European outlet says US repeating past mistakes in the Middle East

WASHINGTON, United States — An analysis published by the Europe-based Modern Diplomacy website argues that Washington's policy trajectory, from the 2003 invasion of Iraq to current regional developments, mirrors a sense of déjà vu in which past experiences appear to repeat themselves. According to the report, the Bush administration's post-September 11 "Freedom Agenda" emerged from years of cooperation with autocrats across the Middle East, yet 23 years later the region's political landscape still resembles what it looked like during the Bush era. It describes Washington's actions as having "opened a Pandora's box" whose effects continue to reverberate. The analysis cites the 1949 ouster of Syria's first democratically elected prime minister and the 1953 CIA-backed Operation Ajax that toppled Iran's elected prime minister as part of a pattern of US hostility toward popular governance. It also points to subsequent outcomes in Libya, Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon and Tunisia, and places the economic, political and strategic cost of post-9/11 operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at $4 trillion to $6 trillion. The report concludes that ongoing developments in the Gulf are unlikely to break the cycle, arguing that the same pattern has played out repeatedly without ending well.