Iran and the West

 One thing I learned about Iran was when its name was changed from Persia. From what I read those who lived in that land never considered it Persia. It was Iran from its historic past and only Persia to the Greeks and the West, in the Bible as Persia. I guess the people are regarded as Persian but not their country, which goes back to the 6th century BCE and the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great.The Achaemenid dynasty, with leaders like Darius I and Xerxes, put Persia into history – Persia became known for its military might and artistic magnificence.

 

 from Stencil

 

The name change to Iran came in 1953 after what is known as the CIA Coup, which put the Shah into power to restore the monarchy over what had been ruling the land. The Shah aligned with the West and the United States. He changed the name to what he felt was more in line with its history. He set about modernizing the country and maybe the beginning of the Iranian people coming to resent the United States, since the Shah was an autocratic dictator and brutal in how he ruled. When he tried to change, it was basically too late.

 So, with the US connected to that when the Iranian Revolution came along in 1979 to install, Khomeini as the nation's leader, religious as well as political. the US was not seen favorably by him (the Great Satan) as well as many of the people.

That led to the hostage crisis, those who had been in our embassy (444), which lasted over a year with the last 52 hostages not released until Reagan was inaugurated.  

Some of this is, of course, historic. The US did 'bad' things, but some is religious. In Islam there are two versions (what I read), but to Iran's leaders, only one is valid. Their desire is not just to get rid of Israel, which they regularly declare, but to make all the nations follow the correct version of Islam, Shia. While many Muslims regard Sunni also as acceptable, not so for the leaders in Iran.

Where the US doesn't dress its women properly or follow the correct laws, it is a good example of evil in the eyes of Iranian leaders-- at least the ones so far. Our tendency to interfere with countries, where we disapprove of their laws, especially Sharia Law, has added to disdain for us and a feeling it's spiritual to rid the world of us.

Is any kind of joining together possible with those viewpoints? Seems unlikely though clearly many Iranians share a different view, by how over 30,000 were killed when trying to demonstrate for what they want to see.

Will a war change anything... ??? 

 

 

 

 

Current Affairs

After a negative time last week, I hoped to write something more positive this week. Well... I didn't come up with anything, and still recuperating from what went wrong. Still, this was on my mind, but it might be shorter than at a different times.

Because talk of nuclear weapons has been on the table, both from Russia and now Iran, it's hard not to think of it.. I don't really think it was more than talk from Putin, but whoever knows for sure. 

The world is well armed with known nuclear weapons in 9 countries (Russia; United States, United Kingdom, France, China, Pakistan, Israel (who has never formally acknowledged they have them, but it's believed), North Korea, and India), After the US hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end WWII, no one has used them against another nation. I think the caution hss come from concern of being hit back.

Not just the US, but other nations do not want a country to have nukes when it has no hesitance to use the bombs. There are some joke cartoons about it and here is one I found online.

Kind of humorous except nothing involving a nuclear bomb is funny. There are other kinds of attempts to get Iran to stop trying to get a functioning one. Attempts were even made to buy peace. It can't work, not when Iranian leadership sees the United States as the Great Satan; so named by Khomeini when he took power in 1979. When religion enters into, who gets killed and who does not, logic goes out the window.

So, where are we now? I found this online. As with anything we find, how much do we really know?

Again, I got the image from a newspaper; but how much do we really know, ordinary citizens in Iran or the US? Just what we are told and what we know of history. 

As a way to better understand the Iranian Revolution of 1979, I suggest: Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. It gave a better understanding of what that time meant to one woman.

Why does Iranian leadership hate us so much? I can give some info on that next week. It's though like so much-- complicated.

Of course, there are more concerns where it comes to Iran. Like sponsorship for worldwide terrorism, but that's not new for the world. 

Why did Trump choose to strike now? I've read that intelligence said the Iranians have 10 nuclear bombs almost ready to go. Iran has declared they can strike anywhere in the world, at their choice. So, we wait to find out or try to prevent that strike-- if it can be done. More next week on what I know of Iranian history and us...
 

negative times

 This was a bad week for me on multiple levels, which makes doing a blog I can feel proud about not a good idea. Hopefully next Saturday will give me more positive energy. I hope you all did have a good week. If you want to know more about what went wrong for me, leave a comment. Otherwise, I'll try to move on. 

I did want to put something positive here. It's from October '23. The photo is from our Arizona home.