Ben Shapiro

Whenever you open Axe or TikTok, you're guaranteed to be subjected to the most backward, historically illiterate takes imaginable about a lot of things.

These days, a lot of those takes involve Iran.

Axe will tell you that the United States is the aggressor in the region.

They'll tell you that if we just played nice, if we just apologized to Iran for our history, then peace would break out everywhere.

Yeah, so that's bullshit.

So as the war in Iran continues, let's look at exactly how we got here from the beginnings of the conflict right up until the current day.

If you've ever argued with a college sophomore who just took an intro to Middle Eastern studies class, they will immediately shout Operation Ajax at you.

That, of course, is the operation the CIA initiated in 1953 to remove Mohammad Mossadegh, who was the prime minister of Iran.

They will tell you that Iran was a beautiful, flourishing, utopian democracy until the evil, nefarious CIA swooped in

overthrew Mossadegh and installed a brutal dictator in the Shah.

Therefore, everything that Iran does today is simply understandable blowback for American imperialism.

Now, what's weird about this is a few things.

First of all, let's point out the Shah was removed by the Ayatollahs.

So why the Ayatollahs would be upset with the United States for removing Mossadegh

who was a Marxist secularist in 1953, is confusing.

But let's go all the way back to 1950, the height of the Cold War.

Iran was essentially aligned with the West at that time.

We, of course, had developed their oil resources, so had Britain.

Meanwhile, Stalin and the Soviet Union were looking directly at Iran.

Now, the reason I say elected is because the Shah actually is the one who had the power under the Iranian constitution to both appoint and remove prime ministers, sort of like the president names a Supreme Court justice and then the Senate confirms.