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Iran 2

Iran 2 . From the Revolution to the Present. Iran’s Complex Political System. Click below for a chart of how the unelected “Supreme Leader” (the first one was Ayatollah Khomeini) holds near-total power, and how the elected President of Iran is not the real decision-maker.

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Iran 2

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  1. Iran 2 From the Revolution to the Present

  2. Iran’s Complex Political System Click below for a chart of how the unelected “Supreme Leader” (the first one was Ayatollah Khomeini) holds near-total power, and how the elected President of Iran is not the real decision-maker. This information will NOT appear on any test. http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/06/28/weekinreview/20090628_MARSH_GRFK.html

  3. Iran 2 Preview and Summary • 1981-1988: Iran-Iraq War • 1989: Ayatollah Khomeini dies, Ayatollah Khamenei becomes “Supreme Leader” and still is today. • 1989-2005: Iran “lightens up”; Anti-Americanism lessens, the Revolution becomes less strict, and after 9/11 and the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq—two countries sandwiching Iran on the map—Iran tries unsuccessfully to improve relations with the US. • 2005: Anti-American M. Ahmadinejad elected President. • 2008: Iran allegedly restarts its program to develop nuclear energy and possibly nuclear weapons. • 2009: After the apparently fraudulent reelection of Ahmadinejad, thousands of mostly young Iranians take to the streets in the Green Revolution demanding major reforms and/or an end to the rule of the Ayatollahs, but the regime survives.

  4. Egged on by the United States, in September 1980 Iraq invaded Iran because Iraq … • FEARED: • The Iranian Revolution would spread to Iraq , • The Ayatollah would try to take Iraq and its Shi’ite majority, • Iraq’s Sunni-dominated government would be in trouble, • Iraqis would also want an “Islamic Revolution” against Saddam Hussein’s own corrupt secular state, • The Ayatollah, and not S. Hussein, would lead the Middle East • HOPED: • Iran’s Arabs in its oil-rich West would leave Iran and join Iraq, • Religious fundamentalism could be stamped out, • The US would be grateful and help make Iraq the dominant player in the Middle East 1. Why War? Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983—a few days after Hussein used chemical weapons against Iran. 20 years later, as George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld led the war against the “evil” Saddam Hussein. Oops.

  5. 2: Iran’s Response Iran reacted to the invasion by: • Successfully fighting off the initial invasion due to Iraqi incompetence and the failure of Iran’s Arabs and religious moderates to switch sides, • Ordering women to have as many babies as possible to create a new generation of Islamic soldiers, • Brainwashing young soldiers into becoming “martyrs” and using children as young as 9 to clear minefields. Wearing headbands and “the keys to paradise” into battle, they were promised both Heaven and riches for their families if they died in battle.

  6. 3:American Involvement America tried to help Iraq by… • Massive arms sales to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, • Giving Iraq chemical weapons and providing their army with satellite pictures to show the Iraqis when and where to use them, • Looking the other way when Saddam Hussein used our chemical weapons to gas his own villages that opposed him, And did not help matters when… • On July 4, 1988 a US warship in the Persian Gulf accidentally shot down an Iranian jumbo jet filled with civilians heading to the hajj in Mecca, then refusing to apologize to Iran. To this day, many Iranians believe it was no accident. And just in case the United States did not look bad enough in the eyes of the world… • Thanks to the Iran-Contra affair, the US was arming both Iran AND Iraq in the seemingly endless war.

  7. 4: The Results • Over a million dead (more Iranians than Iraqis) • Billions of dollars wasted on each side; Iraq found itself with a tremendous debt to, among others, Kuwaiti, Saudi, and American banks • UN-sponsored cease fire finally declared in 1988 with no significant border changes. Besides, both sides had pretty much run out of teenage boys.

