Crisp: Who is to blame for war in Gaza?

So Biden gets blamed based on a suspicion, as if seven decades of hatred and violence on top of millennia of cultural and religious animosity weren’t enough to provoke a war.

My MAGA friends and Peterson are following the lead of Donald Trump, who, predictably and without a feasible rationale, is also blaming Biden for the war in Gaza.

Wars, however, always have a larger context than the catalysts that provoke them. The conflict in Gaza is widely seen as a proxy war, with Israel and Hamas standing in for the U.S. and Iran. This way of thinking highlights one of the great tragedies of the Middle East: For decades, the United States has been more likely to make common cause with Saudi Arabia, a repressive monarchy currently led by a murderer, than with Iran, an ancient civilization with a history of powerful and persistent inclinations toward democracy.

It’s a story unfamiliar to many Americans, but virtually every Iranian knows this history: Between 1905 and 1911, Iran experienced a constitutional revolution against a corrupt shah who had sold off Iranian resources to foreign powers.

In the wake of the revolution, a parliament was established in Tehran, and the hallmarks of a modern, liberal society began to develop. But Iran’s aspirations toward democracy fell into chaos during World War I. In 1925, the Pahlavi dynasty was established and Reza Shah installed on the throne, propped up by Russia, which was interested in territory, and Britain, which wanted oil. Democracy and independence didn’t stand a chance.

By 1953, Reza Shah’s son, Muhammad Reza Shah, was in charge. His corrupt reign was threatened by Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadeq, who wished to reclaim more of Iran’s oil wealth for Iranians. With the acquiescence of President Dwight Eisenhower, CIA director Allen Dulles and Teddy Roosevelt’s grandson, Kermit Roosevelt, orchestrated a coup that ousted Mossadeq and firmly established the shah’s dominance of Iran.

The shah’s tyranny and corruption were supported by SAVAK, a much-hated security force that imprisoned, tortured and executed thousands of dissidents. By 1979, the shah’s reign was so oppressive that Iran’s Islamic revolution was almost inevitable.

Unfortunately, every president before 1979 enabled and supported the shah. American policy since the revolution has generally served to isolate Iran. The tragedy of Iran’s isolation is that its population is young, and it has shown significant inclinations toward modernity, moderation and the West.

Unfortunately, the West’s policies toward Iran provide the oppressive theocratic mullahs with the one essential element that every authoritarian regime needs to stay in power: an external existential threat, as represented by Israel and the United States.

History is easily forgotten or ignored, but it’s also persistent. A shooting war between the U.S. and Iran will reflect history, as well as the failed opportunities for rapprochement that have helped bring us to this crisis.

It’s always tempting to exploit a crisis for political purposes, as Trump and Peterson are doing. But blaming Biden for the war in Gaza makes as much sense as blaming climate change on the driver of the SUV that burns the last gallon of gasoline left in the world.