by Jon Schwarz
It’s hard for some Americans to understand why the Obama administration is so determined to come to an agreement with Iran on its nuclear capability, given that huge Iranian rallies are constantly chanting “Death to America!” I know the chanting makes me unhappy, since I’m part of America, and I strongly oppose me dying.
But if you know our actual history with Iran, you can kind of see where they’re coming from. They have understandable reasons to be angry at and frightened of us — things we’ve done that if, say, Norway had done them to us, would have us out in the streets shouting “Death to Norway!” Unfortunately, not only have the U.S. and our allies done horrendous things to Iran, we’re not even polite enough to remember it.
Reminding ourselves of this history does not mean endorsing an Iran with nuclear-tipped ICBMs. It does mean realizing how absurd it sounds when critics of the proposed agreement say it suddenly makes the U.S. the weaker party or that we’re getting a bad deal because Iran, as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham put it, does not fear Obama enough. It’s exactly the opposite: This is the best agreement the U.S. could get because for the first time in 35 years, U.S.-Iranian relations aren’t being driven purely by fear.
1. The founder of Reuters purchased Iran in 1872
2. The BBC lent a hand to the CIA’s 1953 overthrow of Iran’s Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh
3. We had extensive plans to use nuclear weapons in Iran
4. We were cool with Saudi Arabia giving Saddam $5 billion to build nukes during the Iran-Iraq war
5. U.S. leaders have repeatedly threatened to outright destroy Iran
6. We shot down a civilian Iranian airliner — killing 290 people, including 66 children
7. We worry about Iranian nukes because they would deter our own military strikes
Please go here for the complete article and details related to each of the above: https://theintercept.com/2015/04/07/10-things-didnt-know-weve-done-iran/
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