Ironies of conquest

Michael Schwartz in Tom Dispatch:

The Ironies of Conquest: The Bush Administration's Iranian Nightmare

In 1998, neo-conservative theorist Robert Kagan enunciated what would become a foundational belief of Bush Administration policy. He asserted that "a successful intervention in Iraq would revolutionize the strategic situation in the Middle East, in ways both tangible and intangible, and all to the benefit of American interests."

Now, over two years after Baghdad fell and the American occupation of Iraq began, Kagan's prediction appears to have been fulfilled -- in reverse. The chief beneficiary of the occupation and the chaos it produced has not been the Bush administration, but Iran, the most populous and powerful member of the "Axis of Evil," and the chief American competitor for dominance in the oil-rich region. As diplomatic historian Gabriel Kolko commented: "By destroying a united Iraq under [Saddam] Hussein... the U.S. removed the main barrier to Iran's eventual triumph." Keep reading....