Vasspaan

VPK

The Shah was no saint. He was indeed a dictator, albeit benevolent by recent standards. He made some mind boggling stupid (nay, idiotically insane) mistakes that cost all of us in the end. And he took on the real enemy (i.e. Britian, the US and the European elite) way to early and long before he was (and we were) actually ready to do so. The man was also immensely confused psychologically and ambivalent within and about himself and his role, which was probably the root cause of his cancer that did him in finally. My proof of his inner ambivalence is the manner in which he let everything go and just walked away!

My biggest beef with him is that he actually could've made his peace and backed Mossadeq in the early '50s and joined him in telling the limey bastards where to go! And the fact is that much of the White Revolution were policies that Mossadeq and the National Front were attempting to pursue anyway. Believe it or not, and given his White Revolution, I believe the Shah simultaneously envied, reviled and harbored shame vis-a-vis Mossadeq.

Again, things did not have to turn out the way they did, and they did turn out the way they did primarily because the Shah had bad advisors all around him and was consistently being given bad advice from all directions (esp. from the Yanks), and worst of all the man didn't have any solid and penetrating intuition, savvy and gumption of his own (like his father did) to be able to see through the BS around him and do something concrete about it. Add to that the fact that the Anglo-European elite was absolutely aghast in absolute terror (ya'ni tokhmashun jama'an joft shodeh bud) from the Shah's "great civilization" project,  that would have effectively displaced European economic and political hegemony had it succeeded, and the picture begins to emerge. As such the Shah was a great visionary but his implementation sucked and so he shot himself and the rest of us in the foot as a result of the bad implementation!

He could've pursued these modernizing projects and not gone and stuck his tongue out at the Anglo-European elite until we were actually there ready to do it without repercussions -- at which point we would all have joined him, not to mention the rest of Eurasia (including the Israelis -- imagine that, Israel, the Arabs and the rest of Eurasia in perfect working solidarity with Iran against Western economic hegemony!). He didn't have to hold ridiculous celebrations for 2,500 years of monarchy without inviting the Iranian people to such celebrations. He didn't have to found the Rastakhiz/dastaviz party and make himself and his plans appear kooky and ridiculous to even the most goo-goo eyed court sycophant like Asadu'llah Alam.

In short, the man simply couldn't make up his mind whether he wanted to be a modernizing potentate or some 20th century Ideological Helmsman like Mao or Stalin. The sycophancy, lies and false adoration got to his head and because he was at core a psychological sissy and bacheh-naneh, he ended up sacrificing the people of Iran as a whole on the altar of his own gigantic royal screw-up!

But that said, however screwed up Iran was under the Pahlavi regime and the Shah, and however screwed up the Shah himself was, that regime was a blessing and the best available situation/opportunity for Iran at that time (a golden opportunity squandered so badly it makes one cry tears of blood!) and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi the best possible leader for that time given the options. If people believe otherwise, the 30 year report-card of the Islamic republic is there for all to see! And besides, this whole nuclear policy of the IRI that the West has (rightfully at this point) turned into Osman's-torn-shirt, was the same policy pursued by the Shah! So even the infernal IRI has been forced to follow in the Shah's footsteps, which is what he explicitly predicted would happen in Answer to History.

But we, as a people, also hold an immense amount of blame and responsibility for the greatest hoodwinking in our national history by even giving some black mullah the time of the day. Hadn't people learned during the Constitutional Revolution, in 1925 and in 1953 that the mullahs as an establishment are shifty and duplicitous hypocrites and liars that are never to be trusted as a political bloc, let alone to change one of our leaders to their preference?

Marg bar ma keh goftim marg bar Shah!

Thanks for the compliment. These ideas from our Mazdaean ancestors are truly profound and deep, and they occur throughout all eras of Iranian spirituality, whether in the pre-,  in the Islamic and  insha'Llah in the post-Islamic period as well. To me they are ideas that transcend any specific creed because they express the soul of Iranianity (iraniyat) that itself can take on any religious form or even discard them altogether!

