Down with the US: A brief history of crimes

Tehran, Feb 10, IRNA – Many may wonder why Iranians and other freedom seekers of the world chant 'Down with the US', a sovereign country and member of the United Nations. They may ask, 'Why do they burn US flag that belongs to 300-and-something million people? Why is the US government so detested? What has it done to deserve to be shouted at?' In my capacity as a journalist and as an Iranian, I have the right and the duty to describe, for those who are not apprised of the reasons, why the US is so hated by many in Iran, in Western Asia and in some other parts of the world, so that it may sink in. Regarding the flag-burning, one should know that the Star and Stripes and Uncle Sam symbolize both the American people and the US government. To show abhorrence to the US government, either or both are burned just as a symbol of the US government and nothing more. However, sometimes, the US presidents are burned in effigy, but that's too individualized and doesn’t target the general policy of the US. However, we cannot and should not ignore the great contribution of the American people to human civilization. The whole world is fully aware of the unrivaled services American people have provided. The world will never forget Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Henry Ford, George Washington Carver, and thousands of others. The US is actually the mecca for scientists and also the biggest culture hub in the world. It is no secret to anyone that the US is arguably the biggest economy in the world and one of the biggest military powers that has ever emerged. But the US administration, like its predecessor, i.e. the UK, which it is an offshoot of, has been using this unprecedented leverage to hurt others. It has repeatedly hurt the world, regions, and even individuals and has committed innumerable crimes that can be seen and proved with a small search in history. It is common knowledge that the US destroyed two Japanese cities with atomic bombs and Vietnam with an invasion. According to the confessions of the US authorities, they have created and supported the Daesh (ISIS) and Taliban terrorist groups that are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and amputations in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. Speaking to thousands of supporters at a Broward County arena in August 2016, US President Donald Trump said during his presidential campaign, “ISIS is honoring President Obama….He is the founder of ISIS. He is the founder of ISIS, OK? He is the founder. He founded ISIS. And I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.” The US has babied the Zionist regime like a caring mother and helped the terrorist regime occupy Palestinian lands. They have been trying to wipe out a country off the map. The US also was in control of the notorious Abu Ghraib prison that needs no more description. In the recent weeks, US government stood by Saudi Arabia that had slaughtered Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist of Wall Street Journal, and is still supporting the incessant crimes committed by the House of Saud in Yemen War. The world was also hurt when the US turned its back to the Paris Agreement, which helped with climate change, and UNESCO. In the chain of US crimes, Iran has had the lion's share: both before and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the US has hurt Iran and cut the Iranians deep. In 1953, the Iranian democratically-elected prime minister was toppled in a US-UK-led coup. Mohammad Mosaddeq was the one who nationalized the Iranian oil industry, which was considered a threat to British and American interests and eventually led to the August 1953 coup. Winston Churchill’s government was desperate to regain control of Iran’s oil industry, which Mosaddeq had nationalized the year before, “by virtually any available means, including military action,” wrote Malcolm Byrne of the National Security Archive and Tulane that plotted a coup to drive Mosaddeq out of power. Iran has always said that the coup was a UK-US job, but until recently it was not internationally well-proved. In recent years, the British government has repeatedly pressed US officials not to publish the fact that London had had a role in the plot to oust the Iranian government. Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Barrack Obama are among those US politicians who have confessed to the coup that toppled democracy and brought back dictatorship in Iran. In 2000, as part of an effort to mend relations with Iran, then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright admitted that the US had 'played a significant role' in overthrowing Mosaddeq, saying, 'The coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development, and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs.' President Barack Obama made some remarks on June 4, 2009, in Cairo that makes it crystal clear that the US had a central role in the coup against the 'democratically-elected' government. In February 2016, Senator Bernie Sanders said, '… Nobody knows who Mossadeq was, democratically-elected prime minister of Iran. He was overthrown by British and American interests because he threatened oil interests of the British. And as a result of that, the shah of Iran came in, terrible dictator.' The Eisenhower government considered Operation Ajax as a success, having 'immediate and far-reaching effect'; the CIA repeated the pattern the following year and organized a coup in Guatemala and toppled Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, who had nationalized farm lands. Following the infamous coup in Iran, the US backed the shah to re-establish his power and a few years later when SAVAK (the Persian acronym for Organization of National Intelligence and Security of the Nation) was founded the US had deep ties with the criminal organization. The US also imposed capitulation on Iran, as well. And they supported the shah when he was killing thousands of Iranian protestors. And when, finally, the people of Iran decided to topple the despotic ruler again, the US supported him as much as it could, but fortunately, they failed to keep him in power. After the Islamic Revolution, the US kept on with its enmity with the people of Iran. They confiscated Iranian assets in the US, changed their embassy in Tehran to a nest of espionage, invaded Iran to free their detained spies. Another measure taken by the US was its green light to Saddam, the dictator of Iraq, to invade Iran. The US, and other Western countries, supported the Iraqi government as much as possible. Even they directly entered the war and bombarded Iranian oil platforms and oil tanks to support Saddam. They are the reason why hundreds of thousands of Iranian and Iraqis were killed in the war. The US crimes against the Iranian people included civilians as well. They supported the MKO terrorist group that has reportedly assassinated 17,000 Iranian people, and also, on 3 July 1988, shot down Iran Air Flight 655, a scheduled passenger flight from Bandar Abbas to Dubai with an SM-2MR surface-to-air missile fired from USS Vincennes, which claimed 290 innocent lives on board of the AirBus A300. The US sanctioned Iran after the Revolution and inflicted billions of dollars worth of damage to Iranian people. In some years even medicine was sanctioned and many Iranians died due to lack of vital treatments. The United States has also continually threatened Iran with military intervention and has tried to make Tehran retreat from its positions. In the recent years, the US made up and supported street protests in Iran, supported terrorist groups, especially the ones based near the Iranian borders, and assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists. In the recent years, there was a US-made crisis in the world. Based on some false reports from enemies of Iran and wishing to bring Iran to its knees, the US made some groundless allegations against Iran and talked the United Nations and the European Union into sanctioning Iran. The crisis was finally over when Iran and the G5+1 signed an agreement in 2015. According to the agreement, Iran was to limit its nuclear activities and, in return, it would be cut some slack. The deal was confirmed by the UN Security Council and even a resolution was issued to endorse it. But, US government affronted the whole world and the UNSC and quit the deal in May 2018. As you see, there is almost no class of crimes the US government has not committed. Now, I guess not only do the readers, even American citizens, know why many Iranians detest the US government and shout 'Down with the US', but they also feel the urge to chant the same slogan with all the freedom-seekers of the world. *Hossein Abolqasemi is a staff member of IRNA English News. Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish