Washington Is Creating Forever Enemies

A Foreign Policy analysis argues the U.S. habitually fossilizes its adversaries at the moment of first grievance, citing Cuba, Qaddafi-era Libya, and especially Iran, still viewed largely through the lens of the 1979 hostage crisis and 1980s attacks. The piece contends this static framing ignores Iran's evolution into a hybrid clerical-security state where the IRGC and technocrats now rival the clerics in power.

The analysis also notes grievances run both directions — the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight 655, U.S. support for Saddam Hussein against Iran, and decades of broad sanctions — feeding what the author calls a self-fulfilling cycle of conflict rather than strategy.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.