Hi Folks,

1. Check Stephen Kinzer’s (veteran New York Times reporter) article
on the potential relationship between events in Georgia and what may
be visited upon Iran. An important point in Kinzer’s argument is his
observation that: “American policy toward Iran has for decades been
shaped by emotion, not rationality.

” Clearly other considerations
govern U.S. foreign policy towards Iran (oil?!). Nonetheless, the
article is worth reading. It is entitled “Attacking Iran via South
Ossetia: Could the conflict between Russia and Georgia be the excuse
the Bush administration has been looking for to bomb Iran?” at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/20/usforeignpolicy.iran/print.
A pdf version is available.

2. Kinzer is the author of “All the Shah’s Men,” an excellent
account of the overthrow of Dr. Mossadeq’s government in August
1953. On the occasion, this week, of the 55th anniversary of that
momentous event, I recommend an article by Faramarz Farbod entitled,
“More than Just Another Overthrow: Let’s not Forget Mossadeq in
Iran.” The article’s abstract is as follows:

“Fifty-five years ago this week, in mid-August of 1953, Dr. Mohammad
Mossadeq, the prime minister of Iran, was toppled in a royalist coup
code-named Operation AJAX by its US and British backers. The coup
delivered a severe blow to the cause of constitutionalism, democracy,
and the rule of law in Iran, and ultimately altered the path of
politics there, in the region, and globally in ways that ought to be
familiar to discerning readers today.”

If you don’t have time to read the entire article, check out the
quote in the article from a New York Times editorial dated August 6th, 1954.

Read it at: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/18494#_edn2. A pdf
version is available.