By Dayvon Love
In 1953 the United States and other western forces collaborated to overthrow the democratically elected president, Mohammad Mosaddegh, of Iran.
The stated rationale for pursuing regime change was based on the Cold War logic that Mosaddegh was aligning with an evil communist sphere of influence anchored by the former United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR/Russia).
Those who are serious in their study of history are clear that the Cold War was a propaganda campaign to position communism and socialism as a “boogeyman” in order to justify Americans’ desire for geopolitical domination of the world. Additionally, Mosaddegh’s policy of nationalizing the oil wealth of the country was disruptive to western oil companies that wanted unfettered access to Iran’s oil reserves.
After the overthrow of Mosaddegh, the United States installed the Shah of Iran to lead the country, which was a brutal, autocratic regime that lasted for a couple decades. The 1979 revolution in Iran that resulted in the overthrow of the Shah and the taking of American hostages is often narrated as an act of anti-American aggression instead of a response to U.S. imposition of a brutal regime on the people of Iran. In other words, the 1979 Iranian revolution and the anti-American sentiments expressed over the years by Iranian leadership is a response to U.S. imperialist aggression toward the sovereignty of the Iranian people and the larger Muslim world.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a speech a few weeks ago in Munich, Germany, which provides a clear underlying logic for U.S. military strikes against Iran. He said:
“…For five centuries, before the end of the Second World War, the West had been expanding – its missionaries, its pilgrims, its soldiers, its explorers pouring out from its shores to cross oceans, settle new continents, build vast empires extending out across the globe,” Rubio said. “But in 1945, for the first time since the age of Columbus, it was contracting. Europe was in ruins. Half of it lived behind an Iron Curtain and the rest looked like it would soon follow. The great Western empires had entered into terminal decline, accelerated by godless communist revolutions and by anti-colonial uprisings that would transform the world and drape the red hammer and sickle across vast swaths of the map in the years to come … .”
The “godless communist revolutions” and the “anti-colonial uprisings” that Secretary Rubio is referring to were resistance to the global order of White supremacy and American capitalist exploitation.
The luxuries and quality of life that western civilization enjoys is based on the colonial relationship it has with the so-called Third World that is largely non-White and poor. People who are self respecting will rise up to challenge the social order that is the cause of its degradation.
Additionally, in a November 1979 interview with journalist Mike Wallace, the Ayatollah Khomeini (leader of Iran) committed to (and delivered on this commitment) release Black and women hostages. His rationale for releasing Black hostages was that we are an oppressed group in America and not responsible for the aggression toward their people. This is a recognition of the global system of domination that bolsters White political and economic domination of the world.
To recognize Iran’s struggle against American imperialism is not an endorsement of their cultural norms or way of life but respect for the fact that they have suffered at the hands of U.S. aggression and that their hostility against America is based on defending the sovereignty and dignity of its people. It is also important to acknowledge the role that Israel has played in encouraging U.S. military aggression toward Iran.
Israel considers itself to be a cultural descendant of western civilization. The state of Israel serves as a proxy for maintaining U.S. geopolitical domination of the muslim world and the Palestinian people have been casualties of U.S. maintenance and support of the settler colonial project of the state of Israel. Israel has been urging the U.S. to take a more aggressive stance toward Iran to advance its own military domination of the region.
The current administration’s capitulation to Israeli political leadership’s urging to enact regime change in Iran is further acknowledgement of how important Israel is as an instrument of American imperialism.
This current military strikes against Iran by the Trump administration is another example of the White nationalist political agenda of the Republican Party. While it is the case that Democrats have raised concerns about the legality and cost of the president unilaterally deciding to go to war with Iran, this is not enough.
What has to be acknowledged is that the military industrial complex that funds both political parties has to be directly confronted and ultimately dismantled. America currently invests $1 trillion a year of our tax dollars to maintain America’s role as policeman of the world. That is an investment in military destruction of countries who seek to challenge the social order that oppresses their people, the same social order that is oppressive to Black people in the U.S.
Democrats in the upcoming midterms need to be forced to engage in a radical change in American foreign policy that does not legitimize military aggression toward people defending their sovereignty. Democrats need to be forced to pursue a policy that divest from the $1 trillion military budget, and put those resources in the hands of the masses of people in this society who have been victimized by the global system of White supremacy.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the writer and not necessarily those of the AFRO.