Gore Vidal once wrote a book entitled “The United States of Amnesia”. There are far few better tributes to American life. The American people have no appreciation of history. Even when current events are rooted in contemporary historical past, such facts are often oblivious for most Americans.

Iran is a perfect example of such a case. In 1979 Americans seemed stunned that many Iranians harbored animosity toward their country. And the American media - as usual - does not connect the dots for Americans and instead takes part in the standard fare of politicians - self-righteous garbage - that such and such people “hate us for our freedom” blah blah blah.

It was lost on Americans then and now that in the early 1950s, American and Britain ended Iranian democracy and installed a brutal and thieving Shah all for the purposes of cynical oil interests with no concern for the well-being of Iranians. The C.I.A. later went on to erect the Shah’s thuggish secret policy: SAVAK. The U.S. continued to support the Shah for decades while he bought pointless armaments all the while most Iranians lived in poverty. It is not surprising many Iranians blamed their plight - with absolute justification - on the U.S. government. But this fact was on the lost on flag-waving, U.S.A. chanting, war-eager media and thus the public.

When it comes to Iranian nukes, it is the same thing. During the current debate, it is often forgotten that the pro-U.S. and pro-Israel client Shah started Iran’s nuclear program. Iran wanted nuclear weapons, or at least a program, for decades and the mullahs just inherited the program and continued it. Iran has been invaded several times during the past several decades, and has long had disputed with its Russian and Iraqi neighbors. That is why the Shah wanted nukes and the mullahs to: not to fire them off for no reason but to be able to keep other nations at bay.

An ad that appeared in an American newspaper during the Shah’s reign boosted about how the Shah has a nuclear programs how great the whole thing is:

This ad says it all and should be part of the debate, but more to the point:

In 1967, under the “Atoms for Peace” program launched by President Eisenhower, the US sold the Shah of Iran’s government a 5-megawatt, light-water type research reactor. This small dome-shaped structure, located in the Tehran suburbs, was the foundation of Iran’s nuclear program. It remains at the center of the controversy over Iranian intentions, even today.

This appeared in the now solely online Christian Science Monitor. It should be front page coverage and allow us to frame the current issue of Iranian nukes in context. That is not about a fanatical regime bent on world annihilation, but a long-standing and rational Iranian commitment to be able to fend off hostile powers which is a national consensus from the secularists to the ayatollahs.

We can live with that. If it wasn’t a threat then, it isn’t now. The mullahs are no more tyrannical than the Shah, and they operate no more foreign groups than the Shah (the Shah used to fund separatist Iraqi Kurds in an effort to undermine Baghdad) and they are no more bent on Mid-East conquest than the Shah. Same people, different cloth.