US Hatred for Iran Rooted in 1979 Islamic Revolution, Chomsky Says
TEHRAN (Basirat): The US hatred of Iran has its roots in the country’s move towards independence following the 1979 Islamic Revolution that led to the ouster of US-backed monarch Mohammad Reza Shah, renowned political scientist and linguist Noam Chomsky said in a recent interview.
In the interview with Truthout.org website on Friday, Chomsky said, "…the (US)
hatred of Iran is such a deep-seated part of modern American culture. To
eradicate it is going to be very hard. I mean — take this morning’s New York
Times. It’s pretty interesting, take a look at the lead story. It’s about Trump
canceling, you know, the withdrawal of the — reinstituting the sanctions against
Iran. And the headline says, and then the story says that Trump thinks that
reinstituting sanctions will cut back Iran’s weapons production and cut down the
— their repression inside Iran, and stop their meddling in the Middle East. I
mean, first of all, does Trump think that? Probably not. Is there any truth to
it? There isn’t a particle of truth to any of it.”
He added, "The most repressive countries in the Middle East are the ones we
support. By comparison to Saudi Arabia, Iran looks like Norway, you know. As far
as violence in the Middle East is concerned, the Saudi Arabian (and) UAE actions
in Yemen, which we’re supporting, are much worse than anything. But here’s the —
here’s the framework of discussion, you know. To break through that kind of, you
know, just presuppositions, they don’t even say it, it’s just the
presupposition”.
"…in 1979 Iran moved towards independence. And worse than that, they overthrew
the US-imposed tyrant who had been ruling the country and US interests. They’re
not going to forget that. In fact, immediately right after the Iranian
revolution, the US began supporting the Iraqi invasion of Iran, which was
devastating. Iraq was using chemical weapons, was killing hundreds of thousands
of people, it was supported all the way through. In fact, at the very end it won
the war for Iraq by closing the Persian Gulf to Iran.”
He concluded, "…we (the US) didn’t really go to war with Iran because they’re
not dumb enough to send troops to Iran. They’re pretty dumb, but not that dumb.
What they’ll do, if they feel like it, is bomb from a distance, you know,
missiles from the (Persian) Gulf, which could be pretty awful.”
Source: Tasnim
