Operation Ajax

'Operation Ajax' was the codename for the US and UK-backed 1953 Iranian coup. The eponymous comic, available both in print and as an app, is a a great way to learn about this important historical event.

Here's what was supposed to be a quick summary of the event and its legacy:

In the first half of the 20th century, Iran's oil fields were owned and controlled by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), majority owned by the British government. The Iranians felt it was a bad deal: oil workers had poor rights and working conditions; oil wealth was being sucked out of the country into British hands. Iran had become a constitutional democracy in 1905: the royal family persisted with reduced powers; decisions were made by parliament and prime minister.

Mohammad Mossadegh and his party campaigned for the nationalization of the Iranian Oil Industry. They won the election and passed the nationalization bill, which would mean Britain and Iran splitting oil profits 50-50.

The British did not want this. They pulled their staff and resources out of Iran, used the British Navy to seize any oil tankers leaving the country, and arrested anyone who purchased oil from Iran - because it was the stolen property of AIOC.

Meanwhile, Mossadegh's regime was implementing various reforms and following his dream of a modern, economically self-sufficient Iran: women's suffrage, worker's rights, investing in development projects and infrastructure. But it was difficult, what with the trade embargoes and the economic sanctions and the foreign agents trying to destabilize the country.

Eventually, the British enlisted the help of the Americans in dealing with Iran. They told the world the Iranian regime was a communist puppet about to give control of Iran's oil to the Soviets. 

Hiding in the basement of America's embassy in Tehran, CIA and MI6 agents orchestrated the coup. They bought off whoever they could, and convinced military leaders to restore the monarchy's power and glory. They spread propaganda to turn people against the regime and yearn for the monarchical days. They hired fake communists to trash mosques while cheering for Mossadegh.

And so, as paid fake communist protesters clashed with paid royalist protesters, the bought-off army swooped in and took control. Mossadegh was tried for treason, and the Shah (King) of Iran had his powers restored. 

AIOC retook control of Iran's oil, and became British Petroleum, BP. The Americans wanted a share of the oil profits as a "Thankyou for helping with the coup d'etat." The British ended up with only 20 percent of the oil profits - less than they would have had if they'd agreed to Mossadegh's terms.

This event reverberates through history to the present day in so many, many ways.

It taught Middle Eastern countries a lesson: go along with Western corporate interests and you'll be fine. Promote democracy and nationalism, and we will crush you.

Emboldened by the success of the Iranian coup, the CIA was more confident orchestrating coups elsewhere in the world: Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, oh so many more coups.

For the next two decades the Shah of Iran was a close ally of the United States, but also a dictator whose secret police would ruthlessly crush any opposition groups. Frustration at his rule eventually exploded in the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when the monarchy was deposed (the Shah fled to the US) and Iran became the anti-West Islamist theocracy we know to this day. Iran's isolationism hearkens back to Mossadegh's dream of an independent self-sufficient Iran.

The revolutionists knew the CIA-MI6 agents had used the embassy as their base in 1953, so targeted it during the 1979 hostage crisis (filmed as 'Argo').

The Islamic Revolution freaked out Iraq - ruled by Saddam Hussein - and the US, who became allies against a common enemy. The US supplied Iraq with weapons during the Iran-Iraq War. I'm sure you're aware how the West's partnership with Saddam Hussein didn't end well...

The Islamic Revolution also influenced the Soviet's decision to invade Afghanistan, to curb the rise of Islamic groups - jihadists - opposed to the country's new communist regime. Because Cold War, the West supplied arms to the Afghani jihadists, because they shared a common enemy: communism. A young Osama Bin Laden, fresh out of university, joined the Afghani jihadists to fight the Soviets. A few years later he founded al-Qaeda...

Ah! My head! The history! It is too much! Soviet failure against the West-armed jihadists contributed to the fall of the USSR (non-Russian Soviet republics now knew the Red Army was not invincible - breaking away from Moscow's control was possible), which led to Putin's Russia. From the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 to the US invasion 2001, Afghanistan was left in a period of near-constant civil war, with most of the country controlled by the Taliban...

