Dear Editor: 

Jimmy Carter armed mujahideen fighters in the Soviet-Afghan war. The fighters drove out the Russians. The ideology of these radical Islamist warriors metastasized and spread, spawning Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban. The Taliban seized power. 

George Bush Sr. defeated Saddam Hussein in Operation Desert Storm. He stopped short of regime change and instead encouraged dissident Iraqis to rise up and overthrow the regime. He stood aside as tens of thousands were butchered and two million displaced.  

George Bush Jr. launched a war of regime change against the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. Hundreds of thousands died, including thousands of U.S. and NATO service members, and millions were displaced. The Taliban are back in power and Iraq is a sectarian mess. The wars spawned ISIS, which has metastasized and is engaged in a reign of terror across sub-Saharan Africa.  

Barack Obama encouraged the Arab Spring movement when it swept across North Africa and into the Middle East. He raised false hopes of support for regime change and then stood aside as entrenched elites, some armed by the U.S., crushed their people. 

Donald Trump fanned the flames of the student demonstrations against the brutal Khomeini regime in Iran. He said the U.S. would protect the demonstrators and then stood aside as the regime murdered thousands. We are now engaged in bombing Iran into regime change. 

From Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump, we have sought to engineer regime change through egging on ill-prepared uprisings and military means. There is no example of this working. Millions have died and millions more have been displaced. 

When will we ever learn. 

Nigel Calder 

Newcastle