HE IS A SON OF A BITCH, BUT HE'S OUR SON OF A BITCH

I. The Sentence

The sentence is attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt, spoken about Nicaragua's dictator Anastasio Somoza García: "He's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." The attribution is historically disputed. The attitude it describes is not.

The sentence contains in seven words the entire foreign policy of the United States since 1945. And not only that of the United States — also of Britain, France, Russia. Of every great power that has ever installed a vassal because the vassal was useful. Not good. Not just. Not democratic. Useful.

Realpolitik does not ask whether someone is a son of a bitch. It asks whether he is our son of a bitch. As long as the answer is yes, the weapons flow, the credits flow, the intelligence flows, the diplomatic cover holds. And as soon as the answer is no, the partner becomes an enemy, the ally a threat, the stability anchor a dictator.

The transition from Phase One to Phase Two sometimes takes decades. The consequences last centuries.

II. The Big Bang: Tehran, 1953

On 15 March 1951, the Iranian parliament voted unanimously for the nationalisation of the Iranian oil industry. Mohammad Mossadegh, democratically elected Prime Minister, implemented the resolution. Iranian oil, exploited since 1913 by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later BP), was to belong to the Iranian people.

This was not revolution. It was democracy. A parliament resolves, a head of government executes. As it says in every textbook.

Britain responded with a naval blockade, an oil embargo, and the freezing of Iranian assets. When that was not enough, London turned to Washington. The CIA — under Allen Dulles, whose brother John Foster Dulles served as Secretary of State and whose law firm had previously represented the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company — devised Operation Ajax.

On 19 August 1953, Mossadegh was overthrown. Not by a popular uprising. By paid thugs, bribed officers, bought newspaper editors, and a plan written in Langley and executed in Tehran. In his place came Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi — until then a powerless constitutional monarch. Now an absolute ruler. Our son of a bitch.

The Iranians know this. They have never forgotten it. Not in 1979, not in 2003, not in 2026. Every Iranian knows the name Mossadegh. And every Iranian knows the reason he was overthrown: because he dared to give Iranian oil to the Iranians.

III. The Dividend: 1953–1979

For 26 years, the calculation worked. The Shah ruled. The oil flowed. The profits were shared between Anglo-American corporations and the Iranian crown. The strategic location — border with the Soviet Union, access to the Persian Gulf — made Iran the "Gendarme of the Gulf."

What it cost did not appear in the balance sheet.

SAVAK, the Iranian secret police, was founded in 1957 with the help of the CIA and the Israeli Mossad. Its methods — torture, disappearances, executions — were known. In Washington, they knew. They found it regrettable. They found it necessary. They did not, in any case, find it sufficient reason to stop the weapons deliveries.

The Shah bought American weapons for billions. The F-14 Tomcat, the most advanced fighter jet of its era — Iran was the only foreign buyer. Tanks, helicopters, missiles — Iran became the largest arms buyer in the Middle East. Every dollar the Shah spent on weapons was a dollar he did not invest in schools, hospitals, or democratic institutions. This was not an oversight. It was the business model.

For 26 years, the Shah was our son of a bitch. Useful. Predictable. Profitable.

And every day of those 26 years, the anger grew.

IV. The Explosion: 1979

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 was not an accident. It was the result. The result of 26 years of oppression, 26 years of SAVAK, 26 years of a Shah who despised his people and was kept in power by foreigners.

Ayatollah Khomeini did not come to power despite the Shah. He came because of the Shah. The revolution was directed not against Islam or for Islam — it was directed against the West. Against the power that had overthrown Mossadegh, installed the Shah, and trained SAVAK. The anti-American fury of the revolution — the embassy hostage crisis, the chants of "Death to America" — was not irrational. It was the answer to 26 years of humiliation.

