Laleh: I’ll give you that once Persia was a great civilization — but it was a totalitarian one that was rightly resisted (and successfully) by the Greeks. No one would ever consider the Persian Empire the friend of liberty. Moreover, since Islam, it’s done basically nothing positive or worthwhile – other than a bit of poetry. But, even the Germans write great poetry….
You guys have a hard on for the CIA’s helping the Pahlavis. OK, but you bordered on the USSR and that was during the Cold War. In any case, the Shah was a whole lot better for Iran and the Iranian people than the mullahs ever were. Women had rights, the country made economic progress. It wasn’t democratic, to be sure, but neither was it nearly so repressive as the current regime.
From the revolution, and your ACT OF WAR in seizing American hostages, your country has been the enemy of civilization, and whatever we have done to oppose it has been a good thing.
