Remembering Jimmy Carter. Remembering Iran of old

Me and Ray, Iranian desert, near Isfahan, May 1975...

I was in Iran when it was run by The Shah of Iran. May of 1975. We were on our way from London to India in an old Ford Anglia, and stopped off to visit friends who were living in Isfahan, in the middle of the country. So we drove there. It's a near 500km trip, south, via the fabled city of Qum. 

Had a lot of fun. Stayed with our friends and met their students, learning English. Lovely folk, free and easy. 

That was 1975. 

Four years later, the world changed. The Shah was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomenei, who'd been exiled in France. Somehow he managed a coup, returned as a conquering hero. I remember it still. The adulation. Supported by the Left in Iran. The infamous Red-Green alliance.

Supported too by the new president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. He didn't like the Shah, cause he kept dungeons. Where he tossed his political enemies. 

Thing is: This was yet another case of Thomas Sowell's dictum: "There are no solutions. Only trade-offs." 

Carter thought in solutions. The Shah was a tyrant, so had to go. That's the solution. But it wasn't a solution. As we know from what happened. From then until today. 

The immediate result was that Khomeini turned on his Leftist backers. He had them all rounded up and killed. By his sidekick Ebrahim Raisi, who met his 72 virgins in a helicopter crash last year. Before ascending to his heaven, Raisi managed to jail and kill over 30,000 leftist students, erstwhile Ayatollah supporter. So much for the Red-Green alliance. 

Shortly after all this, I read a book about the time; "The Stoning of Soraya M". It's a book that's stayed with me. 

For here's the thing: The Shah may have been cruel to his political enemies. But the Ayatollah was way worse. As in waaaaay worse. For forty years we've witnessed the horrors of an Islamic Theocracy.

First up, they thought they'd humiliate Jimmy Carter -- and the United States --- himself, their loudest supporter. How well I remember the Iranian leftists, the students, who stormed the American Embassy in Tehran and took the diplomats hostage. How well I recall the disastrous rescue attempt. 

But mostly I recall Carter's naive, pathetic, ill-informed, support for the Islamic Theocracy. For which he never once apologised. And we're supposed to wish him well on his way to heaven? 

No Jimmy. Who compounded his huge Iranian mistake by hating on Israel. Because Jews in America, normally well-heeled and loyal Dem supporters, turned against him to turf him out of office, because of his middle east failures, which he then held against them. And so went all pro-Palestinian and invented the "Israel as an apartheid state" myth. He says it in his book, "Israel: Peace not Apartheid". 

So, no, I don't think we need speak well of the dead. He's dead. He had his day. His influence was bad. His impact on the world was negative. He made the world a worse place, by helping empower Mad Mullahs and Killer Khomeinis. 

... and the result. Cliff climbing, in the Iranian desert, 1975

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ADDED: The Shah of Iran was a moderniser. He tried to westernise the country. To empower women. To develop a democracy. He didn't get it all right. Society was far more conservative that he'd counted on. He had adversaries. Which he hndled by tossing them in dungeons. Not at all nice dungeons, let us be clear. But how was Shah Pahalavi compared to the Bearded Mullahs that came after? The Islamic theocratic dictators were clearly much worse. And remain so right up until today. 

The Iranin Beard-ocracy is hugely unpopular. We know this from various uprisings by young people. Women especially don't like one little bit having to cover their hair. On pain of imprisonment or worse. We have failed them every time they've risen up: under Obama and under Biden. Shame on us. 

That's why I say there's no solutions, only trade-offs. The trade off in Iran was clearly -- even then, not just in retrospect -- between one less than perfect government of the Shah and a far less perfect, indeed horrid, government of bearded Islamic nut-jobs. Who hate on the West, on Women, on Democracy, on "Infidels', on all of us in the enlightenment world, and, just to be clear, on Jews and Israel. 

Thanks Jimmy. Not. 

And... 

• Barack and the Donald yuck it up at Carter's funeral
• Ruthie Blum sticks it to Carter. Yes, it's ok to speak ill of the dead.