Iran Had a Democracy Before We Took It Away

Quotes from Chris Hedges most recent Truthdig article:

"The fundamental problem in the Middle East is not a degenerate and corrupt Islam. The fundamental problem is a degenerate and corrupt Christendom"

"We have not brought freedom and democracy and enlightenment to the Muslim world. We have brought the opposite."

"Iranians do not need or want us to teach them about liberty and representative government. They have long embodied this struggle. It is we who need to be taught"

"We have used the iron fist of the American military to implant our oil companies in Iraq, occupy Afghanistan and ensure that the region is submissive and cowed"

"The central story of Iran over the last 200 years has been national humiliation at the hands of foreign powers who have subjugated and looted the country"

"Where were we when our election was stolen from us in 2000 by Republican operatives and a Supreme Court that overturned all legal precedent to anoint George W. Bush president?"

"We are, and have long been, the primary engine for radicalism in the Middle East. The greatest favor we can do for democracy activists in Iran, as well as in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf and the dictatorships that dot North Africa, is withdraw our troops from the region and begin to speak to Iranians and the rest of the Muslim world in the civilized language of diplomacy, respect and mutual interests"

"We have no right to empower Israel’s continuing occupation of Palestine, a flagrant violation of international law"

"We have no right to use force, including the state-sponsored terrorism we unleash on Iran, to turn the Middle East into a private gas station for our large oil companies"

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