[Thread] In this article, ardent anti- #Iran hawks Ray Takeyh & Reul Marc Gerecht try to normalize a US policy of regime change toward Iran.

This policy has proven disastrous under Trump, but they want to get it in writing & have the US rule out diplomacy indefinitely.

2. Such a policy suggestion is destructive for the US & the Iranian people for many reasons, some of which I’ll get into here.

But we should also examine the track records of Takeyh & Gerecht: two figures who have championed damaging interventionist policies for years.

3. Gerecht has pushed destructive US military intervention in the Middle East his whole career.

He has appallingly said about his own desire to bomb #Iran: “[I] counted up the other day: I’ve written about 25,000 words about bombing Iran. Even my mom thinks I’ve gone too far.”

4. Meanwhile, Takeyh is not only a ’53 coup truther (which alone discredits him as someone pushing regime change) but has also called for US support for Iranian ethnic minorities, which would tear the country apart.

So much for pretending to care about the Iranian people.

5. This brings me to the fundamental immorality of their regime-change call. They make no effort to explain what would come next.

So the US imposes draconian sanctions indefinitely, impoverishes the people & stokes unrest & then the central government collapses.

Then what?

6. A country of 83 million, alongside the Persian Gulf & Caspian Sea, w/ nuclear facilities & stockpiles of weapons, descends into chaos.

Do Takeyh & Gerecht have a nation-building enterprise in mind?

Do they want civil war & refugee flows like happened after Libya?

7. They say regime change is “pragmatic, cost-sensitive, humane.”

Is it so for the millions of Iranians being crushed by US sanctions?

Has it helped the region in these past 2 years?

8. Under Trump’s regime-change approach, the Iranian government hasn’t gotten any closer to collapse.

It has counter-escalated though, in the Persian Gulf, against Saudi oil facilities, against US bases in Iraq. It has also further entrenched its regional influence.

9. The net result has been:

-the eroding of US regional influence

-the fraying of the transatlantic alliance

-the impoverishing of the Iranian people

-the diminishing of prospects for peaceful democratic change

-near catastrophic US- #Iran war on multiple occasions.

10. Yes, the Iranian gov is repressive, but it is not a monolithic state or society.

-The seeds for change have been firmly planted by the people.

-The US must allow organic change, not politically interfere.

-Diplomacy & economic integration helps the people above all.