In 1979, I was a ten year old fifth grader at Mark Keppel Elementary School in Glendale, California when a group of Iranian students took over 50 individuals hostage at the US Embassy and CIA Station in Tehran. We were outraged as a nation, and even as a small child, I remember believing from the bottom of my heart that we should have dropped a hydrogen bomb or two on them forthwith. I cheered when I watched the local news and saw an Iranian man being attacked by an angry mob in Beverly Hills.
It was not until I was a junior in college ten years later that I learned how the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Mossadegh and installed the Peacock Throne. Not one adult took the time to explain a word about the history of Persia to me or to direct me to objective materials about Iran at the library. Nobody furthermore, took the time to remind me that every Iranian had a mother and a father, brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Nobody ever reminded me that the Iranians were also human beings. I never thought of the consequences of a nuclear strike on Tehran where easily 10 Million people would lose their lives and the area would become a ghost town for years. It seemed like the most sterile, sane, surgical way to show those devils not to fuck with America. It was like the Tea Party's collective anger under the banner of Don't Tread on Me. Most importantly, nobody ever bothered to mention that the 1979 Revolution was very similar to the struggles of the United States when we fought the Revolutionary War to destroy the monarchy. While the fighters supported by Saudi Arabia in Afghanistan were referred to as "Freedom Fighters" and the Iranian Revolutionaries as terrorists by our media never seemed odd to me at all.
I had never met an Iranian as a child in Glendale. But in 1981, our family relocated to West Los Angeles, and I had the pleasure to become acquainted with several Iranian individuals. I did not anything about the difference among the various Iranian factions and religions. At the outset, I felt a remarkable degree of hostility towards all of them and considered them my personal mortal enemy. I had no idea that most of them had worked in professional positions and that many were Jewish and had been employees of Reza Shah. They all embodied and channeled the Ayatollah who was nothing more and nothing less than the devil in my ten year old bird brain. I am ashamed at the cruelty I participated in. The hate speech. The evil that children do.
Then I became friends with Ramin after he beat me in a fight I picked with him. He did not back down. Most Iranians won't. Next time I saw him after losing the fight, he stuck out his hand in friendship. We always treated each other with respect from then on. He invited me to his house and was gracious. Iranian guys are proud. They are mostly noble, incredibly strong. I had no idea Ramin was not connected to the Ayatollah. I did not know his family were refugees. His family had been pharmacists and had been forced to open a fucking donut shop here in the States. People treated them like shit. But they persevered and passed the Pharmacy Board Exam and became prosperous. And remained virtuous in the face of our national ignorance that we allowed our children to believe.
Make no mistake about it, the Islamic Republic of Iran has acted rascally in the past, and have added fuel to the regional fire. During the 1980's, several thousand political prisoners were hanged in Ervin Prison. They have blood on their hands. And on their sleeves, too. But in the scope of things, they have not done diddly squat compared to the United States. Iraq that invaded them supported by us, not the other way around. It was the US Navy that fired a missile from the USS Vincennes that struck a civilian Iranian Airliner without provocation or threat and murdered hundreds of innocent civilians. We have choked their economy, refused to re-establish diplomatic relations with them, and have punished them for being Nationalists. I think our country was founded by Nationalists. They would have wanted us to support an independent and strong Iranian nation, not try and annihilate them and overthrow their government so that they could get some good oil contracts. Not a great idea to try and do something like that to a proud and ancient nation. What the hell were the Dulles brothers were thinking?
I read some stuff as an undergraduate and found out what we did to make the Iranians so angry at us. They had some damn good reasons such as us actively enabling chemical weapons to be used against Iranian Troops during the Iran Iraq war killing thousands and scorching the lungs of tens of thousands of others disfiguring them and disabling them in the most cruel way not seen since WWI. Eight years of trench warfare funded by the United States killed a sizable percentage of the Iranian population. Every child has a father and a mother and deserve a chance to grow up in a time of peace. The United States should never contribute to misery like they did meddling in Iranian affairs. It is time for us to formally apologize to them yesterday.
The vast majority of Iranian persons that I am friends with are true men. They are not inferior to us in any way, shape or form. I am puzzled as to why our diplomats do not recognize this and treat the Iranian people accordingly. A little respect with them goes a long way.
I never saw the Iranians as irrational actors or the mad dogs that they are portrayed as in our wanker media. I saw them more in line with the view shared by the intelligence community in Australia. Something could always work out. It could have worked out years ago. It can still work out.
Iranians are fantastic people. Their Soltani Kebab, Chicken and Lamb Barg, all of those stews with lima beans, dill, and those huge plates of rice are fantastic too. Those salads with cucumber, the lamb shanks, eggplant salad, and delicious fresh flat bread and butter. Our differences are small. What we have in common is vast. Their children are as dear as our children and they want to have a similar future that many of us desire over here. Their leaders are courageous. We should invite Khatami over, take him to Yosemite, and our to the American Street, restore diplomatic relations immediately, eat some wonderful Persian food and try and work things out. We have a lot in common.
Obama is in a unique position to restore maybe an ounce or two of his credibility all lost as a result of the Snowden disclosures and emerge as the President the smoothed things out with the Iranians. I think they have been waiting for us for a long time to express a willingness to mend fences. Of course, we need to treat them with the respect that they deserve. They are are equals, not our satraps, every bit as intelligent as we are and every bit as deserving of respect.
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