Word: shahs
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...which might be more important in the long term." Others point to the selective morality of Carter's stand; he sharply assails some repressive countries, but he goes easier on those that the U.S. considers vital to its own interests. Chile is excoriated, but little is said about the Shah of Iran's heavy-handed rule. Moreover, much of Carter's policy appears contradictory. He wants to develop better, closer relations with Third World countries, yet, if he were to be honest and consistent, he would chastise and penalize most of them for their human rights abuses. He wants...
...Shah's censors are strict in their refusal to publish anything that might be interpreted as subversive. Baraheni's allegedly subversive activities include two essays on Iranian history and culture, one of which appears in this volume, that carefully avoid any discussion of the current regime; but because he suggested that Iran faces major problems, he was subjected to torture...
...Doctorow suggests that Baraheni's experiences point to a new kind of poetry, designed for a world where human interaction has been reduced through technological advances to the rawest uses of power, to the crunch of bones and the smell of burning flesh. The United States has helped the Shah build up an apparatus of repression under which people can be interrogated without recourse to any legal process, freeing the Shah to spend his country's wealth without questions from the population...
...Both the Shah and Stalin...
...Crowned Cannibals could not have been published in Iran; it is written for Americans, people accustomed to thinking of their nation as free of torture and repression. Baraheni's description of Iran shows the fallacy of that belief: our aid has supported the Shah throughout his regime, as our aid has supported so many other repressive regimes throughout the world since the end of World War II. If they do no more, works like Baraheni's should remind us of the price at which our freedom at home is purchased abroad...