Word: shahs
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...commander in chief, the Shah has created an impressive military force that one Pentagon expert sums up as "effective, still on a learning curve with some new weapons and, above all, loyal." Apart from a few army units that crossed the Persian Gulf in 1974 to help the Sultanate of Oman put down a rebellion by the Dhofor rebels, or served with United Nations peacekeeping forces, Iran's military has not been tested in combat, but it is awesomely equipped. In the past two decades, Iran has bought $36 billion in weaponry, most of it from Britain...
...grand Communist design, linked to Russian moves on the Horn of Africa and in Afghanistan. Nevertheless, a lot of the most sophisticated equipment, including British-made Chieftain tanks and F-4 Phantoms, was deployed around the capital rather than along the Soviet border, obviously to help protect the Shah...
...book called Iran: The Illusion of Power, British Military Expert Robert Graham argues that possession of a large and varied force is an advantage to the Shah rather than a potential threat to his continuing rule. "A large military establishment," Graham writes, "enables the Shah to fragment individual power bases, making it much more difficult for dissident elements to mount a cohesive opposition." A graduate of Tehran's Military College, the Shah has involved himself deeply in the promotion of all officers, even at middle-grade levels. Liaison between the army, navy and air force, which were separated into...
...Rear Admiral Ramzi Abbas Ata'i was found guilty of embezzling $25 million and fined $3.7 million. Some Iranians argue that his case was an exception and that top officers by and large are honest. Critics insist that graft is common and condoned, and that the Shah was forced to prosecute Ata'i only because his activities, which included transporting duty-free luxury goods from the Emirate of Dubai aboard navy ships, had become a general scandal...
...Shah's attention to his armed forces has paid off. In the current crisis, the loyalty of his officers is unquestioned. The army's highly trained paratroop units, which include large numbers of Turks, Kurds and Baluchis, from provinces where the Shah is considered a father figure, have not hesitated to fire into unruly crowds when ordered to do so. Explained one paratroop captain to TIME Correspondent Brelis last week: "You can think of us having the same loyalty to the Shah that American officers have to the President of the U.S. Maybe if our recruits came...