Bombing Iran

From tmorange
Sent Friday, January 13, 2006 10:47 pm
To oreilly@foxnews.com
Subject Bombing Iran

Hey Bill O'Reilly,

Looks like you've offered us all another stroke of foreign policy genius. On the January 10 broadcast of "The Radio Factor," you stated that "it's a matter of time before the United States of America and Great Britain will have to bomb the country of Iran."

I thank God every day that you just spout stupidity and don't have any power to actually carry out your foolish and dangerous predictions. What's unfortunate, though, is how you continually impugn those who disagree with your foolishness:

     Now, the nutty left will say, "Oh, yeah, let 'em have nuclear weapons." Now
     this, ladies and gentlemen, is why you've gotta walk away from those people.
     [...] there are millions of people who believe that we, the United States, are
     the terror state. Harry Belafonte said it yesterday: We're the cause of all this."

Get serious. First of all, no liberal in their right mind thinks nuclear proliferation is a good idea, let alone in the hands of a Shiite theocracy. Second, I assume you're referring to Belafonte's recent remarks on a trip to Venezuela; I'm not going to get into at length here, because the important thing to keep in mind here, Bill, is not that "we're the cause of all this" -- which isn't what Belafonte said anyway -- but that terrorism has many faces.

To illustrate my point, it's time for a history quiz. Does the name Mossadegh mean anything to you Bill? Lemme give you a couple of hints: Iran,... 1953,... not ringing any bells for you?

Mohammed Mossadegh was the democratically-elected Prime Minister of Iran in the early 1950s and achieved a lot of his domestic popularity by leading a drive keep British (primarily, but also Soviet and American) oil companies out of Iran by nationalizing the oil industry there. Hard times ensued as a result of the embargo placed on Iranian oil exports, but Mossadegh refused to negotiate with the British. So the Brits put the bug in Eisenhower's ear that someone ought to get rid of this Mossadegh fellow. So the CIA helped fund a coup to overthrow him and replace him with Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, a moderate reformer who eventually grew autocratic and repressive by 1979. And I think maybe you know a bit of the rest...

You know I didn't know much about this either, that is until your own idiotic prediction forced me to do a little research. So thanks! I found a lot of this out at answers.com, but there's a book that I'm gonna check out now, too: All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). Check out this great interview with him too...

And then let's talk about it again soon.