It may be easy to label Tehran's quest for nuclear energy as dangerous and raising grave regional and international implications. But just as dangerous is the notion of making any fruitful effort to uncover the seeds of its intransigence.

Iran's quest for nuclear energy stems purely for a need for empowerment that over the last century, saw it being the plaything of Great Britain, Russia, and now the United States.

There, are two things Iranian schoolchildren know. One is the twisted notion that Persians are a superior race, as expressed in their national anthem. And the other, that a CIA-sponsored coup helped overthrow then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953.

Hard as it may be to believe, Russia and Britain even opposed and denied the basic technology like rail transport and other key infrastructure vitally needed for a sprawling nation.

Perhaps, their fears were rooted in the Indian experience where the British, having had built rail transport, saw many of the disparate races rise in rebellion against them.

Even as these fears, exploitation and manipulation take on a life of their own to exhibit a vice-like grip on the nation, Western denial of Iran's economic sovereignty eventually led to a fatal showdown in the 1950s.

The move to nationalise Iran's oil industry and the despatching of Mossadegh into exile, were scars that have never healed in a nation where pride is a premium and humiliation always exacts revenge.

Shah Reza Pahlavi's puppet regime, installed to safeguard American geopolitical interests, had no wish to oversee the affairs of his people or their welfare. Together, with the Savak secret police, the Shah was no different from neighbour Saddam Hussein in the way he subjugated his people through fear and torture.

All these unsurprisingly were taking a heavy toll on a nation's pride which stood at the point of implosion.

In 1979, Islamic students - of whom current president Ahmadinejad is rumoured to have been one - stormed the US embassy taking hostages.

Such a turn of events clearly appalled Americans and their collective sense of historical amnesia.

Agony of defeat

For the US, gasping the psychological dimensions of defeat at the hands of foreigners is indeed difficult.

To this day, they have yet to get over the Vietnam syndrome and if the tide in Iraq turns against Washington, another intense period of self-introspection will follow, heralding perhaps, clamour for isolationism.

If anybody cares to remember, Iran was convulsed by four major civil wars and in each one of them, Turks, Afghans, Russian and Britain played major roles.

Such intrusions had enough of a lasting and searing impact on the US psyche for it to feel the way it does today: suspicions of outsiders and insecure.

Iran's pursuit of nuclear energy has become a national symbol of defiance transcending all other considerations.

Should the West resort to strong-arm tactics such as military strikes, what it exacts will only be cosmetic. It can only deny Iran nuclear technology only for a time.

What a Western confrontation entails is an opportunity for them to blame outsiders for their misfortunes, and choose not to focus on their road to modernity. If that happens, Iran will probably seek its own way towards its nuclear Holy Grail.

Legend has it that Persian king Hushang introduced fire to the Iranians after he accidentally discovered it while fighting a dragon.

This may just prove the nasty shock as the US and its allies may find out if they force Iran too far into the corner.

JAYA PRAKASH lectures in journalism at Beacon School of Technology in Singapore.