves? The answer, it seems, is the irresistible
pull of genetics and, perhaps, the quest to build a stable and
"free" society and not end up, or in his case continue,
in exile like his father and grandfather before him. A visit
to Pahlavi's excellent website features noted "peace"
author Gene Sharp's work Dictatorship to Democracy and The Politics
of NonViolent Action, plus assorted other works on removing totalitarian
regimes through peaceful means. It's a family site too and one
is invited to view photo albums of the family and a host of other
documentation including speeches and articles.
Based on the message presented on his
website, Pahlavi seems the reincarnation of Cyrus the Great whose
Freedom Charter, circa 540BCE, stated:
"Now that I put the crown of kingdom
of Iran I announce that I will respect the traditions, customs
and religions of the nations of my empire and never let any of
my governors and subordinates look down on or insult them. I
will impose my monarchy on no nation. Each is free to accept
it, and if any one of them rejects it, I never resolve on war
to reign. I will never let anyone oppress any others, and if
it occurs, I will take his or her right back and penalize the
oppressor. I will never let anyone take possession of movable
and landed properties of the others by force or without compensation.
Until I am alive, I prevent unpaid, forced labor. Today, I announce
that everyone is free to choose a religion. People are free to
live in all regions and take up a job provided that they never
violate other's rights. No one can be penalized for his or her
relatives' faults. I prevent slavery and my governors and subordinates
are obliged to prohibit exchanging men and women as slaves within
their own ruling domains. Such a tradition should be exterminated
the world over."
What Iranian, or for that matter American,
wouldn't want such an idyllic state of affairs?
But some of the statements attributed
to Pahlavi suggest that there's a dangerous streak of kingly
greed that fuels his motives and that he merely covets the throne
for personal reasons and, in order to get it, is willing to sell
out the Iranian people in the process. Is Pahlavi the equivalent
of the dashing and dynamic character Gordon Gekko in the movie
Wall Street? That Gekko who proclaimed that "the point is,
ladies and gentleman, greed is good. Greed works, greed is right.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the
evolutionary spirit." Or is Pahlavi a modern day Cyrus the
Great who truly wants what's best for Iran but finds himself
making Faustian bargains with the ruthless Pro-Israeli militarists
of the American Empire?
Family Matters
Grandfather Reza Khan was a respected
warfighter in the Cossack Brigade in the late 1800's, and ultimately
led a coup to rid the country of a government that allowed British,
Russian and Ottoman troops to occupy Iran during World War I.
Khan became Prime Minister of the new government and four years
later in 1925, ascended to the throne replacing the weakly Ahmad
Mirza Shah. He took the name Reza Shah Pahlavi (Reza Shah Kabir
or Reza Shah the Great) and the dynasty was underway.
According to iranchamber.com, "Reza
Shah introduced many great reforms, reorganizing the army, government
administration, and finances. He abolished all special rights
granted to foreigners, thus gaining real independence for Iran.
Under Reza Shah's 16 years of rule, roads and Trans-Iranian Railway
were built, modern education was introduced and the University
of Tehran was established, and for the first time, a systematic
dispatch of Iranian students to Europe was started. Industrialization
of the country was stepped-up, and achievements were great. By
the mid 1930's Reza Shah's dictatorial style of rule caused dissatisfaction
in Iran. In World War II the Allies protested his rapprochement
with the Germans, and in 1941 British and Russian forces invaded
and occupied Iran. Forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Mohammad
Reza Shah Pahlavi, he died in exile in Johannesburg, South Africa
in 1944."
Like father like son, so yet another
cliche has it, and Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi was also forced
to abdicate and subsequently died in 1980, exiled in Egypt. This
Shah of Iran was embroiled in the CIA coup that ousted quixotic
Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadeq and was a pawn of successive
American administrations during the Cold War, which pitted the
USSR against the USA. His popular legacy is the current theocratic
regime in Iran and SAVAK--the brutal intelligence arm of the
Shah. For a short time, though, he waived the flag of democratic
reform and Iranians had high hopes for democracy. He instituted
the White Revolution, according to the above mentioned website,
a 1963 program that included land reform, the extension of voting
rights to women, and the elimination of illiteracy. But the trappings
of power, fear of opposition groups, and insensitivity towards
Islam (Arab Muslims conquered Iran in roughly 650 BCE and Islam
remians a powerful force)led him, like his father, into an insular
dictatorship and all the wretched practices that method entails.
