In Solidarity with the People of Iran

About 10,000 people filled Civic Center Plaza last Saturday, July 25th to demonstrate their support for the people of Iran who are dealing with what appears to be a stolen presidential election and the autocratic rule of its religious authorities. This was one of hundreds of rallies held in cities around the world, mostly led by Iranian exiles who are making it very clear that they are not looking for any military action by the United States or anybody else.



Iran's civilization is one of the oldest continuous cultures in the world (about 7,000 B.C.), and because of its geographical location, it is no stranger to invasions, wars, and geopolitical struggles. The 19th Century was when they were raped by Russia and Britain, culminating in the country's occupation by those powers during both World War One and Two.



Its more current tormentors have been the United States in conjunction with Britain, who deposed the popular prime minister Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953 because he nationalized the Iranian oil fields. He was replaced by the reinstated Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was thrown out of the country during a popular revolution in 1978. This was followed by the twin disasters of Ayatollah Khomeini and his theocratic government, and the attack by Iraq's Saddam Hussein which initiated an eight-year war (1980-1988) that killed over a million Iranian citizens, many of them with American-supplied chemical weapons.



Currently complicating matters are the presence of bellicose politicians in Israel and their allies in the United States who believe it's fine to have "unacknowledged" nuclear weapons in Israel but it would somehow be a disaster in Iran. Their public threats have been sounding more lunatic all the time. Iran is also the epicenter of two cursed but god-given resources, oil and opium poppies, that are the lifeblood of far too many powerful interests in the world, both legitimate (such as the CIA) and criminal. I pray for their safety.