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Iran. War to bring Freedom and Democracy?

By Iqbal Suleiman

The argument is made by war advocates that military intervention in Iran is to going to bring about Freedom and Democracy.

How has the U.S historically conducted itself in relation to freedom and democracy globally and particularly in the Muslim world?

Muhammed Mossadegh was the democratically elected leader of Iran who acted in accordance with the democratic mandate of the Iranian people proceeded to nationalize Iranian oil. This principled and democratically elected leader of Iran was ousted by the CIA orchestrated coup on 19 August 1953. The CIA killed Iranian democracy and then imposed a monarchy with the Shah Reza Pahlavi to rule Iran. The Shah was a puppet of Uncle Sam and allowed the U.S to plunder Iranian oil

Patrice Lumumba was the first democratically elected leader of the DRC who was an Africanist, socialist, principled and uncompromising on the issue of social justice and national liberation. He had a democratic mandate to nationalise the natural wealth of the Congo to serve the people of Congo. Declassified documents indicate that the CIA planned to assassinate him. Ultimately he was assassinated by the Belgian government on the 17th January 1971.

The democratically elected socialist leader of Chile, Salvador Allende was overthrown in a CIA orchestrated coup on September 11, 1973 and replaced by the despotic military junta of Augusto Pinochet who bowed to America.

Muhammad Morsi was the democratically elected leader of Egypt who sympathised with the Palestinian people. Morsi was the leader of the Islamic Movement in Egypt who advocated for self-determination through democratic elections. An Islamist democrat. As the leader of the Ikhwan, he was also ideologically connected to the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine (Hamas). He and the democratically elected government were toppled by an Israeli inspired military coup that saw the return of authoritarian military rule to Egypt and the death of democracy.  Israeli army Brigadier General Aryeh Eldad in an article in Maariv admitted to Israel’s role in the military coup “Israel was quick and willing to activate its diplomatic tools and perhaps even greater means to bring Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to power in Egypt and convince the then U.S administration under President Barack Obama not to oppose this”. This is another instance where America and Israel killed democracy in a Muslim country because it wanted to preserve Israeli hegemony.

The Sisi government is friendly to Israel and the U.S. and further collaborated in maintaining the siege of Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinians. After Israel, the military government of Egypt receives the highest amount of funding from the U.S. Practically, the U.S and Israel killed democracy in Egypt.

None of Israel’s and America’s allies in the Muslim world are democracies. The record shows that instead of advancing democracies and governments elected by the people, the U.S and Israel are opposed to democracy and freedom in the Muslim world. The majority of the countries in the Muslim world are all either cleptocratic monarchies or military dictatorships. But they are friendly to America and Israel which is why no one in the West refers to these states as “Regimes”.  Western powers wiggle and waggle, duck and dance when asked why they are opposed to democracy in these countries. As Donald Trump honestly stated during the tenure of his first administration, these Gulf States will not last a few days if it were not for the American soldiers stationed in these countries.

Iqbal Suleiman

Suleiman is a social justice lawyer and former head of the law clinic for Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria and Research Associate: Media Review Network

 

 

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