Advice to the young...and old.

 

Dear Mother, How we got here,
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (26 October 1919 – 27 July 1980) was the Shah of Iran. In 1941, he succeeded his father Reza Shah and ruled the Imperial State of Iran until 1979 when the Iranian Revolution overthrew him.

During World War II, the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran forced the abdication of Reza Shah and succession of Mohammad Reza Shah. During his reign, the British-owned oil industry was nationalized by the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had support from Iran's national parliament to do so; however, Mosaddegh was overthrown in the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, which was carried out by the Iranian military under the aegis of the United Kingdom and the United States. Subsequently, the Iranian government centralized power under the Shah and brought foreign oil companies back into the country's industry through the Consortium Agreement of 1954.

In 1963, Mohammad Reza Shah introduced the White Revolution, a series of reforms … modernizing the nation by nationalizing key industries and redistributing land.

By 1977, the Shah's focus on defense spending to end foreign powers' intervention .

As political unrest ... late 1970s, the Shah's position was made untenable by the Cinema Rex fire and the Jaleh Square massacre. The 1979 Guadeloupe Conference ... there was no feasible way to save the Iranian monarchy from being overthrown. The Shah ultimately left Iran for exile in January 1979.

After formally abolishing the Iranian monarchy, shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini assumed leadership as the Supreme Leader of Iran.

Operation Cyclone, a program to organize and support the Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet–Afghan War (1979–89).

The Iran hostage crisis (Persian:بحران گروگانگیری سفارت آمریکا) began on November 4, 1979, when 66 Americans, including diplomats and other civilian personnel, were taken hostage at the Embassy of the United States in Tehran, with 52 of them being held until January 20, 1981.

Operation Cyclone was one of the longest and most expensive covert CIA operations ever undertaken. Funding officially began with $695,000 in mid-1979, was increased dramatically to $20–$30 million per year in 1980, and rose to $630 million per year in 1987, described as the "biggest bequest to any Third World insurgency". $2.1 billion.

Funding continued (albeit reduced) after the 1989 Soviet withdrawal, as the mujahideen continued to battle the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan during the First Afghan Civil War.

Ronald Reagan and Congress deny Afghanistan civilian reconstruction aid after Russia’s withdrawal of military forces. Leaving millions of people destitute after the war.
Mujahideen leader Osama bin Laden takes it personally. (IMHO)
The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991. He (Putin)resigned(KGB) in 1991 to begin a political career in Saint Petersburg. In 1996, he moved to Moscow to join the administration of President Boris Yeltsin.

11 years later 9/11 2001 Attacks at World Trade Towers NYC.

Afghanistan (2001-2021) American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.

OPERATION NEW DAWN U.S. CASUALTY STATUS 2

Total Deaths Hostile Deaths Non-Hostile Pending WIA

OND U.S. Military Casualties 74 38 36 0 298

OND U.S. DOD Civilian Casualties 0 0 0 0

Totals 74 38 36 0 298

2 OPERATION NEW DAWN includes casualties that occurred between Sept. 1, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2011, in the Arabian Sea, Bahrain, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Personnel injured in OND who die after Dec. 31, 2011, will be included in OND statistics.

OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM U.S. CASUALTY STATUS 3, 4

OEF U.S. Military Casualties Total Deaths Hostile Deaths Non-Hostile Pending WIA

Afghanistan Only 3 2,219 1,833 385 1 20,093

Other Locations 4 131 12 119 0 56

OEF U.S. DOD Civilian Casualties 4 2 2 0

Worldwide Total 2,354 1,847 506 1 20,149

Wars in Iraq (2003-2011) American service members killed in Iraq 4432.

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM U.S. CASUALTY STATUS1

Total Deaths Hostile Deaths Non-Hostile Pending WIA

OIF U.S. Military Casualties 4,419 3,482 937 0 31,993

OIF U.S. DOD Civilian Casualties 13 9 4 0

Totals 4,432 3,491 941 0 31,993

PAYING FOR A WAR ON CREDIT, NOT IN CASH:

Amount President Harry Truman temporarily raised top tax rates to pay for Korean War: 92%.

Amount President Lyndon Johnson temporarily raised top tax rates to pay for Vietnam War: 77%.

Amount President George W. Bush cut tax rates for the wealthiest, rather than raise them, at outset of Afghanistan and Iraq wars: At least 8%.

Estimated amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war costs that the United States has debt-financed as of 2020: $2 trillion.

Estimated interest costs by 2050: Up to $6.5 trillion.

Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths

https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar

Obama presidency-New legislation cost $5.0 trillion over the 2009–19 period. However, $4.1 trillion of this “cost” came from basic extensions of expiring taxes including the Bush-era tax cuts. Economic stimulus added $2.0 trillion in spending, and discretionary spending caps and mandatory sequestrations saved $800 billion.

slower economic recovery and technical changes saved $400 billion over the decade relative to the January 2009 baseline, as lower tax revenues were offset by lower interest payments on the national debt, the result of recession-dampened interest rates.

Republican House and eventual Republican Senate, $889 billion in net spending cuts were enacted,

The economic policy of the first Trump administration was characterized by the individual and corporate tax cuts, attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), trade protectionism, deregulation focused on the energy and financial sectors, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump as president approved large increases in government spending, as well as the 2017 tax cut. As a result, the federal budget deficit increased by almost 50%, to nearly $1 trillion (~$1.18 trillion in 2023) in 2019. ...the U.S. national debt increased by 39%, reaching $27.75 trillion

Trump took office for the first time at the height of the longest economic expansion in American history. The 128-month (10.7-year) economic expansion that began in June(Obama) 2009 abruptly ended at a peak in February 2020, with the U.S. entering a recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. unemployment rate, which had hit a 50-year low (3.5%) in February 2020, hit a 90-year high (14.7%) just two months later, matching Great Depression levels. In response, Trump signed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) on March 27, 2020 which helped maintain family incomes and savings during the crisis, but contributed to a $3.1 trillion budget deficit (14.9% GDP) for fiscal year 2020, the largest since 1945

Analysts argued that there is little evidence that either the economy or employment was impacted in the first 2.5 years of his term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_policy_of_the_first_Donald_Trump_administration

Does anyone else read this and see that from 1945 onward the United States through the joining in decisions to overthrow foreign governments; for the gain of oil money for a privileged class, has been lied to and led into destruction, death, and misery by the overt and covert acts actions of the United States CIA-(believing they were countering KGB) moving the decisions of The Presidents 1945-Present? Through the overt and covert actions of the leaders of the Soviet Union? Who one moment stand by us (WWII-the U.N.) the next invading nations (Korea)(Afghanistan)showing their contempt for the U.S.. From 1979 when the U.S. intervened into Afghanistan the Soviet Union, with Putin in the KGB led Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to counter CIA involvement and took 66 American Hostages. And capitulated all through Regan’s years until the 1989 in disgraceful retreat from Afghanistan, through 1991 and shameful dismemberment the Soviet Union, Putin lived dreaming of retribution. Then with the 9/11 attacks and a new inexperienced Bush and a war on terror, Putin played his dream out. Drawing the U.S. with ‘weapons of mass destruction’ into Iraq. Making Iraq the retribution for Soviet failure in Afghanistan. And all of this at a cost of hundreds of thousands of Lives, and today Trump holds the future of our nation? Who is the pawn and who is the player?
Father told me...”Let your First Mistake be the most Expensive.”

“Own your mistake. Pay your Debt.” “And Move ON.” Retribution & Revenge leads only to more.

---FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU-- --FOOL ME TWICE,SHAME ON ME!!!==