shatranj is the parsee word for chess. they invented it…….
1979 seems so long ago. it was jimmy carter and the shah vrs the ayatollah like something out of a horror movie that made the headlines.
then reagan reset the agendum removing human rights and détente as part of policy as promoted by the carter admin. , and resuming cold war commitments and flirtations with even the most odious third world dictators.
yesterday I mentioned peak oil in iraq.. some people suggest that iran’s oil is about to run out as well. why else has the infrastructure not been renewed???? this would also explain the recent hardline crackdown by the government. the ayatollahs and mullahs have been cushioned with oil revenues in whatever they have for a parliament. maybe they know something we are only guessing at.
i kinda wonder what happens to the economy of iran when the oil peaks. the ’79 revloution was extremely popular not so much because the iranians so wanted an ayatollah though many certainly did..…. it was because the shah of iran held power by terrorising them with torture and patronage. he was, in short, as brutal a dictator as the americans have sponsored. (and that is really saying something.) some 2000 peaceful protestors were gunned down by the shah’s goons in one sitting alone in ’78. carter and his agents had moved the wrong peice. it was a continuation of bad play . . America should have sought to work with mosaddeq a generation earlier, not destroy him.
the major difference now is that there is no cold war framework
that was the backdrop in 1979….. America has also just begun to dismantle its bush/reagan doctrine legacy that has held it in thrall/ horrified fascination since the apparent failure of carters policy at that time. he was checkmated. a new game began.
now there is not even a hint of justification of us involvement despite all the guff about nuclear weapons nor can i think of any politician in America who would try advocating another war in the middle east right now….
oh how the board has been re-arranged.!!!
among the states of the modern world iran has few friends. it was alienated throughout the ottoman period... it has become very introspective only recently having rebuilt its populace from the devastation initiated by genghis khan in the 13th century.. (seriously) (read wiki if you need figures)
like the rest of the muslim world iran seems to me to be in acute need of re-arranging some of its fundamentals---marginalising some features and bringing others into full text. (this despite their obvious skill on the board.)
this will only happen when a rapprochement with so called sunni islam is central to its agenda (and vice-versa). the way for this may open up faster than anyone expects. (just a thought) .. there only need be some minor adjustments on both sides if you think positively about it..
the alternatives maybe grim indeed. at best iran could be headed towards the status of just one more central-asian (basket-case) republic. that is one possible future..
there are others…. very difficult to know. it makes me feel slightly sympathetic towards carter for his amateurish game of shatranj.
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