North Korea and Iran: Divergent paths for regime change

The U.S. has been trying to change North Korea's regime for 69 years since the 1950 Korean War. No success so far.

Iran, however has been a partial success story. When Iran's Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh tried to nationalize US and British oil interests in 1953, the CIA tasked Teddy Roosevelt's grandson Kermit Jr. to instigate a coup. It worked, bringing our chosen puppet the Shah to power for 26 years till the Iranian revolution kicked him out in 1979. starting a forty year project for Iranian regime change, round two.

But a curious development has sidelined North Korean regime change while adios to Iran's rulers is on the front burner. After initially blasting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un as 'Rocket Man' and threatening to flatten North Korea, President Trump initiated a bromance with Kim that included an arm in arm walk across the DMZ. Half a world away the U.S. came within minutes of bombing Iran on the flimsiest of pretexts and seems determined to provoke a war with crippling sanctions virtually destroying Iran's economy.

Two factors help explain this divergence. First, North Korea has nukes they'll never give up as an insurance policy against a U.S. attack. Iran has no nukes, and no plan to get them since 2003, making them quite susceptible to U.S. aggression. Kim is not stupid. He's seen the grisly demise of Saddam in Iraq and Muammar in Libya who gave up their nukes only to give up their lives to US regime change. That fate will never befall Kim. Iran's failure to become nuclear may have sealed its fate for a second time

Second, none of our best weapons customers for weapons of civilian destruction (WCD) are demanding we overthrow the North Korean regime. But Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Israel, who fuel America's economic miracle with hundreds of billions in WCD purchases, are demanding Iran regime change as part of the relationship.

Neither North Korea nor Iran threaten America's national self interests. But unlike North Korea, Iran is both vulnerable to attack and connected to our economic self interest fueled by world leading weapons sales. Consider regime change in Iran as a cog in 'The Art of The Deal'.