  8. 5: The Ayatollah is dead! Long live the Ayatollah! Ayatollah Khomeini died of natural causes in 1989… …and was replaced as “Supreme Leader” by the more moderate Ayatollah Khamenei

  9. 6: Life under Khamenei The good… The bad… The religious, unelected part of the government became more corrupt, Between the cost of the war and low oil prices, the Iranian economy was a mess, No jobs were available for all of the teenagers from the “baby-boom” following the revolution Those too young to remember the Shah were sick of the Revolution, the lack of fun, censorship, and the poor economy, but since all political candidates had to be approved by religious leaders (see link Slide 2), they were powerless. • Women could be a little less covered, and the “morals police” became more of a bribe-demanding annoyance than a threat, • Moderate Presidents ruled, • With no war, money could be spent on improving people’s lives • The US and Iran generally ignored each other, even agreeing to play against each other in the 1998 World Cup. (Iran won )

  10. 7: After 9/11 -- Let’s make this clear… • Iran had NOTHING to do with the September 11 attacks, as the Shi’ite Iranians are not friendly with Sunni Al Qaeda. With that said, Iran has aided Shi’ite and anti-Israel terrorist groups across the Middle East. • Khamenei spoke strongly against the 9/11 attacks, yet warned the US not to invade their neighbor Afghanistan. • Still, President Bush included Iran in his “Axis of Evil” along with Iraq and North Korea. This was odd, as Iran and Iraq hated each other, and neither had much of anything to do with Communist North Korea.

  11. 8: Iran’s View of the American Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq With US troops already in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey, it is easy to understand why America’s 2001 invasion of Afghanistan made Iran nervous. It is also clear why America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq—a country not involved in September 11—made Iran doubly nervous… …especially with the plans of Bush’s foreign policy team (to be discussed in Assignment 3)

  12. 9: A missed opportunity for peace In 2003, following the US invasion of Iraq, Iran secretly offered a deal with the US. In exchange for the US agreeing not to try to overthrow the government of the Islamic Republic and to stop funding groups within Iran opposed to the government, Iran would… …abandon its pursuit for nuclear technology, stop backing anti-Israel groups, and not stand in the way of American actions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bush Administration did not even respond to this offer.

  13. 10: The 2005 Elections In 2005, Iranian voters surprised the world by electing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their President for the following reasons: • His anti-American attitude was popular after the US invaded Iran’s eastern neighbor Afghanistan and lied (Assignment 4) about why it had invaded their Western neighbor Iraq. Iranians were afraid they would be next, • He was seen as a “man of the people” as Mayor of Tehran, and people liked that he was not another religious cleric, • Voters liked that he promised he would tackle corruption in the government, • He promised that the country’s oil wealth would be spent on the people, not kept by the religious leaders.

  14. 11:A National Embarrassment Unfortunately for Iran, Ahmadinejad has been a disaster. Not only has he disappointed Iranians by failing to deliver on economic promises, he has also embarrassed the nation with outrageous claims such as… • The 9/11 attacks were conducted by the American government, • Iran is on the verge of getting nuclear weapons, • Israel will soon be destroyed, • The Holocaust is a myth and never happened, • There are no gay people in Iran.

  15. 12: The 2009 Elections By 2009 the Iranian people had had enough. Elections were coming, but the “Guardian Council” did not allow any reformers to run for President. It has been rumored that Ahmadinejad finished third in the voting, but in what was clearly a stolen election, the government officials counting the votes declared that Ahmadinejad had been reelected. The voters—especially the young—would not stand for this and took to the streets demanding justice. Thus began Iran’s failed “Green Revolution”.

  16. 13:They will not give up With the “Morals Police” given free reign to beat protestors and with protest leaders arrested and tortured by the government, it took the entire summer of 2009 and at least 150 deaths for the protests to stop and for life to get back to normal…(Note the women daring to appear in public with heads uncovered )

  17. 14: The Stalemate Continues There the have been no major waves of protest since 2009, and the protestors realized that (as in Syria in 2012-present), the government will not leave power without a civil war, so they chose to go back to school and back to work. The situation remains tense.

  18. Need More Information? Documentary on the Green Revolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzNUjiKapOs Documentary on the Iran-Iraq War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0FLjUnxtHY&feature=related

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