FGF E-Package
The Confederate Lawyer
January 23, 2015
The Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran
Unintended Consequences
by Charles G. Mills
fitzgerald griffin foundation
GLEN COVE, NY — The worst consequences of bad decisions are usually unintended. Some of the worst unintended consequences in history were caused by the peace conditions imposed by the winners of the two World Wars. More recently, we have witnessed the disastrous decisions made in connection with U.S. policies in Cuba, Iran, and Syria.
Cuba
Between the World Wars, the United States became alarmed by Cuba’s friendship with several fascist countries. We deposed Cuban president Carlos Manuel de Céspedes y Quesada and put the anti-fascist Fulgencio Batista in power in 1940.
By 1958, Batista had become much less democratic and a convenient target for the Communists. The mainstream American press, and especially The New York Times, conducted a propaganda campaign depicting a group of Cuban Communists led by Fidel Castro as enlightened, sophisticated democrats who would restore democracy to Cuba. Such a depiction was pure deception. Castro’s rhetoric was recognizable as Communist by even a sophisticated high school student. As propaganda in America, however, it was highly successful.
s
By allowing Castro to come to power, the U. S. drove most of the Cuban middle class into exile in Florida, caused the brutal executions of thousands, and doomed Cuba to over 55 years of poverty and brutal dictatorship.
President Batista was overthrown
by Fidel CastroWhether out of nostalgia for the World War II alliance with the Soviets, or ignorance and inertia, President Eisenhower paved the way for Castro to take power. Almost immediately upon gaining power, Castro started mass executions.
By allowing Castro to come to power, the U. S. drove most of the Cuban middle class into exile in Florida, caused the brutal executions of thousands, and doomed Cuba to over 55 years of poverty and brutal dictatorship.
Iran
The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, succeeded his father in 1941 in a peaceful settlement of a coup; his father had replaced an earlier Shah in a 1921 coup.
Between 1951 and 1953, Iran’s government, but not its king, became increasingly friendly with the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, was pro-communist. In a coup supported by Britain and the United States, Mosaddegh was removed from office and the Shah’s power was increased. From 1953 to 1979, Iran was a prosperous, modern country with Christians, Moslems, Zoroastrians, and other religions living in peace.
The Shah of Iran
By allowing Khomeini to come to power in Iran in 1979, the U. S. drove over one million Iranians into exile, doomed the country to at least 35 years of brutal dictatorship, started a persecution of Christians and Zoroastrians, installed an draconian judicial system, and allowed Iran to become one of the main rogue states of the world.
Religious leaders, known as ayatollahs, began a propaganda campaign in Europe against the Shah. The Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was living in exile in France, was a particularly vocal opponent of the Shah’s reforms and consistently denounced his regime. President Carter bought this propaganda hook, line, and sinker.
By allowing Khomeini to come to power in Iran in 1979, the U. S. drove over one million Iranians into exile, doomed the country to at least 35 years of brutal dictatorship, started a persecution of Christians and Zoroastrians, installed an draconian judicial system, and allowed Iran to become one of the main rogue states of the world.
Syria
The politics of Syria and Iraq are now entangled. Sorting out the mistakes that the U.S. made in Iraq is beyond the scope of this column. Disagreements remain over whether we did too much or too little, but we clearly left a mess.
Bashar al-Assad was elected President of Syria following the death of his father, the previous president. Like most governments in the Mideast, his regime is fairly authoritarian. Yet its record of respecting religious liberty and property rights has been consistently good.
The Obama regime has relentlessly undermined the Syrian government under the illusion that a potential democratic, liberal government is waiting in the wings. Secretary of State John Kerry almost succeeded in bungling us into war with Syria.
Largely as a result of our undermining of the Syrian government, but also because of our mistakes in Iraq, a new de facto country has emerged in parts of Syria and Iraq, called a caliphate, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and other names. This is one of the most intolerant places in the world, engaging in the mass murder of Christians and other non-Moslems and enforcing a brutal form of Islamic law, stoning women to death, cutting hands off criminals, crucifying victims, throwing people from the roofs of skyscrapers, and using preteens as executioners.
Conclusion
Liberals never learn. Over and over, they find an imperfect government and replace it with brutal mass murderers.
In each case — Cuba, Iran, and Syria — there was a long national history of coups and authoritarian governments. In each case, a government was in place that had a reasonable respect for religious liberty and property rights. In each case, the government lacked due respect for the rights of its political opponents but protected those who did not threaten it.
In each case, American liberals were played for suckers by anti-Christian, anti-American, brutal opponents of the governments; these opponents fooled the liberal American establishment into believing that they were good Jeffersonian democrats. In each case, the liberals failed to consider the clear evidence to the contrary. In each case, once the liberals had put their darlings in office, the new regime resorted to mass murder and created major refugee crises.
In none of the three cases has the damage been repaired.
The Confederate Lawyer archives
The Confederate Lawyer column is copyright © 2015 by Charles G. Mills and the Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation, www.fgfBooks.com. All rights reserved.
This column may be forwarded, posted, or published if credit is given to Charles Mills and fgfBooks.com.
Charles G. Mills is the Judge Advocate or general counsel for the New York State American Legion. He has forty years of experience in many trial and appellate courts and has published several articles about the law.
See his biographical sketch and additional columns here.
To sponsor the FGF E-Package, please send a tax-deductible donation to the:
Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation
344 Maple Avenue West, #281
Vienna, VA 22180
or donate online.
@ 2024 Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation