Pictory

Payed Supporter

Those who supported Shah in his last days are supporting the IR also in their last days. Lets look for better days where we are not drived by others.

History repeats itself. It seems that dictators don't read

history. It would save us much trouble if they did.

RP:

How great things were before the Shah?? That is the real question.

نصیحت سعدی به سرگرد

و بقیه آنهایی که فکر می کنند می توانند با چند کلمه دروغ سر بقیه شیره بمالند.

هر که گوید کلاغ چون باز است

نشنوندش که دیده ها باز است

And Marge...

I never said that the Shah was 'wonderful' and 'amazing' (your sophomoric description of my argument), as all I said was the following: how about we, the people of Iran, accept a modicum of responsibility for our dismal state of affairs.

We, the people, played a very important hand in the revolution, yet you almost always blame our current miseries on the Shah. Not only is that patently unfair, as it was not the Shah's desire to be overthrown -- the people got royally suckered into exchanging a Shah for a Sheikh. And how did that turn out for us???

How hard is it to finally admit that we, the people, got massively played and fooled by the mullahs?

And how patently ridiculous is it for us to blame our present miseries on the same guy that we, the people, voluntarily removed 30 years ago? Three decades have passed, but instead of blaming Khomeini, Khamenei, Rafsanjani and co., or god forbid our idiotic selves, we, the people, the superstitious tools that got royally fooled, or at least some of us, still blame the man that we categorically humiliated, vilified, and destroyed in 1979!

If this is not utterly 100% asinine, it surely is worthy of the old proverb that people deserve the government they get. 

the military

Look at all those army men. There seems to be more of them than pro-Shah demonstrators.

Compare that to the tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators in Tehran last week. Not an army man in sight. See the photos for yourself:

//www.farsnews.com/imgrep.php?nn=8810091747

Where's the military in this so-called military dictatorship? Nowhere in these pics, that's for sure. 

Ghadimi, are you lucid?

"are we such an unfortunate people that we can only choose between mollahs and shahs?

What the hell does this have to do wih anything? We're talking about the 1979 revolution -- a revolution that involved an exiled ayatollah and a reigning king -- that's why we're talking about the Shah and a mullah. If you want to criticize, at least deliver an intelligent criticism. 

If we were talking about the 2008 US presidential race, we'd be talking about Obama and McCain. Of course, you would jump in and say, "are we such an unfortunate people that we can only choose between republicans and democrats?"

While one may be able to make that very valid point in another setting, in this blog we're specifically discussing a pro-Shah rally in Isfahan during the 1978 revolution. Would you rather we discuss President Sarkozy or Obama as their respective roles pertain to this topic? 

chomagh via the internet

those who resort to name-calling and bullying tactics to get their point across don't have a legitimate reasoning for their claims.  just look at what the iri thugs are doing now.  are we such an unfortunate people that we can only choose between mollahs and shahs?  

ok ramin. you are right. shah was amazing and wonderful ladeeda

life is so great. shah was so great. let's just live on memories and nostalgia. and bless him til we die. call me all the names you want ramin. i don't care. 

we are weak and divided people and that's all I learn from iranian.com and these political discussions. you are right and god bless you.

mwah,

terrible marge.

One more thing, FAULT-LESS Marge...

As I wrote elsewhere... Iranians in 1979 were monumentally ignorant, if not pawns. How about taking a measure of blame for our mind-boggling stupidity? After all, these moronic dahatis in 1978 actually claimed in large numbers to have seen Khomeini's face on the MOON!!!

Not to mention that a great majority of our nation had fallen hook line and sinker for Khomeini's populist message: free gas, free electricity, free water, free bus fare, share of the oil profits, etc.

The masses won the revolution for the turbaned Devil and came out in droves to greet him on Feb. 1, 1979 in large part because the dahati jackasses (the bulk of the nation) were foaming at the mouth, dreaming about all the delicious goodies that the turbaned Santa Clause was about to bring for them.

In retrospect, the masses fell for Khomeini's "campaign-like" promises, not because they knew of him or his writings, but because they didn't want to MISS THE BOAT on all the fabulous goodies offered by the "Iranian Gandhi," a moniker that was given to Khomeini by the west and their lackeys in the western media.

Intelligent people very routinely forget the tremendous lure and appeal of Khomeini's populist message, i.e., empty promises, as in fool's gold. It was not so much "Islam" that the masses outside of Qom were clamoring for, nor even the idea of democracy, or freedom for that matter, but rather, free gas and free electricity! 

The massively ignorant populace, the backbone of the revolution, had as much use for democracy as a pig does for a diamond neckless! But they sure could use a percentage of the oil profits and maybe some free electricity!

Khengs and Khaens, all of them! So, how about accepting some blame, Marge, all of us, for where we are today? Oh, no, it's so much easier to just blame ONE MAN for all of our problems! 

Pathetic.

Marge, the typical blame-less, fault-less Iranian...

The Shah was one man, a very sick man in 1978. He even admitted he had made mistakes in August 1978, a bit too late I might add. But have you the courage and the intellectual capacity to address our nation's long-standing short-comings, separate from the Shah?

