I probably would have come down a little harder on American motives than you did, but still, a good, well-researched overall summary of the timeline.

American foreign policy in the Middle East has been misguided for a very long time. For me it all begins in 1953 and the overthrow of Mossadegh.

What might the Middle East look like today if the United States had actively supported Mossadegh?

It's impossible to know, of course. Mossadegh may have turned into a ruthless enemy of Islamic clerics, but he may have instead helped Iran become a bastion of the democracy that America claimed to support.

But the problem there is that in 1953, America itself was not yet a democracy. That didn't begin to sort of happen until the 1964 Voting Rights Act, which has subsequently been emasculated by the Supreme Court, thanks to never-ending resistance to it.

A country that suppresses the voting rights of its own people can obviously not be trusted to have the better interests of other nations in mind when formulating policy. I would argue that everything revolves around that, and the attainment of what Hans Morgenthau often referred to as the never ending aims of power and empire (although I should note that he referred to these things favorably and without complaint).

Stiil, great compilation of the history!