Al Shah's Men



Al Shah's Men

In the week after the sixth celebration of the attacks of 9/11/2001, it is befitting to reconsider some of the questions raised by the happening and America's current connections with nations in the Middle East. Eparticularly with the percussion instruments of war drubbing between Iran and the US, Stephen Kinzer's book All the Shah's Men, originally released in 2003, is worth reviewing again.

In this slim (260 sheet) publication, Kinzer examines the 1953 CIA-sponsored coup that taken from power democratically-elected Iranian major Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. After nationalizing the oil commerce, previously run by the British, Mossadegh was the target of the CIA's first thriving major operation to overthrow a government.

The book focuses succinctly on the chronicled context of Iran, examining the diverse groups that have leveraged the district, from the Zoroastrians, to Alexander the large of Macedon, to the new Arabs that "came equipped not only with the traditional weapons of conflict, but with a new religion, Islam." Iran also became the homeland with the biggest engrossment of Shiite Muslims, which pattern a few in the Islamic world. The dissimilarities between the more mainstream Sunni Muslims and Shiites arise from what Kinzer identifies as "differing interpretations of who warranted to do well the prophet Mohammed as caliph, or leader of the Islamic world, after his death in 632."

Through the high consider that Shiites hold for the Prophet's kin Ali and Ali's child Hussein, who were both killed, Iranians heritage was granted "a legacy of religious zeal and a enthusiasm, even an eagerness, to embrace martyrdom at the hands of God's enemies." This attitude endured through the time of Mossadegh himself, who became another example of an Islamic foremost of the persons standing up to a corrupt establishment that had lost is well liked support, as is examined throughout the rest of the book. Kinzer's overview of the history of Iran finishes with the leader Reza Shah, an authoritarian leader who consolidated the rampant corruption of the territory in his own hands, turned the people against him, and established binds to Nazi Germany during World conflict II.

Another facet of Iran's annals that can not be left out is the breakthrough of huge allowances of oil in 1908. The British government's concerns in the oil-producing districts was a constant cause of conflict, whereas most managers of Iran were joyous to sell off the country's oil for their own individual benefit at the total cost of the persons of Iran. Also cited is the esteem that Iranians had for the joined States, mostly due to the detail that, "Neither the young Mohammed Reza Shah neither his diverse major ministers managed to capture the public imagination throughout the 1940's. The only number who did was a flamboyant American soldier, GeneralH. Norman Schwarzkopf."

The major part of the book, though, looks at the short rule of Mohammed Mossadegh, his assaults with Britain over the oil, the CIA's function in his overthrow, and even his personal life and ...