A History of the present. From Iraq in 2003 to Iran in 2025. The politics of ‘regime change’
If Netanyahu’s comments appear eerily familiar, it is because they are. The same Netanyahu, and Iran hawks in the US, pushed a similar argument in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraqis then, like Iranians, the world was told, would welcome the removal of Saddam. The Middle East would be reshaped.
https://057f4ee58bde4ea8eac74fca111f0d57.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-45/html/container.html https://057f4ee58bde4ea8eac74fca111f0d57.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-45/html/container.html Meaningful regime change, however (whatever that means in practical terms), is not the same as regime destruction.
In Iraq, where ultimately an incompetent US effort was made at nation-building, and Libya – where it was not – there followed periods of bloody chaos, which continues in Libya.
Peter Beaumont, The Guardian, 17th June 2025
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/17/netanyahu-israel-iran-regime-change-destruction
A reminder that Britain’s largest ever march took place on 15th February 2003 when well over a million people marched against war with Iraq.
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