It is said that Iran was a free, democratic country before the Iranina revolution in 1978. Do you remeber the death of Mahsa Amini? Last Septembe, she was arrested by so-called the morality police for not covering her hair properly and later died (or was killed) while she was in custody. The other day, a 16-year-old girl was hospitalized in Iran after she entered a subway car with her hair uncovered, and left the same car unconscious. The morality police officers severely physically assaulted the girl for allegedly not abiding by the country’s dress code. That's a theocracy for you.

@Ryo1 Um, no, it was a military dictatorship that the US installed in 1953, before then it was a democracy.

@Druvius Oops, OK.

@Druvius That is correct but because this sore had been festering for many years finally the people had had enough. Khomeini had been exiled in France and saw his chance. Unfortunately, with a lot of revolutions, people don't have a plan beforehand and they ended up even worse than before (I was married to an Iranian woman who saw it all). Remember, if you go into something half-cocked you are likely to get screwed and not in a good way.

@jackjr For sure, but Washington likes to pretend that Iranian history starts with the 1979 revolution, and ignore the 26 years of dictatorship under an American installed tyrant that paved the way for the revolution.

@Druvius And why did the USA install the Shah? To benefit American oil companies. It was ALL about money.

@Flyingsaucesir Yes, Iran was going to nationalize their oil companies. And here we are 80 years later and American oil along with it's evil twin American war profiteers still control Washington at terrible cost to America and the world. Never have so few profited so much at the expense of so many.

@Druvius The big problem is, yes, the instilled Shah was a tyrant but, under his rule, people were mainly westernized. My late partner talked of having a variety of non Muslim friends and wearing western clothing. Life was good for the average Iranian. We once met an Iranian who lived in Geneva. He was a journalist and imprisoned in Iran for something he wrote. After he was released he published names of other political prisoners in his prison and was re-arrested. When the revolution came he was set free but saw where things were going and left to Switzerland. He learned French and is now a journalist there.
Without a direction, one can only expect things to get worse. Problem is that is exactly where the Republican party is taking us right now. They operate on the simple tactic of blame.

One thing people do not know is how big Iran is. It is easily twice the size of France. It has 70+ million people. Outside of oil it has few natural resources, certainly not enough to support it's huge population. Under the sanctions imposed because of djt the country is suffering.

@Druvius @flyingsaucer
My late partner lived in a city on the Persian Gulf known as Abadan [en.wikipedia.org] In 1953 it was the site of the world's largest oil refinery (my late partner's father worked there). Because of that refinery the U.S. and British military were there. When the existing Shah tried to privatize it is when he had to go. A man named Kermit Roosevelt created the scenario where that Shah was deposed.

Makes a change from giving it to the likes of Obama thing Kissinger

And then what? To these thugs nothing that the west does is good. If one wants someone to blame blame djt for pulling us out of the nuclear deal and bringing sanctions on the country.