Redirected debate

Please be advised that our friendly debate over the issue of nationality has not ended here. Nuri asked me to move over to his next blog which was on the question of who would go back to Iran ..., you might as well want to read that far.

Nur I agree with you again!?

Hey what is going on? I find myself agreeing mostly with Nur. The Shah was right on most issues you mention maybe on all of them.

Now for my little personal rant:

I would gladly trade his regime for Khomeini's garbage. Sure he was a dictator. But if not for the revolution I would 99% likely be back in Iran right now. So would a lot of us.

BTW, Nur you are a very "Forootan" man! Specially with regard to your ancestry :-)

Fozoolee mawqoof

Ay mard ya zan-i-hesabi, boro donbaleh kar o kasebit o enghadar fozoolee beejaah nakon. Haalaa motma'in shodi?

Now answer my challenge, here. And FYI educated people do not call the Persian language Farsi in English in the same way that we don't call the German language Deutch in English.

Zemn-i-sohbat, lotfan shomareh-ye hesab-i-banki keh qablan farmoodid  be ma bee-zahmat er'a-e konid. Mamnun!

A challenge, literally

Then prove me wrong by answering in Farsi. It's that simple.

To the person needing to get a life

To the person who posted this blog

You don't have to be a monarchist. How can you be? But you have been hired to be a mouthpiece for the monarchists. Don't worry, everyone has to make a living. A simple question about your real national loyalty made you uncharacteristically nervous. Rest assured, I never had, and I don't have any ill will towards you. Good luck and, goodbye.

Ya'll need to remember

Those who have not learned from the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them again because the past exists in the present and potentially in the future as well.

Here's what a good German friend of mine whose been dead for about a 109 years now has to to say about the eternal reoccurrence of the same. Nietzsche writes,

"What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you, `This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence - even this spider and this moon-light between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!' Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him, `You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!'"

It's all about the Green Movement Now

Everything that I may have wanted to say here, has been said by others - except:

-Holly USA, I am pretty sure you are lying.   You started this lie some time ago and never stopped. 

- MRP is gone - we as a nation are in deep trouble - All of us as well as Reza Pahlavi must do all we can to salvage Iran for the great new generation of Iranians.   Thank god this generation does not have many self proclaimed itellectual comrads, who have nothing to offer any society except lipservice. 

they were wrong then and they are wrong today

The so called “intellectuals” of 1979 should have known better than to give khomeini the legitimacy and credibility that he lacked. They have been proved wrong. The previous regime not only had the capacity for reform, but was also prepared to hand over power to one of its opponents in the shape of Bakhtiar.

How ironic that those same people who advocated total revolution against a reform-able regime, today advocate patience and reform (= appeasement) in the face of the barbarity that is the Islamic republic and their very own creation.

They were wrong then and they are wrong today and Iranian people know better than to take any notice of them.

Since When!?

Since when the  commis and all those traitors that gave part of Iran to USSR and helped  khomeini and his thugs to come to power have become visionaries and consider themselves wise?

We do not need to go tofar to find out all about you wise guys.Your participation in 1979 and being fed by unknown  sources to finish the job ordered by your masters is already known..Tell me which one of you guys had a headquarter in USSR?Which one of you had a headquarter in China?

Namely followed Mao and Stalin ,Lenin Trotski but you all lived in comfort of west .

Wasn't Tude Party that sold all other groups and shook KHomeini's hand  to elimiate other rivals?

It is really hard to believe you people still dare to show up and tell us who is dreaming and who  really knows the best to take Iran and Iranian to the next level. I am sure , you are not them. 

My worst fear is that you people be used to  make the way for another  30 or 40 yrs of tyranny and treason . I hope that is not the plan and you are not making deals behind people's back. My worst fear is that all this sacrifise and courage of young Iranian and their family to make a just and better society be stolen again by bunch of outsiders and different kind of Mullahs.

