From Mosaddegh In Tehran 1951 To The Mobile Billboard Campaign In DC 2010

by Kamran Abdi
A brilliant human rights campaign was initiated by the Iranian-American Youth (IAY) and Justice through Music (JTM) in Washington, DC last week.  They drove mobile billboards through Washington streets near the city’s significant landmarks including the White House, the State Department and the Capitol to raise awareness and draw support for the opposition movement in Iran.

Among the billboards is one showing a young woman protester in Iran and the words, “Support the fight for freedom in Iran.”  Another billboard shows a bloodied Iranian protester and the words “31 years of oppression – enough dictatorship in Iran”.

The campaign was co-sponsored by Justice through Music (JTM), a Washington-based non-profit organization that uses musicians and bands to promote the importance of civil and human rights and voting. The organizers hope that the American public will stand in support with the Iranian people and rally American officials to voice their support for the fight for freedom and human rights in the Islamic Republic.

I really wish president Obama brings substantive change to US Foreign Policy in regards to Iran.  Otherwise, if the Iranians expect support from the US Government with the same old foreign policy listed below, then the entire nation of Iran is screwed all over again:

. In 1951, when Dr. Mosaddegh, the first truly democratically elected Iranian leader pissed off the British by nationalizing the Iranian oil industry which resulted in the infamous US government plot to overthrow Mosaddegh and install the Pro-Western Iranian Dictator,  the Shah in 1953:

. In 1979, when the Shah of Iran was becoming more autocratic and  was showing signs of megalomania, it pissed off the Carter Administration.  According to this video, with the help of the Brits, the US orchestrated an effort to overthrow the same Shah in 1979 that they had installed in 1953.

. In 1980, when the republicans took over The White House, they encouraged Saddam Hussein to start a War with Iran to speedup the collapse of the same Islamic Republic government they managed to install a year earlier. Not to mention that War was backed by the entire Arab World and Western governments, when my own ass was drafted into it in 1984.

. In 2004, the  US Administration put an end to the life of the same guy they supported for years to fight the same Iranian regime they orchestrated to put in place in 1979:

. Now in 2010, considering this fucked up Foreign Policy history with Iran, the Iranian people  expect support from the US Administration:

Let’s hope the change President Obama promised us during his presidential campaign , will apply to our Foreign Policy soon…. very soon…