American leaders declaring last night as “an act of war,” without acknowledging that it came in response to our own, initial act of war perfectly echo America’s history of decrying Iran’s actions since 1979 without reference to our direct role there in the 26 years proceeding it. Or, for that matter, the 40+ years following it.
We overthrew their democratically-elected government and installed and propped up a tyrannical king who oppressed them for decades. We supported their mortal enemy in a war that devastated their country and killed half a million people. We entered into a treaty with them, reneged, and then placed crippling sanctions on them. We just assassinated their second most powerful leader who was beloved domestically.
While none of this erases or excuses the bad or destructive acts of Iran or its surrogates in the past several decades, there is no escaping the fact that those acts have largely come in response to our aggression and interference in a country and a region that is not ours.
Make no mistake: we are the aggressors here. We are the bad guys. If you chose to ignore that, you are doing so out of blind allegiance to the Trump Administration and willful blindness to history.
