The Anti-American Lie

Look, I have my gripes with the US government and American business too, God knows. But I hate the knee-jerk attitude that everything wrong with the world is somehow America's fault (and a CIA plot), as if the Soviet Union, China, OPEC and people's own governments have never meddled, done harm, exploited other countries for their own gain. As if America hasn't done a lot of great good too, and given the world enormous gifts. Yes, America did a lot of harm to Iran in the last 60 years (and here is the latest example of evil Americans in the mideast). But they were not alone in this, and the mostly hardline governments of Iran of the last 60 years (excluding a few brief periods of enlightened governance) have outdone even the US, the UK and Russia together when it comes to inflicting harm on the Iranian people. The Iranian government and its allies are bigger thieves, better torturers and much more accomplished killers of Iranians than any foreign government. The Khamenei-Ahmadinejad government is the Great Satan.

As this incisive piece notes, Iran's internal battles pre-date the formation of the CIA, and America, by years.