Rahat Hossain March 7th 2013 Great Decisions Iranian and US relations The US has far greater foes

than it does friends. Recently, one of the foes that has been in the center of US foreign policy is Iran. 60 years ago, Iran was not a threat to the US. Iran was counted as a friendly democratic country. But, events that occurred in the 1950s changed that entire dynamic. In order to understand why Iran is so hostile to the US, one has to look into Irans past. Iran is a predominantly Muslim country. Its Muslim population is predominantly Shia. Shia Muslims believe that the 4th Caliphruler after Muhammadwas the first legitimate Caliph and that the first three were illegitimate. The Shia believed that the Caliph must be in the family of Muhammad. Alithe fourth Caliphwas the Prophets son-in-law. This is where Shia and Sunni Muslims split. After the death of Ali, a man by the name of Yazid becomes Caliph. The Shia are angry because they wanted Husaynthe Prophets grandsonto be the Caliph. In Shia Islam, Yazid is worse than Satan. This is because one day Husayn decided to stand up against Yazid and in order to get more followers he went on a journey to neighboring Iraq. Iraq promised him an Army to fight Yazid. When Yazid finds out about this, he sends a militia to intercept Husayn in mid-trip. Yazid is unaware that Husayn is traveling with only 20 men and about 50 women and children. So, at Karbalaoutside IraqYazids militia interceded Husayn and brutally massacres all of the members of his group. With the death of Husayn, Shiism officially beginsthey themselves discredit the Sunni Caliph. Husayn

is seen as a courageous person who stands up for the Shia. With the death of Husayn, the Shia formed their own form of government lead by an Ima In Shia Islam, there are Imams who are akin to the Popes of Catholicism. Each is appointed by God and serves until he dies. Ali was the first Imam in Shia Islam and all of the Imams afterwards are his descendants. The predominant sect of Shia Islam in Iran believes that there are 12 Imams. The reason that there arent more Imams is because of something that happened to the 11th Imam. The 11th Imam died a young death without being married. So there was no descendent to appoint as the next Imam. In Shia Islam, an Imam has to coexist with the world in order for it to be in peace. So, the Shia said that the 11th Imam had a secret baby with a slave girl and that this baby is the 12th Imam. They believe that the 12th Imam is hidden but exists in this world and that he shall return to vanquish the enemies of Shiism. Fast forward 900 years to 1925 and Iran is in the middle of imperialism by Europeans. After WWI, Iran is given to Brits and the First Shah is appointed. The Shah was at behest of Brits. He enacted anti-secular reform, stopped funding clerics, banned the veil, to name a few. At this time, oil was discovered in Iran. The Shah basically gifted the oil to the Brits. This and many other events caused uproar by the citizens and his post became titular. From 1925 to 1950, Iran was still mostly controlled by Brits but was slowly becoming democratized. In 1951, Iran had its first and last fully free democratic election. Dr. Mossadegh won by a landslide. His main rallying call was freedom from Brits and he was going to nationalize the oil. His motto was Iran for Iranians. After Dr. Mossadegh

won, he nationalized the oil which left the Brits very angry. Brits tried complaining to the right channels but their complaints were not listened to. Eventually, Churchill convinced Eisenhower to get involved by poking at his fear of communism. When Eisenhower was convinced, he hired the CIA to start Operation Ajax which was to overthrow the government of Iran and replace it with a western puppet. Eventually, Dr. Mossadegh was taken away and a new Shah was put into power. In 1953, the new Shah comes to power. He employs the SAVAK trained by the KGB and CIAto persecute and dissent in his empire. The Shah then gave America 40 percent of Iranian oil. SAVAK effectively got rid of many of the dissenters but they could not get rid of the clergy. In the 60s, a figure by the name of Shariati emerged. He was from an elite family and he was close to Dr. Mossadegh. He believed that no other force than religion could help the people of Iran. He preached that Islamic law would be the only system of laws that can fight the Shah. He critiqued the Clergy for being pro government and so his main following was non-religious elites. When Shariati died, his followers started to follow a figured by the name of Khomeini. In order to understand Khomeini, one has to understand a bit more about the Shia sect. In Shia Islam, there is a hierarchy. The second to highest is Ayatollah and it is the elite Shia, there are about 200 in the world at one time. Khomeini became Ayatollah at age 50. The highest level of clergy is called Marji. Khomeini became this very fastbefore his 65th year of life. Khomeini was a vocal opponent of the Shah. He called the Shah, Yazid. If you remember, this is worse than calling someone Satan. But, Khomeini is too high of a clergy member for the SAVAK to kill. Eventually, Khomeini starts to preach via cassette tapeshe was kicked out of the country by the

