During the Cold War, the thermonuclear standoff between the U.S. and Soviet Union was often described as two scorpions in a bottle. The notion was that both scorpions would sting the other to death no matter which struck first. Of course, the prospect of the scorpions being of the opposite sex with options other than mutual suicide was rarely raised. Today, the United States and Iran are not two scorpions in that once famous bottle. But both states remain locked in a dangerous embrace going back decades to the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in the 1950’s and the restoration of the Shah to the 1979 revolution and takeover of [...]

Ten years ago this month, the United States launched Operation Iraqi Freedom against Saddam Hussein.  The real reason for this invasion was President George W. Bush’s freedom agenda with its aim of changing the geostrategic landscape of the Middle East by imposing democracy on Iraq.  The stated casus belli was Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction that, as Bush and his National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice warned, could lead to a “mushroom shaped cloud” exploding over our heads.  But, the WMD cupboard was bare.  Saddam fell and was later executed because of his fear of revealing the truth. In the run-up to the war, the U.S. commander, Army General Tommy Franks, [...]