I couldn’t have said it better than comrade Souri ,

I couldn’t have said it better than comrade Souri , Disillusioned cult followers do not have any other political value, so they just compare "today" to "yesterday". That's the only thing they could do. And yesterday for them, means dreams they lost to khomeini.Second, those among them who consider themselves "the politically informed  people" are mostly from a social category who hoped to enjoy the fame and fortune which Islamic Republic system should had brought to them. Now, they have NOTHING but empty words.The majority of these people, are the delusional nostalgic people who will never wake up from their long Revolutionary dream. But, you must realize that they are just dreaming and enjoy to talk loud when they are sleeping.The more you talk to them and try to convince them to the contrary, the more they take themselves in serious and they will believe in their dream.Let them sleep and enjoy their dream. Who cares? They did it for so many years and as you see they failed to do anything positive, even to make a good memory of the past for the new generation.There's no harm. They can't harm Iranian and they can't even touch Iran's future anymore. You know well, that the Iranian inside the country, don't give a rat to these hoopla traitors or their plans.Then what's the fuss?Let them be. They are happy this way. They will always be happy to chew this illusion, and make loud noises every time there's an event in Iran.We all know that the rise of the young Iranian, have nothing to do with their propaganda, not even with all the "zendeh baad or mordeh baad" that we do hear in the West.Then why to waist so much time on these folks? Do you ever talk to the sleep-walkers, and trying to convince them?

MasoudA, I agree with you (corrected post)

masoudA says: "Not many people wer directly hurt by the Pahlavis"

Not only that, but also very many fewer people were hurt by Shah's regime indirectly. All of IRI factions(including the green leaders) per their own admission are responsible for creation of a system that is way much more corrupt than Shah's regime, and has widened the gap between rich and the poor to an appalling level.

Having said that, I am not, and have never been A monarchist.

Souri khanom, I have never indicated or implied in any way that I agree with you on everything..... 

souri jaan

thank you. Out of respect for you and this blog and the state of turmoil our hamvatans are in right now i will not dahan be dahan with this  mojoud.

Kharmagas

No.

Your regime and Savak has made the Shah's look 100 times better!

The Montazeri letter to Khomeini, which cost him succession as the new Velayat Faghieh.

Bollywood movies (to KouroshS)

Not sure why you think I look at that negatively! That soap op reminded me of Bollywood movies, where all of a sudden a bunch of people are dancing right by a busy highway!

Anyhow, going back to the topic, can you go beyond correction of my spelling and illuminate us with sharing your thoughts on the subject of this blog.

Bache ha bache ha (Kourosh and Kharmagas)

Please don't !

Stop your lantaraani against each other. Sometimes it is funny, but not today and not in this way.

I love both of you, you are both very smart with a great sense of humor. But the way you started today, will finish very bad and we won't like to miss any one of you for a few days again :0)

Kharmagas jan: Please do not continue "sokhan parakani" about two respected members of the site. Mr Fateh's joke was of a very bad taste. Please you, don't continue on that theme.

Respectfully,

"Here is the bottom line: we all a..."

Being a "monarchist" VS. being a "Pahlavist" and of course a lot of other bunch in between; that's what really sets us apart.

Khardagh shodeye aziz

"you" are what happened to it.

Anymore questions?

thnaks bAnoo Sheeshaki (kS)

Yes, I didn't check the work of the spell checker. It should have been appalling. BTW, what happened to your soap op with Hollow?

Marhoom banoo jan

Not that i ever doubt your Positions as the "Atabake azam" or is it Atabake Ozma in your case? on iranian politics or anything. But baby jan. How can the "widened gap"betwen the rich and the poor ever be appealing??

May be you meant to say "appalling" ? A minor form of your mind not meeting eye to eye with your pretty fingers? gotta work on it bro.

Here is the bottom line: we

Here is the bottom line: we all are watching those pictures. For all we know, those individuals demonstrating hand in hand, can be Muslim, Christian, Jew, republican, monarchist, communist, mojahed etc. And if we were there, we were joining them, being Muslem, Christian, Jew, republican, monarchist.....

And of-course, we here, have the liberty to express our personal preferences. Defending its substance. This doesn't negate the other.

This is what clearly set apart those who put their personal vendetta before the interest of Iran, bullying those who have different preferences, rather than exploring their own.

