The Iraq War Playbook, Now for Iran
The Trump administration's recent bombing of Iran suggests that elites have failed to learn the lessons of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
President George W. Bush speaks in the White House Rose Garden, accompanied by Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, on September 28, 2005. (Chuck Kennedy / MCT / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier this summer were a dangerous escalation in the ongoing conflict with Iran. But while a ceasefire has remained in place, there’s good reason to believe that Iranian regime change isn’t off the table just yet.
In this episode of the Jacobin Radio podcast Confronting Capitalism, Vivek Chibber looks back on how the United States pursued regime change in Iraq and why that disastrous invasion may wind up being the playbook again in Iran.
Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. You can listen to the full episode here. This transcript has been edited for clarity.
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