why did you add "short term" when they have been attacking others including americans non stop for decades??
It is you who are viewing things in very short periods...
Why don't you try and educate yourself beyond the talking points and shitty narratives of those you follow?
David French talks with the retired general about the βgreat seductionβ America fell for in Iran.
McChrystal: If we go back to the American experience starting in 1979, I was a young Special Forces officer, and I remember that the American Embassy in Tehran was seized, and there were people chanting βdeath to America.β
That was upsetting. And that was only a few years after Vietnam, so I think America was vulnerable emotionally.
Then suddenly you had this country that had been our ally, at least in the minds of most Americans during the Peacock Regime of the Shah, from 53 to 78, we felt comfortable with that. They were the bulwark of stability β and then suddenly in β79 we saw the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini. And he doesnβt want to negotiate.
We watched a war break out between Iraq and Iran, and most of us were far enough away to say, βWow. Good. Somebodyβs taken on the Iranians. They donβt like Americans, so itβs somebody taking them on.β
Then in 1988, the U.S.S. Vincennes mistook an Iranian airliner for an attacking F-14, and they killed 290 civilians. If you take that period, Iran seemed like a recalcitrant enemy that hated us for some reason that we couldnβt really understand.
Then we get into 2007, when you were in Diyala and Iβm leading a counterterrorist task force.
We had to stand up an entirely new task forcefocused on the Shia militia that were supported by Iran β the explosively formed projectiles and all of the things that Iran did to give them capability β and it became a bitter fight.
So, in the minds of someone like me and my force, of course, they were the enemy. They were killing us and we were killing them. It looked as though they were also a threat to not just the mission in Iraq, but the stability across the region.
It becomes emotional; Iran feels like our lifelong enemy right now. Iβll stop there. But I think thatβs only part of the story.
...
French: Well, of course, if you say thatβs only part of the story, we have to keep going. When the surge started to wind down around 2008, 2009, 2010, there was a real sense that we had won in many ways, that we had really turned the tide by the time I left in late β08.
I remember the statistics when we got there. If you drove out of the front gate of our base, it was about a 25 percent chance of enemy contact β whether itβs an I.E.D., sniper fire, rockets, mortars, whatever. By the time we left, it was less than a 1 percent chance.
But the story doesnβt end there. The story keeps going, and Iranian-supported militias have been a thorn in our side in Iraq ever since. So, letβs pick it up after the surge. What happens next?
...
McChrystal: Well, letβs really pick it up before that, because I think itβs important.
We have a tendency in America to view things in very short periods β our year in Iraq, or in my case, five years in Iraq. We tend to come in and say we are going to fight the war to end all wars, at least in our minds.
But for the Iraqi about my age β Iβm 71 now β for an Iraqi, it really starts in 1953, when the U.S. and British intelligence services overthrew the constitutionally elected prime minister and put back into power the Peacock Regime of the Shah.
They oppressed the people tremendously, particularly through Savak, the secret police. So, when the Iranian revolution erupts in 1978, we may have been surprised, but the Iranian people were not surprised.
When they suddenly say βdeath to America,β most Americans are saying, βWhatβs your problem? Why are you angry at us?β