MasoudA, I agree with you

"Not many people wer directly hurt by the Pahlavis"

Not only that, but also very many fewer people were hurt by Shah's regime indirectly. All functions of IRI (including the green leaders) per their own admission are responsible for creation of a system that is way much more corrupt than IRI, and has widened the gap between rich and poor to an appealing level.

Having said that, I am not, and have never been A monarchist.

دعوا ناموسی در پاناما

Just to be accurate: It was Omar Torrijos of Panama and not Manuel Noriega. 

The Pahlavis and all mullahs must disclose the source and the amount of their wealth.

Thanks Souri

I just think that we should look forward and not backward.  This bickering is just divisive and a gift to the mullahs.

Dear Anonymous Observer

I appreciated and enjoyed your very wise comments (the last one and specially the one before)

Thank you for being an unbiased and impartial observer! Happy New Year :)

Marge

so what?  let's assume that everything you say is correct.  He's been dead and irrelevant for the past 30 years.  if you want to go back and criticize Iran's past rulers, why don't you just go all the way and begin with the Elamite Empire?

Why every single event in Iran should turn to a debate on RP?

Dear Marge,

I agree with every single word you said. But there's something you miss here.You must choose your audience and the lecture you are going to give them. Almost %90 of the readers in this website, are pro Pahlavi.These people, are for most part, the apolitical persons who came to the West, after the "mis fortunate" revolution in Iran.

First, they do not have any other political value, so they just compare "today" to "yesterday". That's the only thing they could do. And yesterday for them, means Monarchy.

Second, those among them who consider themselves "the politically informed  people" are mostly from a social category who enjoyed the wealth and comfort which Pahlavi system had brought to them. Now, they have almost the same wealth in this side of the world but, they do not have the "fame" which they had in Iran.

The majority of these people, are the delusional nostalgic people who will never wake up from their 30 years long dream. But, you must realize that they are just dreaming and enjoy to talk loud when they are sleeping.

The more you talk to them and try to convince them of the contrary, the more they take themselves in serious and they will believe in their dream.

Let them sleep and enjoy their dream. Who care? They did it for 30 years now and as you see they failed to do anything positive, even to make a good memory of the past for the new generation.

There's no harm.They can't harm Iranian and they can't even touch Iran's future. You know well, that the Iranian inside of the country, don't give a rat to these hoopla about RP or any other westerner.

Then what's the fuss?

Let them be, Marge. They are happy this way. They will always be happy to chew this illusion, and make loud noises every time there's an event in Iran.

We all know that the rise of the young Iranian, have nothing to do with their propaganda, nor with RP, not even with all the "zendeh baad or mordeh baad" that we do here in the West.

Then why you do spend so much time with this folk? Do you ever talk to the sleep-walkers, and trying to convince them?

Vaghte ziadi dari? 

Observer: Would you say the same to someone like Darius?

I doubt it. If I were praising them, not criticizing them, would you say "he's a failure! stop it already!" It doesn't matter. I am a critic because it pisses me off to see Iranians delude themselves about the Pahlavis and how they deserve so much credit for anything that happened in Iran. Iranian individuals are the sum of talent, not their corrupt and useless leaders. 

Shah abandoned his country and left it for religious creeps he never had the nerve to go up against. I would have gladly kept shah, as moronic as he was, because I am against religious rule period. I have written that so many times but you are all so focused on whether someone criticizes this dumb family.

Anyway shah shamefully took himself to south america like a nazi too, and ended up having to defend farrah against noriega's advances while dying of cancer. He is a moron and died a moron. He was a human, flesh, bone, blood, like his son, who is even stupider than he was, and nothing close to superman, so give it a rest with the "he was good."

He was a puppet who lost control because of his arrogance. Even the Israeli generals were shocked by his self absorption and lack of perspective.... and that is coming from the nation of God's chosen people. But the one place he did control was Iran and he could have squashed mullahs sooner than later , the way he had so many innocent, young people imprisoned.

That is my essay for you.  

Relax

Joe! I ain't a monarchist and ain't no one's mouthpiece either. Expand your horizons a little, for pete's sake...