B
y launching the military offensive against Iran on Saturday, February 28, President Donald Trump has taken a gamble and definitively placed himself in the tradition of interventionist presidents. This runs contrary to his rhetoric, his first term in office and the isolationist preferences of his MAGA [Make America Great Again] voter base. In doing so, he has reopened the major debate over foreign military interventions that many thought was a thing of the past. Why intervene? How? And for what final result? What are the possible scenarios for Iran and the world?
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Trump gives in to the temptation of regime change in Iran with Operation Epic Fury
In recent decades, the United States has intervened militarily for two sets of reasons: strategic and humanitarian. Some interventions were solely driven by strategic motives: In 1991, George H. W. Bush launched the Gulf War to prevent [Iraqi dictator] Saddam Hussein from dominating the region and to punish a blatant violation of the international order, of which America was the guarantor.
