Our need to reset with Turkey and Iran

Ali Muhammed
   Iran and Turkey have been intertwined with the United States in a special historical significance since World War II as the American influence empire reached its zenith during this tie period. Author Stephan Kinzer examines this special relationship and how our meddling into these two countries affairs caused revolutions and determined a new course of the history of these two  partners of the cold war. The history of Iran and Turkey is covered in the early twentieth century and how leaders of these two countries almost saw their lands divided up by victorious allies following World War I. Both countries realized they needed to adapt.

Mustafa Kemel fought a coalition of European allies and the Greeks before they agreed to not divide the Turks homeland and give large chunks to Greeks, Armenians, and the Kurds and a whole chapter is devoted to the secular traditions that Kemal outlined for the new Turkish republic. It didn't hurt that the Turks won one of the major campaigns by the British during the Great War as Turks were basically fighting for their very existence. Kinzer covers own quickly these two countries modernized and this often meant becoming more corrupt and less democratic institutions than the Western countries they were trying to imitate. The legacy of the repression by the Shah of Iran against reformers would lead to the Islamic revolution and a new force in the region as the groundwork was laid with the American and British coup over the elected government of Mossadegh and his nationalizing of assets and oil. This story had been rehashed many times and fortunely the author spends little time discussing the removal of the Iranian prime minister and instead focuses on the relationship the Shah had with our side during the cold war. Turkey and Iran have seen countless armies and nations bulldozing through their lands and their ability to adapt and survive these numerous incursions is amazing. They even had to deal with brutal inept rule from their own as with Mohammed Reza Shah and their refusal to pursue a democratic project of their own despite the clamoring of it from the people. This book calls for a new resetting of our relationship with these two important countries who should be more important players in the region instead of the billions we waste having bases to police these distant seas in support of the big oil burners who refuse to move onto cleaner technology. Kinzer ends the book with a list of benefits we could get from stronger relations with these two countries especially Iran as the new cold war and the threat a resurgent though desperate Russia sees itself in its final stages of an important player in world history and basically that Iran, Turkey, and the United States should of been natural and strategic partners for all these years instead of adversaries.