In March I had a column entitled "Outside Our Borders" which included two books by Phyllis Bennis that were published for adults but I thought worked also for older teens. Here is part of my review of her titles:

Olive Press has just released two excellent titles from author Phyllis Bennis, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC. Both Understanding the US-Iran Crisis and Ending the Iraq War are perfect choices for teens researching US history and policy as it applies to Iran and Iraq. The books are designed around clearly set question and answer sections and chapters that parcel history from modern events but build successively on previous sections. This translates into a lot of easy to digest information such as the bit from Understanding the US-Iran Crisis about how the company British Petroleum was initially named the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and developed so that the British government could exploit what later became the Iranian oil fields. (The company dates to 1908 and is still majority-owned by the government.) Bennis excels at this kind of information, not just thrown out for trivial shock, but to show how in the case of Iran, oil was key to western involvement in that country from the beginning of the 20th century and played a huge part in the removal of its democratically elected leader in 1953 and installation of the Shah of Iran… by the United States.

The point Bennis strives to make about Iran and the U.S. is that their relationship is both rather old and exceedingly complicated. You can’t casually describe it with words like “oil,” “Shah,” “embassy hostages” or “axis of evil.” She chips away at the preconceptions Americans have of Iran and while most certainly not dismissing any of Iranian faults (recent comments about destroying Israel are discussed), she is clear about how one country has played for and against the other repeatedly in the past, from working hand in hand through the '70s under the Shah to America’s funding of the Iraqi side of the Iran-Iraq War. (Funding which Bennis asserts was primarily done to prolong the war and weaken both countries.) She points out the positive diplomatic exchanges between the U.S. and Iran post 9/11 and potential for future exchanges. By the book’s end Bennis proves that casting aside or even worse bombing Iran is not a logical choice given the long relationship between the two countries. She accomplishes this in just over 100 pages and provides ample resources for those looking to learn more.

There has been an enormous amount of rhetoric in the past few days about how the US should respond to the uprising in Iran. I think President Obama has done an outstanding job of making it clear that this is Iran's conflict and must remain so without any interference or suggestion of interference from the US. Just because we do not learn US/Iranian history in school does not mean that they do not. Consider this from Nicolas Kristoff today:

The Iranian people have been seething for more than half a century at the way the United States organized a coup in 1953 to block the democratic will of the people. It’ll be interesting to see if anger at the regime for — apparently — blocking the democratic will of the people has as big a legacy.

In my experience, when regimes have to go after citizens with truncheons and belt buckles, it’s usually a pretty good sign that they do so because they can’t succeed any other way; it’s a reflection that they have no legitimacy left.

This government is in trouble for many many reasons far beyond the election results - they are simply the final straw. But after reading Bennis' fine and concise scholarship and truly getting a grasp on how involved the US and Britain were in Iranian politics and policies prior to the 1979 revolution, I am so thankful that thus far our government has responded with very short, cautious comments. It is not a case of "they do not like us over there" it is very much a matter of "they know better than to trust us over there". It is a mystery to me why we spend so much time in school learning about the same wars over and over again and not devoting all of high school to the interventions that still affect us today. We should all know about the 1953 coup and the oil leases that prompted US involvement. We should know what our country did to theirs and how they remember it still - how they are taught about it still. This knowledge (which apparently eludes some members of Congress) is what is prompting President Obama to be so cautious and allowing the uprising to unfold as it should - among the Iranian people.

All we can do is watch and listen and make sure they know that this time what happens in Iran is something the whole world will remember.

[Post title from Pres. Obama's comments 6/15/09]