The Shah was overthrown in 1979, after about 35 years of a terribly repressive regime. Now, to overthrow a regime such as that takes a tremendous amount of organization. The only available forum was religious. So, the religious people took over.
They wielded power. Not too long after that, Iraq and Iran became involved in a war. The US supported Iraq, to the extent of battle planning, including the application of WMDs supplied by the US. The US participants described how they regarded nerve gas used against the Iranians as just another weapon.
And since that war, the US has waged war against Iran any way it can.
The US has experienced the WTC tragedy, and an erosion of the Bill of Rights, the erosion of any regard for human or civil rights, domestic spying and in general a movement away from "freedom" toward 1984 in the name of security. Considering the stresses Iran has been under, it is not hard to see why it doesn't have a more democratic society. If the US were under similar stresses it would have a similar government, or worse, if one extrapolates.
Arf
Current Events » in reply to And tell me, what's preventing it from being a democracy now?
As you may have noticed to what happens to a society under stress.
The whole thread (44 posts)
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