This event is so shatteringly important to world history, the least we can do is know about it.

'Inventing Hell' by Jon M. Sweeney

Our popular conception of Hell is very medieval rather than biblical: it owes more to Dante than to the Bible, and Dante's Hell owes more to Greek myth than it does to the Bible. In this slim volume, Sweeney takes us through the development of the Medieval Christian view of Hell, which finds its ultimate expression in Dante.

In the Old Testament, there is very little mention of the afterlife. Sheol, the ancient Israelite underworld, is a dark, gloomy, underground place where people go to 'rest with their ancestors' after they die. It's an inevitable, bland destination, not a place of reward or punishment.

The afterlife changes with the influence first of Zoroastrianism, then with Greek myth and philosophy. The Greek god Hades, a colourful character rules a slightly sadistic underworld with ironic punishments. The Elysium Fields, where the chosen of gods go for an afterlife of happiness.

Platonic philosophy teaches the immortality of the soul in more detail than the Bible. There was already monotheism in the Roman Empire by the time Christianity arrived, but Plato's religion was elitist, reserved for the rich higher-ups. Christianity popularized Platonic monotheism; the Gentile converts to Christianity knew little about the Jewish traditions they were supposed to be succeeding, and so turned to what was more familiar to them: Greek Philosophy. Early theologians thought Socrates et al were precursors of Jesus, sent by God to prepare the gentiles for Christianity. Paul, in his letters, and Socrates, in his dialogues, seem to echo each other - Judah had been conquered by the Greeks, who had attempted to Hellenize their culture. The Romans, who had adopted Greek culture as their own, continued to spread its ideas and myths to the Jews. Paul was a well-educated 1st century Jew.

Early and Medieval Christianity expanded on the Jesus myth with a range of apocryphal gospels and 'expanded universe' stories. On Holy Saturday, after his death but before Resurrection, Jesus descended into Hell to rescue the righteous who lived and died before him (they would have been automatically ineligible for salvation) - confronting, overpowering, and therefore enraging Satan in the process, leaving him more resolved to make the sinners suffer, taking his anger out on them. Before Dante, there were a bunch of other 'tours of the afterlife' narratives which are almost short prototypes for the Divine Comedy.

Scholastic theologians, Thomas Aquinas chief among them, spent a long time thinking about angels and demons. Aquinas was a massive influence on Dante; Aristotle was a massive influence on Aquinas. More Greek philosophy, merged with Christianity over a millennium after the crucifixion, re-introduced to Europe by way of Arabic translations of the original Greek re-translated into Latin. Christianity becomes not just Platonic monotheism repackaged, but Aristotelian theology re-interpreted with biblical images.

The Prophet Muhammad turns up in Dante's Inferno. Arabic translations had brought Aristotle back to Europe. By Dante's time, there were at least two (known) Latin translations of the Qur'an. It is not, therefore, impossible that Dante was inspired by the Qur'an's many, many, many descriptions of a fiery tortuous afterlife for sinners.

Inventing Hell's overview of these Hellish sources of inspiration is enjoyable, fast-paced, and actually quite fun. Sweeney's writing style is chatty and easy-reading, and the jokes are not cringeworthy. The book is, however, obviously very simplified for a popular audience, and felt a little too short. It is not a work of scholarship, but as an introduction or a refresher, it is really very good. I would have been quite happy if it was a bit longer, with more details on the sources, the philosophy, the myths, the 'expanded universe' stories, etc. 

The final chapter, in which Sweeney explains why he doesn't like Dante and hopes Hell will become less important to the Christianity of the future, felt like a rushed conclusion. The author is too eager to distance the Bible and Christianity from Hell, minimizing the fact that, despite the manifold extra-biblical influences on the idea of Hell, a punishing afterlife is still part of the New Testament. If you were able to remove the legacy of Dante and the Medieval Hell from Christianity, the fires of torment are still there. Sweeney comes across as in denial about the Bible's contents, wanting to push the aspects of Christianity he dislikes onto Dante.

