To the Editor:

Tom McLaughlin's take on Iran (and Muslims) is skewed.  Our relationship with Iran needs to be put into context to be understood.  In 1951 the democratically-elected prime minister nationalized the oil industry and, as a result, in 1953 the governments of the UK and the USA arranged a coup that overthrew the government. We then installed the Shah, who was a dictator but much more friendly to western business interests.  The Shah sought to modernize his country but was also brutal and corrupt. In 1979 there was a popular revolt that overthrew the Shah and brought Khomeini to power.  This was a backlash against the Shah and the West.  This is critical history to anyone trying to understand the Middle East.


McLaughlin also tries to paint Iran as being full of religious fundamentalists.  There is some truth to this, but let's not ignore our own Christian fundamentalist.  A full 40-45% of the US population believes the world will end as the Bible predicts:  Israel must have its own country and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem, and then Jesus will come down and battle the anti-Christ at a place called Armageddon.  What is most scary about this is that some are actually trying to speed things up so Jesus will get here sooner.  This leads to blind support of Israel and a desire to impede peace negotiations.

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.

Post a comment
Stop watching this discussion.