Epstein Secrets

fer that was very favorable to the West. The time was mid-2003, a point at which the United States showed its military might by easily disposing of Saddam's army in weeks, and with few casualties-a feat Iran could not accomplish after fighting him for eight years. The fact that the Bush administration

ld that had acquired a perverse kind of stability. The status quo was hardly perfect, but it was, particularly after the Iraq war and the demise of Saddam Hussein, relatively manageable for the Arabs and the West. Now all of that is gone. Within a year -- a stunningly inconsequential unit of time in the grand

arly after the Iraq war and the demise of Saddam Hussein, relatively manageable for the Arabs and the West

ic. I leave it to psychiatrists to decide whether the recent bellicose talk of those in power—threats to close the Strait of Hormuz and remarks by Ayatollah Khomeini that Iran would "support and help any nations, any groups" fighting against Israel—is merely brave talk to cover up weak knees or the talk of a min

fraid. In 1989, Americans gloated as the Soviet Union, our former rival for Middle Eastern supremacy, retreated ignominiously from the region. When Saddam Hussein tried to challenge us from within, we thrashed him in the Gulf War. Throughout the 1990s, we sent our economists, law professors and investment ba

red. Lines were being drawn—between Arabs and Persians, between Sunnis and Shiites. EFTA00586649 18 A decent man tried to broker this feud, King Hussein of Jordan, himself a Sunni claiming descent from the prophet. He wrote to Gadhafi: These are "sensitive times," he said, for Palestinians and Leba

y, retreated ignominiously from the region. When Saddam Hussein tried to challenge us from within, we th

ing of a pan-Arab redeemer—and they put the word out that Sadr might have made his way back to Iran for the unfolding struggle between the shah and Ayatollah Khomeini. Sectarianism, rancid and vicious, hung over the affair: A self-styled Bedouin Sunni ruler doing in a turbaned Shiite cleric, and a Persian at tha

y striking distance. 2001's Operation Enduring Freedom saw huge numbers of American troops gathered on Iran's eastern border in Afghanistan, while Saddam's overthrow, despite removing a pressing Iranian security concern, but saw yet more U.S. troops massed now on its western border. With U.S. forces

R1_00298526 EFTA01884045 By "retiring" Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and Sami Annan and reversing SCAF's June

an narrative goes — have sought to "dictate" to Iran. During the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the Shah of Iran and replaced him with the Ayatollah Khomeini, crowds walked through the streets carrying banners of Mossadegh and chanting "Margh-bar Amrika" (Death to America). The 1953 coup, already iconic