"Ultimately, I choose not Dante's vengeful, predatory God who is anxious to tally faults, to reward and to punish. Instead I choose the God who creates and sustains us, who is incarnate and wants to be among us, and the God who inspires and comforts us. That God is the real one, the one I have come to know and understand, and that God has nothing to do with the medieval Hell."

This sounds nice, but ignores the vengeful, predatory God of the Old Testament (see Leviticus chapter 26 for one example of many), who obviously doesn't originate with Dante. It ignores Jesus' God, who will throw the goats into the fire, will burn the chaff of humanity in a big bonfire. It ignores the God of the epistles, who will do similar. It ignores the Jesus of Revelation, who will slaughter his way across the Earth, crushing people in 'the great winepress of the wrath of God', etc. Yes, Dante's sadistic afterlife isn't very nice, and the God who oversaw it wouldn't be very nice, but if you could strip Greek myth and philosophy from Medieval Christianity, leaving only the biblical influences, you'd still have a vengeful and capricious God. Sweeney comes across as someone who wants to be Christian because they've always been one, but, now they've matured, they don't want to be associated with all the crueler, sinister aspects of the Christian and Biblical traditions, so shift the blame for that onto something - in this case, Dante and his Greek influences - which they feel they can reject while leaving their faith broadly intact. It's an amusing, but unconvincing, display of mental gymnastics.

In conclusion: this book is good for its quick summary of the evolution of Hell, but unconvincing in the author's goal of distancing Hell from the Bible and Christianity.

Revelation 13: The Beasts

Straight after the vision of the Woman and the Dragon (see previous post), John is stood on the coast, watching a beast with 7 heads and 10 horns rise out of the sea. It is like a leopard with the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion. The dragon (Satan) gives the beast power and authority over the earth.

One of the beast's 7 heads is mortally wounded, but mysteriously heals.

The beast uses its earthy power to spew blasphemies against God and make war on his servants.

John sees a second beast rise from the earth: it is like a horned lamb which speaks like a dragon, and uses the power of the first beast to make the people of earth worship the first beast and blaspheme God. The second beast performs miracles, which convince the people to worship the first beast.

'And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.'

What are we to make of all this?

The Old Testament prophet Daniel has a dream of four beasts rising out of the sea; he is told these beasts represent four kingdoms. A beast like a lion represents the Babylonian Empire. A beast like a bear represents the Persian Empire. A beast like a leopard represents the Greek Empire. The fourth beast, with ten horns, represents the Roman Republic.

Daniel's dream sequence ends with the 'one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven... And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion.' The Messiah descending from Heaven to conquer the world.

The Babylonian Empire (lion) was conquered by the Persians (bear). The Persians were conquered by the Greeks (leopard). And the Greeks were conquered by the Romans (ten horns). The Roman Republic became an empire.

John's Beast from the Sea is a composite of Daniel's four beasts: leopard, bear, lion, ten horns. It represents the new and expanded Roman Empire.

The seven heads represent the emperors who had ruled since the transition from republic to empire: Augustus onwards. Although there is considerable disagreement among scholars as to exactly which emperors they are supposed to represent.

There are some clues that one of emperors is Nero. One of the beast's heads recovers from a mortal wound: there was a popular rumor that Nero had been killed by his own sword. It was a surprise when it turned out false. There is also the numerological evidence: the numbers of the letters in the Hebrew spelling of Nero Caesar add up to 666.

Nero is the emperor most famous for persecuting Christians - he burnt Christians alive as torches to illuminate his garden.

So, the first beast, the Beast of the Sea, is the Roman Empire.

The second beast, the horned lamb performing miracles, is the Roman pagan cult, which treated the emperor as a god. The mark of the beast, without which one cannot buy or sell, could be Roman currency, which was printed with the heads of the emperors. Elaine Pagels, whose book is my main source for the historical context for Revelation, speculates that it could represent some bureaucratic stamps or marks necessary to buy or sell.

I have to go to work now, so am ending this post here!