Hello Steemit,
In 1979 I was a 6 year old white boy in Millbrook Alabama. I was lucky. Both my parents went to college, my dad figured out a way to make a good income selling soybean and cotton options and futures to farmers. We had a pool, a big yard with about a hundred pine trees in it and a tree house. Our maid lived in a cinder block hut a couple miles away with a tin roof and no electricity. When we dropped her off one day, I could barely believe that she lived there with about a dozen children and grandchildren. At that point, I first realized I had some ridiculous advantages to be thankful for.
The TV was usually on in my house. Usually my dad would come home from work and have some gin or Miller lite. I'd watch the TV every night while my parents talked or argued or whatever. Every night I remember seeing these images:
The "hostage crisis" was on the news every night for what seemed like forever to my 6 year old brain. I didn't know why the images of blindfolded innocent Americans that looked like my dad made a made impact on my psyche, but they did. I thought "Iran" sounded like the most horrible place in the world.
The idea that many Iranians disagreed with their government or the idea any group of people could be the unwilling, coerced victims of the arbitrary power of a corrupt government was not explained to me by anyone. However, the idea that a entire country could be evil was pounded into my little skull. I was brainwashed.
"I was brainwashed."
The whole "crisis" disappeared as far as I could tell after Reagan was elected. My 8 year old self was relieved. The lives of a few dozen Americans were saved. It wasn't very important to me, a daily watcher of news, that approximately a half million innocent Iranian and Iraqi civilians died in a war over the next 8 years. In fact, this seemed to be a good thing. My childish brain thought I was lucky that Iraq was fighting Iran. If the Iranians were busy fighting their neighbour maybe they would not have time to come over to America and blindfold people.
A country that had once been like this:
Had turned into a country like this:
Unlucky people in Iran-Iraq war:
Later the US government helped this man build his security forces up with billions of dollars of loans and weapons purchases:
Sadam was required to take out loans from US banks, buy weapons from US military contractors and make war against Iran in order to keep his position of power.
The big banks of the world were making big loans and facilitating big $USD transactions on a consistent basis. Mass murder? Not a issue. Banquets with homicidal dictators? Not a issue. Chemical Weapons? We will sell you some and we will finance it too!…just talk to our select group of politically powerful banks that give millions of dollars two major political parties every election. The absolute destruction of an entire region of the world and the hundreds of millions of people in the region. Not really a big issue as long as the money keeps flowing to the right people:
There are plenty of ways to learn more about the US involvement with Iran if you aren't familiar with it but I assume you know the basics.
I am not rich. I doubt I will ever be as rich as Jamie Dimon and I do not begrudge him hard earned wealth. I do hope that the rise of crypto currencies will help the poor unbanked 3 billion of the world. I hope that the rise of crypto currencies helps reduce the power of the big banks and oil companies on US foreign policy. I believe, the foreign policy of "divided and conquer" and "fighting for scare resources" needs to be replaced with a foreign policy of mutual prosperity a foreign policy of respecting life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for humans all over the world regardless of what corrupt government some humans are living under.
