Revisting the works of Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński recently, I happened to read Shah of Shahs, his 1982 non-fiction book analyzing the decline and fall of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.
Then, boning up on the actor Ralph Fiennes after watching a YouTube in which he discusses his acting career, I came upon Coup 53, a theatrical feature documentary on the story of Operation Ajax, the CIA/MI6 staged coup in 1953 in Iran that overthrew Prime Minister Mossadegh. You can watch it here on Internet Archive.
Fiennes reads the words of the M16 operative, named in the documentary but apparently never filmed, who, from the British end, masterminded the coup that overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh installed the Shah, and helped put and keep in place a dictatorial regime propped up by SAVAK, Iran’s brutally vicious secret police.
The CIA did the job for “us.”
The documentary is produced, directed and co-written by the Iranian-born filmmaker Taghi Amirani and co-written and edited by American Walter Murch who is considered without peer in the Hollywood film-editing and sound-editing worlds.
SYNOPSIS FROM THE DOC’S WEBSITE:
“While making a documentary about the CIA/MI6 coup in Iran in 1953, Iranian director Taghi Amirani and editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) discover never seen before archive material hidden for decades. The 16mm footage and documents not only allow the filmmakers to tell the story of the overthrow of the Iranian government in unprecedented detail but also leads to explosive revelations about dark secrets buried for 67 years. Working with Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Schindler’s List, The English Patient) to help bring the lost material to life, what begins as a historical documentary about four days in August 1953 turns into a live investigation, taking the filmmakers into uncharted cinematic waters. The roots of Iran’s volatile relationship with America and Britain has never been so forensically and dramatically exposed.”
Superbly written, shot, edited and paced, the documentary is horrifying on any number of levels, not least of which is the way it shows how the 1953 coup laid the groundwork for slews of subsequent similar CIA-sponsored coups throughout the world, as well as the Western conflicts with the Middle East that continue to this day. All in the name of democracy and all executed by means that were/are anything but democratic.
Does it even matter who we vote for? I thought this morning in prayer.
But closer to home, I also started thinking about the dirty wars I wage in my own heart. Wars that purport to be about fairness, decency, honesty, and truth–in interpersonal relations, for example–but that actually often take place in the underground dungeons of my psyche and that involve trumped-up allegations, enhanced interrogations, self-appointed judges, juries and executioners (me, always), and an utter lack of mercy.
Like the CIA and M16 ops who so glibly, with a smirk, dismiss their methods and the suffering they wreak on untold millions, I, too, can pass over my treachery and plotting, congratulating myself on what I prefer to think of as my ability to make boundaries, stand up for myself, and exercise (though I loathe the term) self-care.
I loathe the term but what is it but “self-care” that allows us to dismiss the suffering we impose on others either by commission or omission? What about the torture, the hot needles, the mutilated bodies, one of the U.S. ops is asked. with respect to the practices of SAVAK. He shrugs and with a faint smile responds in so many words, Well, when democracy is at stake, you do what you have to.
There’s nothing wrong with making boundaries, where appropriate, and taking care of our bodily, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
But you know what I mean.
However, let’s not despair!
“If it were not for Scripture on the one hand and Communion on the other, I could not bear my life, but daily it brings me joy in this sorrow which is part of our human condition, and a real, very real and vital sense of the meaning and the fruitfulness of these sufferings. Thomas á Kempis, a mystic not at all in fashion now, says that in the cross is joy of spirit. Jesus said, Take up your cross and follow me. There is no one living who is not bearing a cross of some kind… My grace is sufficient, God promises us….
Compassion — it is a word meaning ‘to suffer with.’ If we all carry a little of the burden, it will be lightened. If we share in the suffering of the world, then some will not have to endure so heavy an affliction. It evens out. What you do here in New York, in Harrisburg, helps those in China, India, South Africa, Europe, and Russia, as well as in the oasis where you are. You may think you are alone. But we are members one of another. We are children of God together…
I write to comfort others as I have been comforted. The word comfort too means to be strong together, to have fortitude together. There is the reminder of community. Once when I suffered and sat in church in a misery while waves and billows passed over me, I suddenly thought, with exultation, “I am sharing suffering,” and it was immediately lightened…
In patience you will possess your souls. Patience means suffering and suffering is spiritual work, and it is accomplishing something, though we don’t realise it until later. It is a part of our education, our pilgrimage to heaven. By it we keep in mind that all the way to heaven is heaven.
I have had so many years of experience of how God takes care of those who trust him. He is unfailing and will send us what we need.”
–Servant of God Dorothy Day
Leave a Reply