Having said that others may find this analysis of World Affairs difficult to read, how could it be possible for me to write it? (apart from the obvious reason that it fits the facts of course). Most children grow up and have such “anti-establishment” values trained out of them – either implicitly because they see their parents, relatives and teachers working within the system; or explicitly because they are told by their parents that “this is life”. So, why not me?
The average teenager would have been reassured by his father that things may not be as I describe them here and everything is OK so swing with it – what choice do you have anyway? – accept a few apparent contradictions as they come to light as atypical accidents. Do as you’re told it’s all for the best, things aren’t so bad, work with the system, get your share, don’t worry about the poor it’s not your fault.
But this teenager was not of normal stock because his father could certainly not reassure him that all these fatal suspicions were arguable and questionable. Instead his father, because of his own experience, was obliged to confirm that they were in fact true.
My father is the grandson of Mozafardin and the nephew of Mohammed, both previously Shahs of Iran of the Qajar dynasty that ended at the beginning of the twentieth century. At different stages in his career, my father was a Brigadier-General in the Iranian Army, the personal military instructor to the Shah of the succeeding Pahlevi dynasty, the Head of Military Training, the Head of the Gendarmerie, the Chief of Police and the Iranian Military Attaché in Belgium, France and finally London before retiring to political exile in Britain. He was forced into exile in the 1950s when the CIA looked for the endorsement of the higher ranks of Iranian Power for its latest deal – exploitation rights on 50% of Iranian oil resources over the next 25 years. In return the CIA offered my father the position of Minister of the Interior, the equivalent in Britain being Home Secretary. If he refused then the Americans would arm Iraq, Iran’s oldest enemy. My father refused it as one crooked deal too many.
My father’s brothers were his enemies for his previous complicity with the United States Intelligence intermediaries with whom he frequently dealt. The stakes were raised and brother Ali was approached. In return for his endorsement Ali was made Prime Minister in 1958. The penalty for my father, should he have spoken out for himself, would have lost him the right to live out his old age in peace – he would have been repatriated back to an Iranian execution at the hands of the new, post-revolutionary Islamic order. The British Home Office never gave him full and unconditional citizenship, a deal to ensure his silence.
But the father shared the truth of the Imperial Mind with his son which is why I write to share my understanding with you. It is not just his experience but the workings of his typical Imperial Mind that I draw upon. The story of power in Iran is the same in every American puppet State across the globe, the evidence having now arrived through the courage and effort of International Non-Governmental Organisations and the honest enquiries of dedicated researchers.
But this in itself would not be enough reason for me to write this book. In scorn of people who write of problems without offering solutions, I should not repeat this shameful intellectual tradition. And this to me is the real reason for writing – to draw on my own studies and my own experience and offer a way out. I have no interest to defend and so no reason to lie. This is history to re-introduce you, gentle reader, to the real present that we live in and to a new future that we can make for ourselves without requiring the consent of the powerful.