The Pahlavis were in power for a very short 53 years! I bet you're almost 50 years old yourself! It's nothing! Our nation was mismanaged for over 1,000 years, thanks to corrupt and lazy kings and mullahs. But we only remember the short-comings of the Pahlavi Dynasty! How pathetic! In 1908, when America and the west had trains, planes and automobiles, we in Iran didn't even have a freaking bicycle! We got our first in 1909, and it was a freaking import!

The Hippie/Marxist/Hezbo youth of the '70's who thought they had all the answers to all the problems in the world, a bunch of uber khengs and khaens, couldn't care less about HOW FAR we had come as a nation in a very short 53 years, but all they could do -- day and night! -- was wax poetically about HOW FAR we had to go in order to achieve this or that Utopia state! 

Yes, the Shah made some critical mistgakes, but his intentions were noble, which is far more than I can say for the IRI rapists. After the oil prices were quadrupled in 1973, thanks in huge measure to the Shah's aggressive oil policies, the whole world was against the man, including his long-time western benefactors. Did the Shah handle this situation well? Of course not! A barrel of oil was ONE DOLLAR in 1951, it was $3 in 1972, and $12 in 1974. Do you have any idea what kind of powerful enemies you make when you're the leader of a third-world nation trying to dicatate oil terms to the rest of the world?

This was a huge mistake on his part. Just like Mossadegh, the Shah failed to properly gauge the enormity of the stakes involved, vis-a-vis oil and the world economy. That's where his critical mistake lies, because Khomeini and his black revolution would've never materialized without massive western support.

In retrospect, the Shah only had 5 years of OPEC market-value dollars for Iran's oil, while the mullahs have enjoyed 30 years of fair-market value dollars for Iran's oil and the nation is in far worse shape than in 1978, and yet, we're still harping about the Shah!

Pathetic.

WOW check out my car from 0:09 - 0:12 Still running!

Everything is sacred.

DK and I Have ... Alex Trebek

This would make a great script for a sci-fi movie or perhaps a novel:

Somebody (not Marge Simpson...) goes back to 1977 by a time machine and gives the Shah a few key advice to abort the upcoming revolution. Then he/she goes back to 2010 and sees a different empire, a logical extension of 1950-1977 developments.

Shah

instead of this bs approach, shah should have done his job

what a sad sight. he always hid behind this sort of nonsense. as much as I hate him now, I would give anything to go back in time and knock some damn sense into him to stop from abandoning Iran to jackals. That is the trouble with monarchy. When the king is stupid, the people suffer. 

Regardless,

God bless the man, God bless the Shah, God bless his soul. He clearly made mistakes and he was too proud, but the man loved Iran, and didn't put his religion above his homeland.

The man was a nationalist, who made mistakes in trying to modernize an incredibly backward and superstitious country. He could've easily rested in his palaces, expanded his harams in the order of the lazy Qajars, and kissed the hand of every influential ayatollah in Iran and Reza Pahlavi would be king today.

Instead, the Shah tried to change the monumentally dismal status quo, and whenever you try to change anything in life, you make some serious enemies. And in Iran, there are no more serious enemies than the reactionary Ulama. In fact, if you're honest with yourself you'll appreciate that the real revolution in 20th century Iran was the Pahlavi Dynasty, which would make the 1979 uprising a counter-revolution.

Nobody's perfect. Rastakhiz Party was a mistake. Other mistakes were made in handling the oil boom economy. And yet, if there is a heavan, the Shah is up there in good company. And if there is a Hell, Khomeini's down there with his maker. Of this, I'm certain.

جاوید چماق

که همه را آدم می کند

All power corrupts

And absolute power corrupts absolutely! Baleh, JJ khan ;-)

ژیان

It seems that the home-made version of Citroën 2CV (French: deux chevaux vapeur, literally "two steam horses"), named "Zhyaan", was very popular back then in Isfahan. 

so what?

as a kid, i was rounded up with my classmates to stand by the side of the street (the entire day with no bathroom facilities) to watch shah and his family pass us with tainted windows.  i hope someone doesn't brand me as pro-shah.  and i hope at least shah and the organizers of the event got some value out of it.

The change must come from the top and from the bottom

Hope we'll never have leaders who arm us with chomaagh...

and I hope we'll never have fellow Iranians, who'll be willing to be armed with chomaagh...!

کیش کیش چماقدار؛

آخه این مردم بیچاره از کجا مخالفان شاه را می شناختند که با چماقهای اهدایی ساواک شیشه هایشان را بشکنند؟ چه کسانی پایه گذار سنت نا مبارک چماقداری بودند؟ گویاتر از این سندی هست؟

what a beautiful Iran

even the air was beautiful, people children innocent.what mosters came out of revolution. sorry movakelam khaabeh

Progress?

I wonder if they got Sundis and cake too, or just a big stick. They used to truck them in, now they use air-conditioned buses.

They probably got paid!

They probably got paid to get trucked from outside the city into Esfehan. Not too different than what's happening today.

Same crowd that were yelling 'shashid shah" now yelling

velayate fajih.

Mehrdad

مرگ بر خلق ِ خدا

زنده باد آدم ِ با شعور

It is interesting how this crowd and the Basijis of today look and act the same

JJ diddo

very well said.

Amazing...

... how history repeats itself, how people in power lose their grip and resort to all sorts of desperate measures that make them look even weaker and more ridiculous.