The Bush/Cheney administration is now rattling swords over Iran with the intention of military intervention. The prognosticators, such as the CIA, State Department, neocolonials and the controlled media, are all playing into America’s No. 1 fear: the bomb.

To understand the hatred Iranians hold for America, one must go back to after World War II, when Iran’s democratic president Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh wanted to bring his country into modernity. Iran offered the British a 50/50 split of their oil profits – the same deal the U.S. had with Saudi Arabia. The British wanted larger profits and refused. Messadegh nationalized the oil industry and kicked the British out.

In retaliation, the U.S. and British instigated a regime change. (Does that sound familiar with today’s Bush/Cheney policy regarding Iraq?) The CIA used trumped-up charges that Iran was becoming communist and Messadegh was imprisoned and replaced by a repressive, dictatorial, pro-U.S. government under Shah Reza Pahlavi.

After years of human atrocities, the Shah was overthrown by a fundamentalist Islamic leader, Ayatollah Khomeini. His power derived less from what he stood for and more for what he stood against: the Shah’s atrocious regime with its U.S. cultural control and domination.

U.S. officials still refuse to talk to Iran and prefer creating another fiasco in the Persian Gulf. Administration policies can only exacerbate body counts – an apparent lack of concern regarding today’s Bush/Cheney strategy and mission, whatever that is.

Richard Doucette, Auburn

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