In early March, gas prices climbed almost overnight. Propane prices quickly followed. Anyone who uses fuel for a\u00a0car, a\u00a0truck, a\u00a0generator, or for home heating will soon feel that change in their bank\u00a0account.<\/p>\n
The reason isn\u2019t magic; it\u2019s the global energy system reacting to conflict. When tensions rise in the Middle East, energy markets respond immediately. And when the United States confronts another nation there, the cost falls first on ordinary\u00a0people.<\/p>\n
The economic consequences of conflict in the Middle East are felt first and most directly at the pump. Oil prices rise. Gasoline and diesel rise. The cost of transporting food and everyday goods rises. The ripple effects touch every household budget. Beyond the economics, the political and human consequences run much\u00a0deeper.<\/p>\n
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Wars don\u2019t exist in isolation. The U.S. interventions of the past have helped shape today\u2019s conditions. Policies that removed a\u00a0popular leader, backed a\u00a0closely aligned authoritarian government or spurred covert operations have created cycles of resentment and conflict that reverberate across\u00a0generations.<\/p>\n
The current U.S. war in Iran, and the language being used to justify it, strongly resembles past patterns, and that resemblance has consequences. The conflict has already pushed oil prices past $100 per barrel. And history shows that once war in the Middle East escalates, energy prices rarely retreat quickly; they surge first and settle much\u00a0later.<\/p>\n
To understand how we got here, and why this matters far beyond the price at the pump, it helps to step back and look at the long and painful history between the United States and\u00a0Iran.<\/p>\n
A Coup That Laid the Groundwork for a Revolution<\/p>\n
In August 1953, the United States and the United Kingdom orchestrated a\u00a0covert overthrow of Iran\u2019s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh had come to power after nationalizing Iran\u2019s oil industry, which Western interests had previously dominated. Those governments feared losing access to Iran\u2019s oil and worried about broader geopolitical influence during the Cold War. This marked the beginning of the modern era of U.S. involvement in\u00a0Iran.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and British intelligence coordinated Operation Ajax. They used propaganda, street protests and bribery to destabilize Mossadegh\u2019s government and led a\u00a0coup that removed him from office. In his place, they restored Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a\u00a0ruler who aligned Iran with Western powers and maintained a\u00a0pro\u2011American monarchy for the next 25\u00a0years.<\/p>\n
That intervention left deep resentment among many Iranians. The feeling of foreign powers determining their nation\u2019s future became a\u00a0central memory in Iranian political\u00a0identity.<\/p>\n
The feeling of foreign powers determining their nation\u2019s future became a central memory in Iranian political identity.<\/p>\n
Under the shah, Iran\u2019s revenues continued to flow out of the country, its political opposition was suppressed, and dissent was treated ruthlessly by the secret police. Many Iranians began to see the shah\u2019s government as corrupt and disconnected from their needs. That resentment built slowly until it could no longer be\u00a0contained.<\/p>\n
By late 1978, widespread protests rocked Iran. Students, workers, religious leaders and ordinary citizens took to the streets, demanding an end to the shah\u2019s rule. In January 1979, the shah fled the country. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a\u00a0passionate religious leader, returned from exile and quickly rose to power. The result was a\u00a0revolution that transformed Iran into an Islamic\u00a0republic.<\/p>\n
The new government of Iran made opposition to foreign interference a\u00a0core principle. That sentiment became the backdrop for one of the most significant crises in modern U.S. foreign\u00a0policy.<\/p>\n
In November 1979, a\u00a0group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. They took 52 American diplomats and embassy staff hostage and held them for 444\u00a0days, starting the Iran Hostage Crisis. This was more than a\u00a0diplomatic incident. It was a\u00a0national trauma for the United\u00a0States.<\/p>\n
The crisis began after the United States allowed the exiled shah to enter the country for medical treatment. Iranian revolutionaries saw this as a\u00a0possible first step toward reinstalling him. Their anger boiled over into violence at the embassy, and the hostages were held for over a\u00a0year.<\/p>\n
During that time, the United States tried negotiations. It also tried a\u00a0risky military rescue mission in the Iranian desert called Operation Eagle Claw. That mission failed when several helicopters malfunctioned, killing eight U.S.\u00a0servicemen.<\/p>\n
