Bad Iran?

As we get in a slather about Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, (the "man of peace") and his visit to the US, there are a few things to keep in mind. Take for instance the following:

Iran Population: 70,472,846 (2006 est.) wiki Iran

Iraq Population: 26,783,383 (2006 est.) wiki Iraq

Israel Population: 7,184,000 (2007 est.) wiki Israel

...by way of comparison, the SF Bay Area population is equivalent to Israel, the State of Texas is equivalent to Iraq and the population of California AND New York combined is still smaller than Iran.

and now for a little history.
In 1951, a nationalist politician, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh was elected Prime Minister of Iran. Mossadegh became enormously popular by nationalizing British Petroleum/BP (then known as Anglo-Iranian Oil Company), which controlled Iran's oil reserves.

In 1953, President Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax, and the CIA worked to overthrow Mossadegh and install a U.S.-friendly monarch (the Shah of Iran); and for which the U.S. Government apologized in 2000.

The Iranian Revolution overthrew the Shah in 1979. Shortly thereafter the US froze Iran financial assets (still frozen in 2007) and with the support of President George H. Bush (Papa Doc Bush) the US provided Iraq with illegal chemical and biological materials which were used as weapons against Iran's defenders and civilians from 1980 through 1988.

There were more than 100,000 Iranian victims of Iraq's chemical weapons during the eight-year war.

The total Iranian casualties of the war are estimated to be between half a million and a million persons. Almost all relevant international agencies have unanimously confirmed that Iran never used chemical weapons during the war.




They hate us because of our freedoms?
I don't think so.

...back to the numbers:

Reported U.S. military deaths in Iraq: 3,800 (Sep 25, 2007) icasualties.org
Estimated number of injuries to US military personnel: 36,943 including catastrophic amputation and grievous brain injuries according to the same source. Add approximately 1,000 deaths, if you wish to included 'contractors' (read Mercenaries), who have died in this current war on Iraq

Number of Iraqis slaughtered since the U.S. attacked Iraq:
1,062,267 according to justforeignpolicy.org (and Lancet, the British medical magazine)or 73,606 to 80,224 according to iraqbodycount.org.

… many of the deaths have occurred due to aerial attacks, with women and children being frequent victims, wrote an international team of public health researchers, according to the Washington Post.
Number of Iraqis made refugees as a result of the U.S. war on Iraq: 3.8 million according to USA Today (February 07, 2007)