Equipment
Trump to Iran: Ok we fixed that for you, now get on with it, kthxbye.
The killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marked the latest decapitation or defeat of a bitter U.S. adversary overseas, following the ouster of the Taliban in 2001, the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq two years later, the breaking of Moammar Gaddafi’s grip on power in Libya in 2011 and the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro just two months ago.
The United States has often followed such triumphant moments with attempts to fill the void — deploying thousands of troops, spending billions of dollars, seeking to nurture fledging democracies or, in the case of Venezuela, leaving the decapitated government in power. But those efforts have largely brought disappointment, yielding states that remain riven by conflict, have revolted against the U.S. role or hardly rank as robust U.S. allies.
Trump appears to be pursuing a starkly different approach with Iran, signaling that he has no intention to use Americantroops to steer the path of a country whose fate has been buffeted by U.S. power since Iran’s last democratically elected government was ousted in 1953 in a CIA-backed coup.
We broke it but we’ll be god damned if we’re going to fix it.
On Sunday, in phone calls with multiple journalists at several news outlets, Trump seemed to revel in the incapacitation of the Iranian regime, saying that the strikes had wiped out potential successors to the supreme leader.
After assessing Trump’s comments and the impact of U.S.-Israeli attacks, a German security official said the worry in Berlin and other European capitals is that “the plan is to have no plan.”
Well, you see, having a plan would require some actual brain power, and Trump doesn’t have that, so…
The beauty of it is if you have no plan, your plan can’t fail.
Iran was a democracy until 1953, led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, when it was overthrown by an unholy combo of Britain’s (ie Churchill’s) MI6, the American CIA, (Eisenhower/ John Foster Dulles), and the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.
Mossadegh’s government wanted all Iranians to benefit from their massive oil resource. The combo disagreed, and saw to it that the Pahlevi autocracy was installed instead.
Moral: Politicians and bureaucrats appointed through democratic processes are all too often themselves antidemocratic and authoritarian. Trump is a classic example of the type.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat#Execution_of_Operation_Ajax
When Saddam Hussein was toppled, Americans expected Iraq to just be transformed into a free working democracy and were surprised that it wasn’t that simple.
It wasn’t even all that simple here, but most Americans know so little about their own history that they don’t realize how many colonists wanted to remain with a monarchy – preferably the one they knew. Democracy takes work.
Trumps plan is what trump’s plan always is. And kind of the same plan Bush had in the end.
Fool with something complicated. Wait for the brownian motion of history. Point to anything positive and say you did that, make excuses for the rest.
iknklast:
Every system has its downside. In a democratic election, the politician judged the least worst by the greatest number of voters usually wins. But he/she remains a politician, none the less.
Except for Trump, that is. If he should lose, the vote must have been somehow fraudulent and rigged against him. What other possible explanation could there be? Jesus Christ himself could not beat Trump in any state of the Union.
Here in Australia, we have King Charles of the UK as our Head of State, with the local Governor-General as his royal deputy. Apart from the formality of giving royal approval to parliamentary bills once passed, the GG’s rarely-used function is to resolve any parliamentary impasse by dissolving both houses of parliament and immediately calling a fresh election. The voters thus have the last word.
Omar, well except for that one incident…
Prof Ann Twomey has a very long, but interesting series on this. https://www.youtube.com/@constitutionalclarion1901/search?query=whitlam
Rob:
I assume you refer to the Nov 11, 1975 Kerr coup.
I pride myself on the fact that at the time, I played something of a leading role as a unionist in taking Fraser on over his CEEP (Commonwealth Employees Employment Provisions) Act of 1977.
Followed that Twomey link. When I have a spare year or two up my sleeve, I will delve a bit deeper into it.
Dictatorships like Iran’s (or for that matter Nazi Germany, the USSR etc.) exist by eradicating any internal entity that might replace them. Whether or not the U.S. is involved in felling the regime, there’s unlikely to be anyone left standing capable of governance.