Failed interventions

Regime change is not always a safe or reliable option. The United States has not yet comprehended this maxim although Washington has had considerable but not necessarily successful experience interfering in the affairs of other countries. This is why Donald Trump – who is not a student of history – is waging war to effect regime change in Iran. Experts argue this cannot be achieved without “boots on the ground” which Trump dares not commit. Large numbers of US soldiers returning home in body bags would finish off whatever credibility left in his presidency. Several have already been killed and Trump has said more could make the supreme sacrifice in his “war of choice.”

Washington began its career as a regional interventionist in 1949 in Syria by supporting a March 30 coup led by army officer Husni al-Zaim who overthrew President Shukri al-Quwatli who was blamed for the country’s defeat in the 1948 Arab war against the establishment of Israel. Zaim was himself ousted and executed by Sami Hinnawi after a countercoup that August. In December, he was removed by Colonel Adib al-Shishakli. This was followed by seven further coups until 1970 when air force officer Hafez al-Assad took power. The Assads ruled until December 2024 when his son Bashar was driven from power and into exile in Russia.

Having created coup chaos in Syria, the US was asked by Britain to help engineer the 1953 ouster of Iran’s popular, elected President Mohammad Mosaddegh who had initiated measures to nationalize the Anglo-Iran Oil Company. Once the coup was accomplished the US boosted the powers of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He became a dictator buttressed by Iran’s security agency Savak aided by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel’s Mossad intelligence organisation. Allied to Israel and the US, the Pahlavis ruled with an iron hand until toppled by fundamentalists in December 1979. Pahlavi’s son Reza is promoting a role for himself in the transition if the current regime is toppled.

In October 1956, the US made an essential, successful regional diplomatic intervention after France, Britain and Israel attacked Egypt after it nationalised the Suez Canal. Washington demanded an end to the offensive and the withdrawal of foreign forces, notably the Israeli army from the Sinai Peninsula. US President Dwight Eisenhower had no choice. This aggression coincided with Russia’s invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the “Prague Spring” reforms.

In 1958, Lebanon was gripped by its first civil war after its US-backed President Camille Chamoun insisted he should serve an unconstitutional second term. His bid was opposed by the Druze and Sunni communities while the Greek Orthodox Christians and Shias sat on the fence. The conflict lasted for three months. The US landed troops at the airport and port to enable Chamoun to complete his term. He was succeeded by Lebanese army chief Fuad Chehab who became the country’s most effective and respected president.

During the 1975-1990 Lebanese civil war the US tried and failed to mediate. Following Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the US dispatched marines to a multinational force to oversee the safe withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization which had based itself near Beirut. However, the bombing of US barracks by an Iran-allied group killed 241 military personnel and compelled Washington to reduce its forces. The 1989-1990 Taif Accord which was drawn up by surviving Lebanese legislators ended the war.

In 1991, US President George HW Bush gathered a broad coalition of states and ground troops to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait which Baghdad had occupied in August. He rejected advice to march forces to Iraq’s capital to remove President Saddam Hussein who remained in office.

In 2003, Bush’s son, George W Bush, invaded Iraq on the false pretext that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction, occupied Baghdad, and arrested Saddam Hussein who was tried and executed. The US occupation did not go well. Bush ordered the disarmament and dismissal of the Iraqi army and outlawed the ruling Baath party, depriving Iraq of armed forces to impose security and administrators to run the country. Anarchy ensued. Daesh rose in the north and seized Mosul before extending its reach to Syria where it captured oil-rich Deir al-Zor province and eastern Aleppo. The Iraq conflict raged until 2011 when US troops were officially withdrawn but the Daesh insurgency evolved and persisted, compelling US forces to return in 2014 with a new coalition, prolonging the conflict.

In 2024, former al-Qaeda-affiliate Haya’t Tahrir al-Sham – which had been supported by Turkey and based in Syria’s Idlib province – swept across the country, captured Aleppo, seized Damascus and ousted the Assads in December 2024. Nearly a year later, Trump received Sharaa, an ex-jihadi who was formerly opposed to the US, ordered sanctions to be lifted and enlisted his help in the battle against Daesh.

Photo: TNS