This threatening to blow up Iranian cultural
sites, I mean, it’s as if someone is threatening
to blow up the Empire State Building or — well,
on Saturday, Trump tweeted, “Iran has been
nothing but problems for many years.
Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes
any Americans, or American assets, we have
targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the
52 American hostages taken by Iran many years
ago), some at a very high level & important
to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets,
and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND
VERY HARD.
The USA wants no more threats!” Trump tweeted.
So talk about this and him going back 40 years
to say that’s how he chose that number,
52, and what this means to the Iranian people.
Two things.
One is that — you know, for me, what this
signifies is the continued misunderstanding
of United States and U.S. policymakers when
it comes to Iran and the Iranian revolution
and what it’s produced.
I think because there’s been such an obsession
in the U.S. after the — during and after
the hostage crisis, in particular with understanding
the Iranian revolution of 1979, as — like
this obsession with it solely being an Islamic
republic and an Islamic revolution, has meant
that much of our analysis in this country
and throughout the West, in particular, really
undermines and does not think about the complexities
within Iran and Iranian history.
The 1979 revolution itself, not thinking about
what comes after it,
was a revolution, a popular revolution, first and foremost.
So this was not a revolution led by a vanguard
or an elite.
This is one of the most popular revolutions
of the 20th century, a revolution led from
below in which the main thrust of it and one
of the main slogans of the revolution was
“neither east nor west,” meaning neither
the Soviet Union nor the United States.
It really was a revolution that was about
creating independence and sovereignty in Iran
and not having it be under the sway of imperial
powers.
That is first and foremost.
And that is a continuation of a centuries-long
movement in Iran
to establish independence within the country.
So, what happens after the revolution in Iran
and the Islamic republic coming about, there
are a lot of Iranians, both within the country
and outside, obviously,
who disagree with the Islamic republic.
However, I think what’s important to understand
— and this is where Trump, for all of the
things that he has been doing on Iran, and
I do think regime change and regime collapse
is the policy of this administration when
it comes to Iran — but the huge mistake
that he made with that tweet the other night,
by claiming to want to attack Iranian cultural
heritage sites, is that he is now bringing
up that sentiment again within the Iranian
population, that as much as some within Iran
may dislike the Islamic republic, they will
not stand for a foreign aggression, especially
from the sole superpower in the world, to
come and attack their country and attack historical
sites that have nothing to even do with the
regime, but it’s about Iranian culture,
which is thousands of years old.
