The Shah

An old adage says the road to hell is paved with good intentions and this often means people with kindness and compassion in their hearts. A recent example is the caring people who saw the migrants crossing the southern border as poor souls running for their lives to a country where all they wanted was freedom to live in peace. While many of these people now have a better life the unexpected consequences have caused undo hardship on many others. This also happened when President Carter realized that the Shah was a dictator, who used authoritarian rule to suppress his people, using the secret police. Being that Carter was a kind hearted soul who believed in freedom, he worked to help the people of Iran to overthrow the Shah. He meant well but little did he know that the Ayatollah Komeini would be worse. The people of Iran have suffered under this dictator in ways even worse than under the Shah. President Jimmy Carter expressed deep regrets over his administration's handling of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and admitted it was a mistake to believe advisors who encouraged actions that contributed to the Shah’s fall. He specifically cited misjudging the strength of the revolution and, in his memoirs, noted that admitting the sick Shah into the U.S. was a mistake, as it allowed for the hostage crisis. All too often people allow their hearts to overrule their heads or to use another adage Cool heads must prevail.