The recent column by Thomas Friedman is deeply flawed in both analysis and historical framing. It treats the prospect of conflict with Iran as either inevitable or manageable, when in fact such a war would be both unnecessary and catastrophically destabilizing for the region. Escalation is being discussed as policy abstraction, while the human and geopolitical costs are pushed to the margins.
Any serious understanding of today’s Iran–U.S. tensions must begin with history, not amnesia. The roots go back to 1953, when the CIA and British MI6 orchestrated the overthrow of Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh after the nationalization of oil resources. The subsequent installation of the Shah and the repression enforced through SAVAK helped set the stage for the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the enduring cycle of mistrust and confrontation that followed. Ignoring this lineage produces policy analysis that is detached from causation and doomed to repeat failure.
No comments:
Post a Comment