Khomeini's Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam Book

When I was a wee tot, my ginger hair and pale skin simply called out like a beacon to bullies to harass me. I seem to recall a gaggle of puny 8-year old shitheads with red pom-poms on their heads impersonating me on a regular basis. I was tortured most of my schooldays (that is, until I found punk rock and thrift stores and angry youthfulness to relieve me - but that's a post for another day). It occurred to me later, mostly because said shitheads told me so, that they sorta kinda liked me. They liked the way I looked and they liked my sassy ginger attitude.

After reading "Khomeini's Ghost" by Con Coughlin I started to think how similar Iran's behavior towards the US is to the shitheads behavior towards me. Only someone who harbors a real desire and passion for someone else can devote that much hatred, that much vitriol. Iran would not endlessly and tirelessly refer to the US in speeches, publications and hand-written misspelled signs covered in blood as "the great satan" if they didn't want to feel a real connectivity to us. I can't help but see them as a little silly when I, from the comfort of a tarnished but rebounding global power, watch a guy in pajamas standing next to a guy in a member's only jacket (who was likely elected president through unscrupulous and fraudulent means) calling me the devil.

I know that the US has an incredibly mired and deplorable foreign relations past. Our history with Iran is one of misguided involvement and unintended consequences. We helped Britain try to protect Western oil interests there, interfered in Iranian national politics and put someone in power who quite possibly didn't deserve it. Not for the first time, by the way (see Pinochet, Mugabe, etc). We abused our power and the Iranians got pissed off, killed a bunch of people, took some US citizens hostage (which the afore-mentioned wearer of the member's only jacket may have played a role in) and began a process of nationalized Islamic radicalism.

We deserve their anger. We deserve to have to prove our equanimity and good intentions in the Middle East. But I wish they would give it a rest already. The best revenge is success so they should begin the process of proving to us great Satans that an Islamic state can exist, thrive and do so with honesty and little violation of human rights.

It also occurred to me that we're not the only place in the world with a sullied past. A lot of countries, Iran included, have made some egregious gaffes and exploitations. It just seems like we're the only ones willing, constantly willing, to admit our mistakes and ask for absolution.

The book itself is so so. I learned a lot about Iran's place in the Middle East and what a favor we did them by ousting Saddam, who kicked Iran's Shiite ass in the 80's. Iran's relationship to the Taliban is a complicated one. I think I got from the book that they are enemies but that Iran was a willing participant in the protection of some serious 9-11 assholes. It wasn't entirely clear. I learned that Khomeini and Khamenei are two different people - same politics, both the supreme leader (Khomeini originally, Khamenei presently) with carte blanche over Iran and it's citizens, but actually different dudes. The book is written very drily, like a 400 page newspaper article with a wealth of interesting facts but little in the way of big picture.

I'm not a blindfolded apologist for the United States but I'm sick of worrying about Iran.