Iran is a victim of American imperialism. In 1953, democratically-elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the United States and the United Kingdom, at the behest of British Petroleum after Mossadegh nationalized Iran's oil resources and refused to concede a more profitable arrangement to the western powers. The Americans — the CIA — called this Operation Ajax.
This is peak Cold War logic: oil, an important natural resource, had been nationalized; the United States has, historically, frequently rejected nationalization as a form of theft (cue protest by Pierre Proudhon); the U.S. wanted access to that natural resource, or, at least to ensure it was inaccessible to its rivals, and thus it acted to "secure its interests."
This is well-known history, I have nothing to add.
However, I do want to comment on a weird, problematic trend I've seen repeatedly on the American left: this tendency to support all anti-American governments under the banner of anti-imperialism.
Iran, after its 1979 revolution, came to be an authoritarian, theocratic state. Even if the United States did not exist, Iran would not be an ideologically safe place for anyone who isn't part of the in-group in power. It is a country where atheists, like Yousef Mehrdad and Sadrollah Fazeli Zare, are murdered by the government for not being superstitious, to say nothing its its other extreme, reactionary and religious biases. LGTBQ+ Iranians can be, and are, harassed, arrested, and detained based on perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.
Therefore, I call upon the American left in general: the enemy of my enemy is not my friend. Israel is engaged in ethnic cleansing backed by the U.S. Iran is a theocratic terror state. Resistance against the worst excesses of U.S. behavior can be done without running interference for religious bullies abroad — we have our own problems with superstition and mass cults in this country.
Support Iranians in their bid for freedom. A better world is possible only with a free Iran.
