Militarilism, Corruption, Torture, and Denial
Browsing YouTube for clips about Iran, I came across a few interesting old clips from the 70's, some are interviews with the Shah. They are amazing and I thought I'd share them with you. It's funny how all the four words I mentioned in the title of the post were/are being repeated in today's Iran, and how statesmen and politicians in our country tend to forget the past quickly and never seem to learn the lessons of history. What do you think?
In an interview (in English) with Mike Wallace of American TV programme CBS 60 minutes:
(1) Shah denies torture by Savak.
(2) Shah denies corruption in his government and accuses the west (particularly Americans) for being corrupt.
(3) Shah claiming he's in touch with the people of Iran, and that it's OK to execute traitors!
Mike Wallace is the same person who recently interviewed Ahmadinejad.
(4) Iran's Imperial Guard; it fascinates me to see how these officers seem to love to look like German Nazi officers. And they seem to be very proud of their army which, unlike the Nazi German or American or British armies, was not an Iranian product but entirely purchased from the west (the hardware I mean). As a side note, some of the military tunes they play in this clip are familiar to me, they were later played during the war with Iraq by the revolutionary Army.
(5) 2500th Anniversary of the Persian Empire; when Shah sent his famous message to Cyrus the Great: "Sleep in peace because we are awake". The truly glorious party where everyone was invited except unfortunately the people of Iran.
Thanks! Those are great movies.
It looks like that the history repeats itself. (;
(at September 29, 2006 09:06 PM)
So nothing is changed much as all four are still present and maybe even worse than before.
(at September 29, 2006 11:58 PM)
Thanks for your very interesting links. The first thing I noticed is that Shah's English accent is kind of better than his Persian accent :))
Both Shah and Ahmadinejad (the current government) are following the same policy: neglecting domestic problems and creating and unreal image and unusual popularity for themselves abroad.
(at September 30, 2006 07:10 PM)
Shah does not look healthy in these interviews, don't you think? and when he lies to the camera you can see it in his eyes!
(at October 1, 2006 12:24 AM)
Thank you very much for these links! I must agree with all of you - it shows that we weren't much better off then. Kourosh is absolutely right, you could read everything through his eyes and to be honest I prefer Khatami's look than Shah's!
As they say, SAME SHIT DIFFERENT DAY (ERA).
(at October 4, 2006 09:06 AM)
Comparing His Majesty late King of Iran with these bunch of criminals is absourd, I beleive
Iranian deserve this Islamic basterds.
(at October 13, 2006 05:11 PM)
His Majesty? :))) some people are stuck in the middle ages!!!
(at October 21, 2006 11:42 PM)
What do I think, I think you are absolutely wrong. No one can judge based on some video clips.
(at October 26, 2006 12:54 PM)
Hello!
I think its very interesting to see How Shah speak about Iran. I think he should study more about Iran and the new generation of iranians. I have recently read a book of an iranian young man. It was very interesting how the new generation in Iran see things and how little I knew about them! If sombody is interested to read the book you can chek this link in amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Persia-Cradle-Infidels-Ali-Sadeghi/dp/3981109007/sr=8-1/qid=1161946842/ref=sr_1_1/104-8621204-3380726?ie=UTF8&s=books
Good luck to everybody!
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