Will the Real Reza
Pahlavi Please Stand Up?
During a recent meeting with US Congressional
Representatives and staffers on Capitol Hill, Pahlavi--called
"Your Majesty" by the representatives and staffers
-seemed embittered at the slow pace of non-violent change taking
place in Iran so beautifully articulated on his website. According
to sources, several times he blasted the Europeans and those
who wish to have contact with Iran and said that they should
not "throw a rope to a sinking ship."
As if to echo the neo-conservatives,
Pahlavi argued for the political and economic boycott of Iran
using the Iraqi model, in order to undercut the Iranian regime
while seemingly ignoring the dastardly effects that action would
have on the people he wants to "liberate". He also
indicated that he was in close contact with Iranian students
and that they are asking for a political and economic boycott.
That claim, according to many insiders, has been refuted by the
students who are smart enough to know what pain and suffering
it would cause. Oddly, he maintained that Bush II is someone
who cares for Iranians and indicated that "Iranians were
heartened by the Axis of Evil comment".
He went on to articulate his view that
Iran is the key country in the region and that Iran must change
before the entire region can rest easy. As if a neo-con Chatty
Cathy himself, Pahlavi stated that Iran is a grave threat to
world peace, that they harbor and support Al-Qaeda, they threaten
US economic interests and, as if to take the words right out
of the mouth of Curt "suitcase nuke" Weldon, US representative
from Pennsylvania, Pahlavi indicated "the Iranians do not
need delivery systems to send nukes to the US, they can send
one lone terrorist to blow off a nuclear device in Lake Michigan."
Iran has been working for generations
to acquire nuclear energy generation capability (no doubt some
of the weapons grade by-products of that capability too). That
effort began in 1967 initiated by Pahlavi's father with the purchase
of a five-megawatt research reactor from the United States. The
Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was established in 1974 and
the Shah had intended to build nuclear power plants throughout
Iran by 1994. The Iranian nuclear program was supported by the
United States, France, Germany and, of course, now Russia.
Yet, during the same meeting with Representatives
in the US Congress, the younger Pahlavi stated that Iran does
not need nuclear technology. That runs contrary to the belief
on the ground in Iran, some report, pointing out that the populace
feels the country is in need of nuclear technology in order to
develop. But Pahlavi categorically said that Iran has enough
energy through gas and oil, and has no need for nuclear power.
He said that he would like to see a "reversal of Iran's
nuclear program," which only will occur if Iran is democratized.
That, of course, is music to the oily
ears of Bush II and Cheney.
Pahlavi also cut a backroom deal by garnering
political support and funding from the US Congress for private
Iranian-American satellite companies in California and US government
sponsored external radio programs such as Radio FARDA, geared
to reprogramming Iranians under 30 years of age. He was very
careful to mention that there should be "one degree of separation"--no
royal hand involved so to speak--and that American taxpayer's
funds should be given to foundations that in turn can give the
money to the satellite broadcasters. Not surprisingly, Senator
Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, introduced an amendment
on April 8, 2003, that would provide $50 million (US) to an Iran
Democracy Foundation, the purpose of which is to broadcast "democracy"
into Iran. According to reports, the language in Brownback's
amendment has its origins in the Pentagon and is almost the same
as that used in the Iraqi Liberation Act that the US Congress
approved in 1998.
"Don't appease the dictators. They
only understand the language of power." That according to
the Pahlavi who would be the next Shah of Iran. Yet if history
offers valid insights, and in light of his recent comments, this
next King--should the US and Israel install him--seems destined
to repeat the mistakes of his ancestors.
It doesn't have to be that way.
John Stanton
is a Virginia based writer specializing in national security
matters. He can be reached at cioran123@yahoo.com
Today's
Features
Carl
Estabrook
Oblivious Americans: They Distort,
We Subside
Ramzy
Baroud
What Else Hasn't Israel Told America?
Steven
Sherman
About That Cuba Letter
Wayne Madsen
Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
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