Alfred McCoy on the history of imperial misadventures and how defeat in the Iran War will accelerate U.S. global decline.
By Alfred McCoy
TomDispatch.com
Writing more than 2,000 years ago, the Greek historian Plutarch gave us an eloquent description of what modern historians now call “micro-militarism.”
When an imperial power like Athens then, or America now, is in decline, its leaders often react...
McCoy’s analysis presents a compelling historical pattern: empires in decline often double down on militarized gambits to mask weakness, only to hasten their collapse. The strongest version of his argument is that the U.S., like past powers, risks strategic overreach in Iran, where tactical victories (e.g., bombing campaigns) fail to secure meaningful objectives. The Suez analogy is particularly sharp—Nasser’s closure of the canal neutralized British military superiority, just as Iran’s hypothet...