Opinion: CIA Admits to Overthrowing Iran

Last week the CIA admitted that it overthrew Iran’s government in 1953. The most surprising thing about this disclosure is that nobody seems surprised by it.Nobody was shocked to hear that the U.S. overthrew another government. Everyone seems to be accustomed to the U.S. trespassing into other countries’ politics by now. Back when the U.S. at least pretended to respect the sovereignty of other nations, it would avoid overt military intervention and use covert means instead. In the case of 1953 Iran, secret agents were dispatched to depose the democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh.But nobody is floored by proof that the U.S. subverts democracy around the world, despite its claims to promote democracy. In this case, democracy was twice betrayed since the coup was plotted behind the backs of American citizens. Even though Mosaddegh was elected to office democratically, U.S. officials and Anglo-businesspeople overruled democracy and installed a brutal government that they chose undemocratically.But nobody is fazed by news that the U.S. would install a brutal regime after it overthrew a democratic government. That old-hat tactic was employed when the U.S. installed Pinochet in Chile, Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, Sadat in Egypt, Mobutu in the Congo, Batista in Cuba, Somoza in Nicaragua, the Duvaliers in Haiti, Marcos in the Philippines, and several more, including Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in Iran following Mosaddegh’s overthrow, and all at the behest or blessing of corporate interests.But nobody was taken aback to learn that corporate interests can drive U.S. policy, nor was anybody aghast to hear that the U.S. would intrude into foreign governments on behalf of corporations. In this particular circumstance British Petroleum (BP) was the key company that insisted on overthrowing democracy after learning about Mosaddegh’s plan to nationalize the oil company’s holdings so the revenues would help Iran’s people rather than enriching western businessmen and fueling Britain’s military.But nobody is balled over by the fact that the U.S. overthrew a government in the Middle East for oil-related reasons. The recent debacle in Iraq prepared everyone for that news, given that U.S. officials lied about Saddam possessing weapons of mass destruction and lied about Iraq being an Al-Qaeda stronghold in order to defraud Iraq out of its own oil revenues. Back in the Cold War days, if a country’s leader refused to lease their natural resources to North Atlantic businesses, that leader was called a ‘communist.’But nobody is surprised to get word that U.S. leaders panicked and overreacted to rumors that Mosaddegh was a communist, even though Mosaddegh claimed to be opposed to communism and socialism. Neither is anybody shocked to discover more evidence which further proves that the U.S. is a bully state that wants to rearrange the world to its own advantage. Nobody is shocked to see that the talents of low-level CIA workers had once again been exploited by senior-level CIA officials and used for unsportsmanlike conduct. Nobody was shaken by the fact that Eisenhower, everybody’s favorite ‘military-industrial-congressional complex’ guy, was fully onboard with the corporate-state-CIA complex, as is President Barack Obama, as was President George W. Bush, as was President Bill Clinton, as was President George H.W. Bush, as was President Ronald Reagan, as was President Jimmy Carter, ad nauseam until 1947. The public is now so accustomed to CIA chicanery that nobody would likely be surprised by recent revelations that the CIA purposely bombs rescue workers and funeral mourners in Pakistan.The disclosure of CIA crimes against Iran does, however, create the illusion that the U.S.’s dirty secrets need not be exposed by whistleblowers since the U.S. will eventually declassify that information to the public anyway. Who needs Edward Snowden when the government will tattle on itself? This disclosure also creates the illusion that Iran’s overthrow was an isolated rarity rather than being part of a broader postwar program that included at least 30 CIA/military interventions in democratic elections, many of which resulted in total overthrow.It is worth noting that even though the CIA confessed to overthrowing Iran, the agency didn’t apologize for overthrowing Iran. For a nation that talks a lot about desiring international stability, the U.S. sure does a lot to destabilize the international scene.Sometimes it’s hard to recognize illegal aggression, since it’s now referred to as ‘foreign policy.’ Sometimes it’s hard to recognize overthrow, since it now goes by the name of ‘regime change.’ Sometimes it’s hard to recognize imperialism, since it’s now called ‘nation-building.’