Will the meddling ever end?

So, after more than a half-century of active meddling protecting American interests, promoting American values, encouraging democracy, fighting terrorism, seeking stability, defending human rights, pushing peace it's come to this. In Iraq Americans find themselves unwilling regents of a society splitting into a gangland of warring militias and death squads.

In Iran, an irrational government that hates America with special passion is closer to getting the bomb than Iraq the country the US went to war with to keep from getting the bomb ever was.

And in Afghanistan site of the Iraq war prequel that actually followed the script, the good guys the US put in power came close a couple of weeks ago to executing a man for the crime of converting to Christianity. Meanwhile, the bad guys (the Taliban and Al Qaida) keep a low news profile by concentrating on killing children and other Afghan civilians rather than too many American soldiers.

When the US should use its military strength to achieve worthy goals abroad is an important question. But based on this record, it seems a bit theoretical. A more pressing question is: Can't anyone in the US play this game?

Half a century ago, Iran was very close to a real democracy. It had an elected legislature, called the Majlis, and it had a repressive monarch, called the Shah, and power veered uncertainly between them. In 1951, over the Shah's objections, the Majlis voted in a man named Mohammad Mosaddeq as prime minister. His big issue was nationalising the oil companies.

But in 1952 the United States had an election for president, and the winner (Dwight Eisenhower) got more votes than anyone in Iran. That must explain why in 1953, in the spirit of democracy, the CIA instigated a riot and then staged a coup. Mosaddeq was arrested, the Majlis was ultimately dissolved and the Shah ran things his way.

Resentment

But, speaking of crazy talk, resentment of the Shah and of the United States was central to the growing appeal of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1979 the ayatollah's followers overthrew the Shah and made Iran a strict Islamic state. Later that year Iranian "students'' besieged the US embassy and seized 66 hostages, most of whom were held prisoner for over a year. Hatred of Iran in America became almost as fierce as hatred of America in Iran.

Meanwhile, next door in Iraq, an ambitious young dictator, new to the job, named Saddam Hussain sensed both danger and opportunity in Iran's chaos. So he decided to invade. Thus started the Iran-Iraq War, lasting eight years. It turned hundreds of thousands of people into corpses and millions into refugees. When it was over, nothing had changed. But it wasn't a complete waste. It provided another opportunity for the United States to promote its interests and values.

On the "enemy of my enemy'' principle, the United States all but officially backed Iraq. Many of the human rights abuses President Bush and others have invoked two decades later to justify the decision to topple and try Saddam were well publicised in the 1980s. But in the 1980s, the US didn't care. Meanwhile, of course, Ronald Reagan was also secretly selling weapons to Iran.

The big event in Afghanistan this past half-century was the Soviet occupation of 1979. After the occupation, some of the deposed thugs and others formed militias that roamed the countryside killing people and whatnot.

Destroyed the country

The war the US sustained in Afghanistan destroyed the country, turned half the population into refugees and killed perhaps a million people. In 1989 the Soviets pulled out. But, disappointingly, the so-called guerrillas kept on fighting using American weapons against the government and among themselves.

In 1996 one particularly extreme group, the Taliban, took power. It was even more disappointing when the Taliban established an Islamic state more extreme than the one in Iran and invited Osama Bin Laden to make himself at home, which he did. So Americans marched in and got rid of the Taliban. Then Americans marched into Iraq and got rid of Saddam Hussain. Now Americans well, they haven't figured out what, but they are hopping mad and gonna do something, dammit, about Iran.

And they lived happily ever after.

Michael Kinsley, former editor of Slate, writes a weekly column for The Washington Post.