New Delhi: In Could this 12 months, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a searing rebuke of previous American management. His phrases weren’t veiled. They stung. “These so-called nation-builders,” he mentioned, “destroyed extra nations than they ever constructed”. It was a reckoning.
He spoke in Riyadh, a spot that has seen America’s embrace and its bombs. The goal of his ire? A long time of interventions – some cloaked in noble intent, others plainly imperial. Iraq. Libya. Syria. Afghanistan. And now, once more, Iran.
Barely a month after that speech, america and Israel bombed Iranian nuclear amenities. The justification? Curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Trump framed it as a “decisive step to neutralise the world’s prime terror sponsor”. However beneath the floor lay echoes of previous ghosts. Each time Washington promised to keep away from the Center East, it all the time discovered its manner again.
And the implications? They’ve not often been clear.
The Day Democracy Died in Tehran
Let’s rewind. It’s 1953. Then Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, pushes to nationalise the nation’s oil. That was his crime. Inside months, British and U.S. intelligence labored collectively to throw him out. The Shah – America’s man – was again in energy.
Washington referred to as it essential. Iranians referred to as it betrayal. The Central Intelligence Company (CIA) later owned as much as the coup, many years too late. However by then, the harm was already hardwired into Iranian reminiscence. What adopted was repression, rage and at last, revolution in 1979. Anti-Americanism didn’t come out of nowhere. It was nursed within the wound left by 1953.
Afghanistan: The Playground of Powers
When the Soviets rolled into Kabul in 1979, america noticed a possibility. With Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s assist, America armed Islamic fighters – the Mujahideen. The concept was easy – bleed Moscow dry.
It labored. The Soviets left. However so did America. Within the vacuum emerged the Taliban. And from their shadow, Al-Qaeda. One invasion begets one other. One ally turns into tomorrow’s enemy.
Ronald Reagan as soon as hosted Mujahideen leaders on the White Home. 20 years later, their ideological offspring introduced down the Twin Towers. Historical past, it appears, retains receipts.
Iraq: The Conflict Constructed on Lies
In 2003, George W. Bush instructed the world Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. There have been none. That didn’t cease the conflict.
America invaded, toppled Saddam, however by no means managed to carry the nation collectively. Chaos adopted. Cities burned. Militias dominated. And a brand new monster emerged – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The harm didn’t cease at Iraq’s borders. All the area trembled. Civil wars, refugee crises and sectarian clashes – all fed by the fires lit in Baghdad. Twenty years on, the demise toll stays contested. What’s simple is that this – the fee was colossal.
When Mates Grow to be Foes
Washington’s alliances shift like sand. Yesterday’s companions develop into right this moment’s threats. In Afghanistan, warlords as soon as armed by the CIA turned their weapons on American troops. In Libya, U.S. airstrikes helped oust Gaddafi solely to plunge the nation into anarchy.
Even Syria turned a tangle of contradictions – assist this insurgent group, bomb that one. The traces blurred. The blood didn’t.
America’s Double Sport with Israel
The USA has all the time stood firmly behind Israel, by means of each offensive and each conflict. Billions in navy help movement yearly, no questions requested. However that blind backing has not gone unnoticed in Arab capitals.
Each bomb dropped on Gaza echoes within the streets of Cairo, Amman and Beirut. Washington says it needs peace. However its weapons usually write a special story.
The Infinite Exit That By no means Comes
In 2021, President Biden ordered the ultimate U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The exit was chaotic, messy and painful. 20 years of conflict ended with the Taliban again in energy – precisely the place they began.
Billions spent. Hundreds lifeless. Ladies erased once more from public life. And nonetheless, no classes realized.
What Comes Subsequent?
America retains returning to the identical battlegrounds, carrying totally different faces however repeating previous techniques. Every conflict begins with an ethical pitch – liberation, democracy and peace. Every ends with rubble.
In Iran, in Afghanistan, in Iraq – the individuals nonetheless dwell with the aftermath. And because the world watches america as soon as once more entangle itself in Iran’s future, a query rises – what number of extra classes will go unlearned earlier than historical past stops repeating?