138.
She caught her breath. “Conrad! Are you the ones they are looking for?”
Conrad put an arm around her. “I want you to tell Oliver about 1953.”
“You must leave the city immediately!”, she gasped.
Conrad was insistent. “We have come here to Iran to hear her story. We cannot leave until you tell it.”
A weary look of resignation settled on Amira’s face. Then her eyes caught fire. “Assholes!”, she shrieked. “You assholes have ruined my country for over fifty years!
First the God damned Shah, then Khomeini and now this monkey Ahmadinejad!”
“We have a monkey of our own.”, I said quietly. “Our monkey used the murder of three thousand Americans as an excuse to conquer a country that had nothing to do with it.”
She put a hand on her chest. Her fury melted and her eyes welled up. “Oh, Conrad, you are lucky to have found this man.” She looked into my eyes for a long time before making up her mind completely. “I will tell you my country’s story. Your monkey, George Bush has said that he wants to bring democracy to the Middle East when in fact your country snuffed it out when it had just begun to flower. It bloomed right under the nose of the British Empire that had been stealing my country’s oil since 1910 and it bloomed under the nose of the Shah who the British had installed as a puppet monarch. But the British had not counted on the Iranian parliament and their outspoken leader, Mohammed Mossadegh. The British had been taking all but 16% of our oil revenues. When Mossadegh had the temerity to ask them to open their books, they refused. His next offer was fifty-fifty, take it or leave it.”
“We have a monkey of our own.”, I said quietly. “Our monkey used the murder of three thousand Americans as an excuse to conquer a country that had nothing to do with it.”
She put a hand on her chest. Her fury melted and her eyes welled up. “Oh, Conrad, you are lucky to have found this man.” She looked into my eyes for a long time before making up her mind completely. “I will tell you my country’s story. Your monkey, George Bush has said that he wants to bring democracy to the Middle East when in fact your country snuffed it out when it had just begun to flower. It bloomed right under the nose of the British Empire that had been stealing my country’s oil since 1910 and it bloomed under the nose of the Shah who the British had installed as a puppet monarch. But the British had not counted on the Iranian parliament and their outspoken leader, Mohammed Mossadegh. The British had been taking all but 16% of our oil revenues. When Mossadegh had the temerity to ask them to open their books, they refused. His next offer was fifty-fifty, take it or leave it.”
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