by Robert David

I. The Cradle of Civilization and the Folly of Invaders

The Middle East was never a blank page, it is a living text-written in cuneiform, blood, oil, and ash-where each empire that came with the temerity to write its name has been crossed out. The Tigris and the Euphrates nourished wheat, but they also fertilized the roots of civilization.

From Hammurabi’s Code to Babylonian astronomy, from algebra (Al-Khwarizmi) to human rights (Cyrus the Great’s 539 BCE decree), Persia shaped the DNA of empire. And unlike the West’s selective memory, Persia remembers everything.

This is the land where Alexander burned Persepolis and died months later. Where Mongols turned Baghdad to ash, only to be repelled by resurgent Persian dynasties. Where Britain carved colonial borders with ink and arrogance, and where America already bled itself dry in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And yet-here we go again.

With Trump’s cartoon militarism and Biden’s obedient silence, Iran finds itself back in the Pentagon’s crosshairs. This time, the delusion is bigger-and the fallout, potentially irreversible.

This isn’t just about Iran. It’s about the credibility of Western power, the final death rattle of post–Cold War supremacy.

History isn’t repeating-it’s recycling. Smarter weapons. Dumber leadership.

If Trump-or his institutional twin, Biden-pushes war with Iran, the U.S. won’t get another Iraq or Afghanistan. It will get something worse: an accelerated collapse on par with the Soviet implosion after Afghanistan, but amplified by proxy armies, global asymmetry, and a Persian resistance seasoned by 2,500 years of occupation trauma.

II. The Middle East: Graveyard of Empires

Ancient Lessons

The Middle East is not just a place-it’s a relentless force that has shattered every empire foolish enough to claim dominion over it. Consider Alexander the Great, who razed Persepolis in 330 BCE, believing his conquest would last forever. Instead, within years, his empire splintered, fractured by the enduring resistance of Persian satraps and local power brokers (Briant, 2002).

Centuries later, the Mongols, led by Hulagu Khan, sacked Baghdad in 1258 with savage efficiency. Yet, by 1335, a united front of Arabs and Persians expelled them, proving that brutality alone cannot secure lasting rule.

Fast forward to the 20th century: British colonial arrogance carved Iraq’s borders with utter disregard for tribal, religious, and ethnic realities. The 1920 Revolt erupted violently against this imposition, exposing the fragility of foreign rule.

T.E. Lawrence, famously known as Lawrence of Arabia, reflected on this bitter lesson with brutal honesty. In a letter penned shortly after the revolt, he wrote:

"The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap-one so subtle and complex that its consequences have only begun to unfold. We attempted to command a land we barely understand, stitching together a quilt of tribes and sects as if they were mere threads to be pulled at will. The fury we face is the echo of every slight and every broken promise."

Lawrence’s words are not just historical footnotes; they presage the American folly decades later. His admission of British blindness underscores the recurring pattern of Western powers underestimating the Middle East’s complex social fabric and inflaming forces far beyond their control.

Modern Disasters

The 20th century provided no respite from this pattern. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979–1989) was a costly quagmire: 15,000 Soviet soldiers dead, $80 billion wasted, and the birth of jihadist movements, including al-Qaeda, as unintended blowback (Feifer, 2009).

America was supposed to have learned from this. Instead, the Bush administration ignored the Durand Line’s colonial scars-the arbitrary border slicing through Pashtun tribal lands-sparking deeper conflict. Obama’s continuation of the war only doubled the chaos, culminating in 2,400 U.S. deaths and a resurgent Taliban (Jones, 2020).

The Middle East doesn’t just resist invaders; it metabolizes them-transforming foreign ambition into internal chaos, regional instability, and long-term strategic defeat. For a while, everything seemed in control for Russia in Afghanistan. George Bush famously quipped “mission accomplished,” until it was not.

III. Trump’s Looming Disaster: Why Invading Persia Would Be Worse

1. Persian National Identity: The Unbreakable Code

Iran’s resilience is not accidental-it’s etched in 2,500 years of defiant sovereignty. From the Greco-Persian Wars in 480 BCE to the CIA-backed 1953 coup, Iranians view their sovereignty as sacred and non-negotiable (Ansari, 2006).

Geography is their fortress. The Zagros Mountains and the vast Dasht-e Kavir desert have historically spelled doom for invaders. Iraqi forces struggled in the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War; no amount of drone warfare or cyber-attacks will compensate for nature’s formidable barriers (Farrokh, 2011).

2. Russia’s Afghanistan vs. America’s Iran

IV. Israel’s Genocide & the Crusades Redux

3. Declassified Truth: Operation Ajax and the Ghost Coup of 1953

In 2013, the CIA declassified a long-hidden internal history titled The Battle for Iran, which meticulously details the orchestration of the 1953 coup against Iran’s democratically elected Prime Minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. Known as TP-AJAX Project or Operation Ajax, this covert operation was a blueprint in clandestine regime change-an amalgam of propaganda, bribery, intimidation, and street violence.

Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the CIA operative who led the mission on the ground, described the campaign in his memoirs:

"Our task was to create the appearance of spontaneous uprising against Mossadegh, using paid demonstrators, infiltration of clerical circles, and manipulation of the press. We worked closely with Shah loyalists, military officers, and religious leaders to fracture the political landscape."

A 1953 memorandum from the Eisenhower administration reveals the strategic intent behind the coup:

"It is imperative to maintain Western access to Iranian oil and prevent Soviet influence. The overthrow of Mossadegh is necessary to preserve regional stability and our geopolitical interests."

This cold calculus ignored the sovereignty and will of the Iranian people. Many CIA cables were destroyed in later years, but surviving documents confirm a systematic campaign of subversion that reshaped Iran’s modern trajectory.

4. Mossadegh’s Voice: Sovereignty and Resistance

Mohammad Mossadegh was no mere figurehead-he was a fervent champion of Iranian independence. In a 1952 speech to the Majlis (Iranian parliament), he declared:

"We will never surrender our freedom to foreign powers. Our oil belongs to our nation, not to the interests of distant empires."

He warned repeatedly against foreign interference:

"The history of our land is stained with the scars of invasion and exploitation. But we are a proud people who will rise against those who seek to control our destiny."

These words embody the enduring spirit of Iranian resistance-a people who remember their past betrayals and fiercely guard their sovereignty.

The 1953 coup was not merely a historical episode; it is a living wound in Iran’s collective memory. It fuels suspicion, unity, and defiance that continue to shape regional politics. Backing Israel’s war on Iran risks rekindling this cycle of imperial hubris and catastrophic backlash.

V. The Middle East Always Writes the Last Chapter

The myth of shock and awe has been thoroughly debunked. The United States has poured over $8 trillion into post-9/11 wars, only to lose Afghanistan and strengthen the very forces it sought to defeat (Crawford, 2023). Modern weaponry-even the F-35-cannot shatter civilizations that have endured millennia and outlasted Rome.

Trump’s incendiary calls to “bomb Iran” are not just reckless rhetoric-they are an invitation to catastrophe. Persia is no Iraq; it is a 2,500-year-old booby trap-rigged to implode any invader who ignores its historical gravity.

The question for Trump and America’s policymakers is clear: Will they repeat Woodrow Wilson’s naiveté with Sykes-Picot? Or emulate Eisenhower’s covert sabotage and its disastrous legacy? Or will they finally learn to respect history’s lessons?

The Middle East doesn’t merely resist-it writes the last chapter. Invading Iran isn’t a gamble-it’s a strategic surrender. America at age 249 is already a failed empire. It is already cannibalizing its own, only failed empires do so. America cannot even solve 10% of its own internal struggles; the concept of running Iran and Gaza “successfully” is just so much confetti – a way to erase E. Jean Carol.

When Bush invaded Iraq, he invaded Earth’s 7^th Largest Oil Reserve. Now Trump wants to invade 

Netanyahu and Trump are both clumsily clamoring for “regime change,” digging into the cultural rage from the US 1953 Iranian coup d'état. When (if) America turns 2,500 years old, it will have then some inkling of Persian culture.

The Blind March of Empire

The lesson of history is clear but ignored: the Middle East devours empires. Iran would be America's suicide, not victory. But the graveyard-of-empires mythology, while seductive, risks becoming fatalistic. Empires do not just crumble; they choose to crumble, by repeatedly failing to see alternate arbitrariness in alternate packaging. Rome maintained a centuries-long hold on power by innovating; America holds on to fantasy.

The real danger isn't that America conquers Iran and loses-it's that it might half-win, bled financially by sanctions and proxies while undermining itself from inside. The Middle East does not guarantee defeat; it exacts vengeance on arrogance. And arrogance, not fate, is America's curse.

Trump and Netanyahu are using the oil and gas/WMD playbook of George W. Bush circa The War of Terror. Bush invaded Iraq to redistribute oil wealth to The Globalists. Both Russia and the US invaded Afghanistan to tap into Afghan natural gas reserves. Iraq is still pumping oil for the Globalists.

The chapter is not written. But the pen is in Washington's hand-and it's wet with the same ink that murdered the British, the Soviets, and the neocons. The choice is still out: step aside or become yet another epitaph.

"The world is saved by wisdom, not by force."

(From the Denkard, a Zoroastrian text compiling ancient wisdom, c. 6th–4th century BCE)

Sources:

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14. Gasiorowski, M. J. (1991). U.S. foreign policy and the Shah: Building a client state in Iran. Cornell University Press.
15. Crawford, N. C. (2023). The human and budgetary costs of the post-9/11 wars. Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/
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19. U.S. Geological Survey. (2006). Assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of northern Afghanistan, 2006. https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2006/3031/

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© 2025 Robert David

Trump’s Iran Fantasy: Worse Than Bush’s Iraq or Russia’s Afghanistan