Iran a Threat? I've been thinking lately about the true nature of the threat that Iran presents. The last time I remember hearing about Iran attacking another country was 480 B.C., when the Greeks defeated them at Salamis.
Sure, there was that nasty Iran-Iraq war, but that was was started by our ally Saddam Hussein (only later would he become the evil satanic demon responsible for blowing up the World Trade Center and killing 3,000 people . .. whoops, there I go again, well, anyway - a really bad guy). So besides the Iran-Iraq incident, who has Iran attacked? Well - I can't find anyone. As for Israel, as was recently pointed out in the Boston Globe by Karim Sadjadpour, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, and, Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations: "Iran has no territorial disputes with Israel, no Palestinian refugee problem, a long history of contentious relations with the Arab world, and an even longer history of tolerance vis-à-vis the Jewish people. To this day, the Jewish community in Iran is the largest in the Middle East outside of Israel."
If the United States had not intervened and deposed the democratically elected Mossadegh government in 1953 in order to install the Shah and "protect" anglo-american oil interests, there's no telling how secular and democratic a society Iranians might enjoy. Unfortunately, the Dulles brothers foreign policies prevailed, and we are stuck with the result.
Q.
Having ascertained that the track record of Iran with respect to wars of aggression is rather slim, may we examine how many wars the United States has been involved in since its inception?
A.
The American Revolution - 1775-1783
The Indian Wars - 1775-1890
Shay's Rebellion - 1786-1787
The Whiskey Rebellion - 1794
Quasi-War With France - 1798-1800
The Barbary Wars - 1800-1815
The War of 1812
Mexican-American War - 1846-1848
United States Civil War - 1861-1865
U.S. Intervention in Hawaiian Revolution - 1893
The Spanish-American War - 1898
U.S. Intervention in Samoan Civil War - 1898-1899
U.S.-Philippine War - 1899-1902
Boxer Rebellion - 1900
The Moro Wars - 1901-1913
U.S. Intervention in Panamanian Revolution - 1903
The Banana Wars - 1909-1933
U.S. Occupation of Vera Cruz - 1914
Pershing's Raid Into Mexico - 1916-1917
World War I - 1917-1918 (American involvement only)
Allied Intervention in Russian Civil War - 1919-1921
World War II - 1941-1945
The Korean War - 1950-1953
The Second Indochina War "Vietnam War" - 1956-1975
U.S. Intervention in Lebanon - 1958
Dominican Intervention - 1965
Civil War & Foreign Intervention
Rebels in the Dominican Republic
U.S. Libya Conflict - 1981, 1986
U.S. Intervention in Lebanon - 1982-1984
U.S. Invasion of Grenada - 1983
U.S. Invasion of Panama - 1989
Second Persian Gulf War "Operation Desert Storm" - 1991
U.S. Intervention in Somalia - 1992-1994
NATO Intervention in Bosnia (Operation Deliberate Force) - 1994-1995
Civil War,Foreign Intervention & Inter-State War
U.S. Occupation of Haiti - 1994
U.S. Embassy bombings and strikes on Afghanistan and Sudan - 1998
Kosovo War - 1999
Afghanistan War (Operation Enduring Freedom) - 2001-Present
War against Terrorism
The Taliban and Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida organization
Third Persian Gulf War "Operation Iraqi Freedom" - 2003-Present
Intervention in Haiti - March, 2004
Additionally, the US is, of course, the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons on a civilian population. And now, let me guess, George W. Bush and his neocon pals want to attack Iran. Guess the army isn't broke enough yet.