The hostage crisis ended in January 1981, on the very day Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president. For Americans, the protestors holding the hostages became a\u00a0symbol of U.S. humiliation. For Iranians, it was seen as a\u00a0necessary act of defiance and sovereignty after years of\u00a0interference.<\/p>\n
The disruption in Iranian oil production, combined with earlier OPEC production cuts and general instability in the Middle East, contributed to sharp increases in global fuel prices.<\/p>\n
But the economic consequences of upheaval in Iran were already being felt. The disruption in Iranian oil production, combined with earlier OPEC production cuts and general instability in the Middle East, contributed to sharp increases in global fuel prices. Throughout the United States, gas stations saw long lines, shortages, and higher prices that impacted daily life. Those fuel disruptions played a\u00a0role in public dissatisfaction with the economy and influenced politics throughout the late 1970s and early\u00a01980s.<\/p>\n
While the hostage crisis was still unresolved, a\u00a0new conflict erupted across Iran\u2019s western\u00a0border.<\/p>\n
In September 1980, Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq invaded Iran. Hussein believed Iran was weakened after the revolution and sought to seize oil\u2011rich territory along the border. What followed became the Iran\u2009\u2013\u2009Iraq War, an eight-year conflict that became one of the longest and deadliest wars of the 20th\u00a0century.<\/p>\n
Both sides launched massive attacks, targeted oil infrastructure and even used chemical weapons against troops and civilians. The war did not produce a\u00a0clear territorial victory. When it finally ended in 1988, both nations were exhausted and devastated, and millions of people had been killed or\u00a0wounded.<\/p>\n
The conflict between two major oil producers affected global energy markets. Production instability and threats to shipping increased fuel costs worldwide and disrupted economic stability in many countries, including the United\u00a0States.<\/p>\n
Less known among ordinary Americans, but no less consequential, was a\u00a0mid\u20111980s scandal that revealed secret U.S. foreign policy operations. Even as the United States publicly opposed Iran\u2019s government and its policies, a\u00a0senior official in the Reagan\u00a0administration<\/p>\n
arranged for secret arms sales to Iran in hopes of securing the release of Americans held by Iran-allied militant groups in\u00a0Lebanon.<\/p>\n
The Iran\u2011Contra affair revealed a willingness within the U.S. government to conduct covert operations that directly violated U.S. law and congressional authority.<\/p>\n
The profits from these arms sales were then illegally diverted to fund the Contras, violating explicit congressional bans on supporting the anti\u2011communist rebel fighters in Nicaragua. Several senior administration officials were implicated. Oliver North, a\u00a0Marine officer on the National Security Council, became the public face of the scandal, famously testifying before Congress that he had acted out of national security\u00a0concerns.<\/p>\n
The Iran\u2011Contra affair revealed a\u00a0willingness within the U.S. government to conduct covert operations that directly violated U.S. law and congressional authority. The fallout eroded public trust in government and highlighted the complexities and contradictions of U.S. foreign\u00a0policy.<\/p>\n
The Iraq War and Weapons of Mass Destruction<\/p>\n
These past crises have shaped how Americans view justifications for military action today, especially when government leaders invoke the specter of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).<\/p>\n
In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq under the leadership of former President George W. Bush, claiming that Saddam Hussein\u2019s regime possessed chemical, biological and, potentially, nuclear weapons. Those claims were used as the central rationale for\u00a0war.<\/p>\n
After the invasion, years of investigation found that Iraq had long since dismantled its WMD programs, and no active stockpiles were discovered. Intelligence failures, misinterpretations and political pressure combined to produce a\u00a0flawed justification for a\u00a0war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives and destabilized the region for\u00a0decades.<\/p>\n
The parallels with today\u2019s conflict in Iran are striking. Once again, claims about weapons programs are being publicly cited to justify military action. History should make that a\u00a0matter of scrutiny rather than unquestioned\u00a0acceptance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In early March, gas prices climbed almost overnight. Propane prices quickly followed. Anyone who uses fuel for a\u00a0car,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-556774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}