Shah. Cassette tapes spread and his message spreads. He starts to instigate people against the Shah. In 1979, the violence against the Shah reaches a tipping point and the Shah decides to take a vacation. He never returns. Khomeini returned to Iran in 1979 as the new leader. Many were starting to ask if Khomeini was the 12th hidden Imam who would save the Shia from prosecution. This suggestion gave him political and religious dominance. Khomeini never affirmed nor denied this statement. This made religious fervor spread through all Shia in the world. When Khomeini came to power, people realized that they didnt was his radical Islamic state. But Khomeini never claimed to be secular. When he came to office he enacted Islamic law the best that he could. When the Shah left on his vacation, Jimmy Carter opened Americas doors for him. But the people of Iran wanted him to fa ce trial. When Jimmy Carter denied their requests, they stormed the American Embassy. Another reason they stormed the embassy was because the Prime Minister under the Shah was meeting with the secretary of state of the US. All of the aforementioned factors lead to the terrorist acts of 1979. Now, if you look at the total history of Iran and what the US has done for it, it is easier to see why they despise the US so much. But, even though they despise the US, are they an existential threat to the US? There is not one consensus; many different political groups will say different things. The first group that has an opinion on Iran is AIPAC. It is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC recently came out with a brochure that was titled A Nuclear Iran Threatens America. They state that a nuclear-capable Iran is a grave

threat to the US and it is essential that the US make as many efforts as it can to prevent Iranone of the most dangerous countries in the worldfrom having lethal weapons. They also include some examples of how a nuclear-capable Iran would impact the US. They list, that the cost of oil could skyrocket, US soldiers might face sever threats, terrorist and rogue states could be armed with nuclear weapons, there would be a nuclear arms race in the middle east, and American influence in the Middle East would be weakened. The aforementioned reasons center around a single ideaAmerican influence. AIPAC and many other groups who genuinely believe that Iran is a threat think that if Iran has a small nuclear army then America will suddenly lose all power in the Middle East. What they forget to think about is the size of the USs nuclear army. The US has the biggest nuclear stocks and could demolish any country that stands in its way. Iran simply could not rationally attack the US because it would probably lead to more Iranian lives lost than American. The second group that has an opinion is young liberals who think that Iran is not a threat to the US. They believe this because Iran has never attacked the US or anyone else for the past 270 years. They also have promised not to harm the US unless they are harmed first. They believe this because Iran is developing but still does not have a nuclear weapon; all US intelligence agencies agree that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon program. Another reason is because of self-preservation; the US simply poses as too big of a threat. Also, Iran is surrounded by 45 US bases and this just would make it impossible to live in Iran if the US wanted to attack them. This group also has some limitations in their ideas. They are a bit too apathetic. I think that Iran is a small threat to the US as with any country that has been subjected to European imperialism. European

imperialism almost always leads to terrorism, which might seem justified from the people who faced imperialism, and any kind of terrorism poses a threat to our safety. I believe that in order to deal with Iran, we have to have conversations. We need to treat Iranians like people and not fanatical extremists. We have to understand that we have made mistakes that have hardened the lives of many Iranians. If we are able to do this, then I believe that we can finally get the Iranian situation under control.

Works Cited AIPAC. "A NUCLEAR IRAN THREATENS AMERICA." AIPAC. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.aipac.org/~/media/Publications/Policy%20and%20Politics/AIPAC%2 0Analyses/Issue%20Memos/2012/03/IranThreat.pdf>. Edwards, Michael. "5 Reasons Iran Is NOT a Threat to the U.S." Infowars 5 Reasons Iran Is NOT a Threat to the US Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Mar. 2013. <http://www.infowars.com/5reasons-iran-is-not-a-threat-to-the-u-s/>.