The Shah was no Boy-scout. In fact, he was an a**hole.
Maybe instead the Persians read some Jefferson, or Locke, or Madison, or heck, even Burr. Look to men like Washington, Admas, Jay, Lee, or Jeff Davis and decide that they don't want to be a bunch of friggin ants cowing to a bunch of asshats. Maybe they should start acting like 21st-century HUMANS instead of cavemen.
Imposing some cake-eating dink on Persia because his dad was the former tyrant-in-charge is not the answer.
Only the Persians can get the entire world out of this can-of-worms.
The Shah was "no boyscout", but he was trying to modernize Iran. He ruled with an iron hand, but how else can you deal with the radical Muslim elements, like the Ayatolla. The Shah was too kind, he should have executed the Ayatollah, instead of merely exiling him.
The Shah, as part of his "White Revolution" allowed women to vote, hold jobs, in general tried to secularize the country and bring it into the 20th century.
The Ayatollahs, took it back to the stone age, as the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.
The Shah was also a very reliable friend to the US and the West in general.
The Shah may have been no Boy Scout, but he was our non-Boy Scout, and he was vastly more democratic than what replaced him.
When you are dealing with a bunch of nimrods who think that the appropriate response to the rape of a sister is to murder the sister...well, the Boy Scout Handbook doesn't have a chapter on how to deal with people like that. The Shah was trying to bring Iran into the modern age, and certain elements of Iranian society needed to be beaten into the modern age.
Why not allow the Iranians to figure that one out for themselves?
We've helped create enough problems in that region during the last century, hopefully we've learned our lesson.
The Shah was not the moron as the media portrayed him.
He was a staunch anti-communist and that got him slandered in the media. The revolution was started by the Soviets, not the students. Khomenie took it over.
While the Shah killed some political enemies numbering under 3000, Khomenie killed 300,000 his first two years. The Shah's political enemies were Soviet backed revolutionaries, not average citizens opposed to strict Islamic rules.
"The Shah was no Boy-scout. In fact, he was an a**hole"
I'd love to know on what facts you base this? The MSM acting in concert with Jimmy the Idiot Carter to blacken the man because he refused to pay Carter blackmail/exortion?
How long did you live in Iran - if ever?
Did you watch it grow in less than a generation from a country with only 40 kilometers of paved highway into a prosperous, thriving state? Under the guidance of the late Shah and despite oppositon of the flea-ridden Mullahs, the Soviets and Western oil interests which wanted to monopolize Iran's oil?
Based on what personal knowledge and experience do you speak?
You have the right to spout nonsense but do try to base it on a tiny bit of fact not the MSM or young, idealistic but naive left wing opposition acquaintances you may have had or met at college that you ran into and took their word as gospel.
Or have the pro-Mullah lobbyists like AIC, who pretend to be trying to create friendship between Islamic Iran and America but in reality plug the Mullah line managed to spin you into orbit?
Good grief!
The guy doesn't sound like he wants to be Ivan the Terrible. I don't see anything wrong with Muslim dictatorships becoming constitutional monarchies. If France had become a constitutional monarchy after their Revolution, I'm sure they would have had happier 19th and 20th centuries.
compared to the fascists in charge, the Shah was a Saint.
an autocrat for sure, however, the endless good he did for Iran can not be forgotten.
the clerical regime has the blood of at least 100,000 young iranians on its hands.
Javid Shah.