Far worse, in 1980, the US and Britain encouraged Iraq's dictator, Saddam Hussein, to invade Iran and overthrow its new Islamic government. Britain secretly supplied Iraq with anthrax and poison gas technology for use against Iran. It's an uneasy relationship, sometimes violent. Yet behind all the turbans and black chadoors, Iran was, in fact, changing and modernizing rapidly. Democracy, though half-formed and flawed, had taken root in its formerly arid political soil.
Real democracy means the ability to change governments peacefully.
This week's vote in Iran was a bombshell for the Muslim world which, after Africa, is the globe's most politically retarded area. Iranian voters broke the hold of religious conservatives on parliament. For any Muslim nation, such change was a great leap forward. Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states are all autocracies with sham elections. Turkey, hailed by the western media as a role model for Islamic nations, is run by a military oligarchy behind a fa ade of democratic politicians.