Sheldon Richman on U.S. meddling in the Middle East

Whether the United States was trying to keep the shah of Iran in power or trying to prevent the rise of Arab nationalism and nonalignment, its policy was a blunt instrument applied presumptuously to subtle and complicated problems.  One journalist has likened it to playing pool with a 20-foot cue stick.  It would have been a miracle had the result not been chronic turmoil.  The impracticality of the policy would have been a stumbling block even if the United States had not been on the side of injustice.

~ Sheldon Richman, "'Ancient History': U.S. Conduct in the Middle East Since World War II and the Folly of Intervention," Cato Institute, August 16, 1991