Good video. Also check out http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com

Thanks. I've been meaning to pick a copy of that up for a long ass time anyway.

I always had a problem with that phrase : "The US reinstated the Shah". You feel like the Shah was a dictator who had gone for a long long time.
The truth is Mossadegh served under the Shah as prime minister. And when Mossadegh would not obey the Shah anymore, the latter quit the country for several days, until the US coup d'etat.

So it was not really a democracy. It was more like a parliamentary monarchy.

By the way, on a related note, now that the Oscars are coming near, whoever can see Marjane Satrapi's PERSEPOLIS should REALLY REALLY try to go see it. I have not seen a film that will reaffirm your faith in the human spirit so beautifully in a long, long while. Read the graphic novel first if you haven't. If there is one film that's going to matter this year cos it's good and timely, this is it.

Hey En, well said! I'm French so i got to see the movie first, it was very funny and moving.
Here's a little excerpt (still in French though):

http://comedieus.blogspot.com/2008/01/when-i-get-in-contact-with-neocons.html

Here's an English transcript:
"
Fortunately, at the French high-school, i could understand the others, and sometimes make myself clear.
_ Got a cig ?
I became the misfits' center of interest. There was Momo, Thierry, Olivier and Eve. They were fascinated by my nationality and story.
_ You went through a revolution and a war ?
_ Well yea.
_ And you saw dead people too ?
_ A few.
_ Impressive.
I was quickly part of the band. Thanks to Momo, i discovered nonchalance, forced nihilism, and the alternative Viennese life...
True, at first it was hard to get used to it. But then i thought to myself, why not...
"

Now of course the musical passage kicked ass and so i could not have a bad opinion about the film. But still, go see it.

The Shah had fled Iran the Constitutional Monarchy. When General Zahedi appointed himself Prime Minister and issued the Shah's rulings by decree, deposing the PM in a coup and inviting the Shah back to assume dictatorial power, it was rather a reinstatement, with a cherry on top and oodles of whipped Iranians.

Oh, it's an old wive's tale about yee old Kermit. And the Iranians are very much like the Greeks, unable to bear responsibility for their own political disasters, like the junta in Greece, or the tossing out of Ole Mossy in Iran, the locals find the source of their troubles in the mean ole superpower.

And unlike you clods, I have been at least as far as the Iranian border, have applied for a visa to visit (although was turned down), and intend to visit sometime this year, as the government apparently has relaxed the no-visa-for-Americans policy.

But I tell you, if their consular officers are any guide, iran really is run by a government of monkeys. During the 90s you could have seen the same thing in Yugoslavia's various embassies, just shockingly inept, corrupt and unprofessional clowns.

SHAH OF IRAN, don't YOU know that there HAD to be a lot of people wanting to put their hands on his throat.

xyz, is there nothing you can't do? you have a job, you've watched a movie once, and you've almost gone to iran! when you manage to construct a single coherent argument the final piece will be in place and you will be elevated to godhood

And the Iranians are very much like the Greeks, unable to bear responsibility for their own political disasters, like the junta in Greece, or the tossing out of Ole Mossy in Iran

I'm gonna repeat it slowly cause it sounds so insane.

The Iranians

are unable to bear responsibility

for the tossing out of Mossadegh.

"The Iranians" "tossed out" Mossadegh.

The Iranian population is young and well educated.

The Iranian country and culture are splendors few others can rival. Iran is a peaceful nation. It is also fiercely independent, as Parsi points out.

It is precisely this independence [financial, notably] and beauty that irritates the two, young, wholly unattractive countries that seek to destroy it, while on their way to encircling and controlling Russia and China.

Iran is the last puzzle piece standing in the way of control of Russia's entire southern flank and the energy-rich Caspian basin.

Iran represents a threat to no one, but looks to be slated for sacrifice on the altar of Western industrial economic "growth", by way of protection of the 'Western way of life'.

Have we no shame? Lost all sense of measure and morality?

Nothing can justify the present vilification of Iran.