And here begins the true tragedy. For the revolution replaced one dictatorship with another. The Shah with the mullahs. SAVAK with the Revolutionary Guards. The oppression remained — it merely changed uniforms. The Iranian people, who had had a democracy in 1953, received a theocracy in 1979. Not because they had wished for it, but because the CIA in 1953 had eliminated the only man who embodied a democratic alternative.

Mossadegh was the vaccine. The CIA destroyed the vaccine. And 26 years later, the disease broke out.

V. The Next Son of a Bitch: 1980–1990

Realpolitik's answer to the Islamic Revolution was not self-reflection. It was a new son of a bitch.

Saddam Hussein. Dictator of Iraq. Baath Party. Poison gas against Kurds. Torture. Mass executions. All known. All accepted. Because Saddam was useful — he was waging war against Iran.

From 1980 to 1988, the Iran-Iraq War raged. One million dead. Chemical weapons deployed — supplied by Western companies, tolerated by Western governments. The United States provided Iraq with satellite intelligence, weapons components, billions in credits. Donald Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad in 1983 and shook Saddam's hand. The photograph exists.

Simultaneously — and this is the perfidy of management — the Reagan administration was secretly also supplying weapons to Iran. Iran-Contra. They armed both sides. The perfect conflict: long, bloody, profitable. Neither side was allowed to win. Both had to keep fighting. Management.

Saddam was our son of a bitch. Until he was not.

VI. The Switch: 1990–2003

On 2 August 1990, Saddam invaded Kuwait. It was not the first time he had attacked a neighbouring country — he had invaded Iran ten years earlier, with American blessing. But Kuwait was different. Kuwait was an oil-rich small state with good relations with Washington. Kuwait was our small state.

Overnight, the ally became an enemy. The same weapons that had been supplied became the threat scenario. The same army that had been built up became the target. The same satellite intelligence that had been shared was now deployed against the recipient.

The first Gulf War of 1991 left Saddam in power — he was still needed as a counterweight to Iran. For twelve years he continued as a half-dead son of a bitch: under sanctions, under no-fly zones, under constant surveillance, but in power. The sanctions killed, by United Nations estimates, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians — children above all. Madeleine Albright said in 1996, when asked whether the death of 500,000 Iraqi children was worth the price: "We think the price is worth it."

Management. For twelve years.

Then came 11 September 2001. Saddam had nothing to do with it. The attackers were Saudis. But Iraq had oil, was strategically located, and the neoconservative faction in Washington needed a reason for war. So they invented one: weapons of mass destruction that never existed. And in 2003, they invaded. Democracy export.

Iraq was destroyed. Saddam was hanged. And the country descended into a civil war whose effects persist to this day — ISIS, Shia militias, Iranian influence. All consequences. All foreseeable. All foreseen by everyone who knew the region.

VII. The Boomerang: 2003–2025

The destruction of Iraq was the greatest gift that could have been given to Iran.

Iraq under Saddam was Iran's natural rival — Sunni-dominated, Arab, secular, militarily strong. Its elimination left a power vacuum that Iran filled. Shia militias in Iraq, financed and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Hezbollah in Lebanon, strengthened by Iranian weapons and Iranian money. Hamas in Gaza. Houthis in Yemen. The "Shia Crescent" — an Iranian sphere of influence from Lebanon to the Gulf.

All consequences of the Iraq War. All consequences of realpolitik. All consequences of the sentence "He's our son of a bitch."

They had eliminated Mossadegh because he was too democratic. They had installed the Shah because he was useful. They had lost the Shah because he was too brutal. They had armed Saddam because he fought against Iran. They had eliminated Saddam because he was no longer useful. And now they faced an Iran that was stronger than ever — strengthened by precisely the mistakes they had made.

73 years. A single arc. Every step logical. Every step short-sighted. Every step expensive — paid for not by those who decided it, but by those who suffered under it.

VIII. The Repetition: 28 February 2026

On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel began coordinated air strikes on Iran. Operation Epic Fury. Operation Roaring Lion. Khamenei was killed. The Iranian air force was destroyed. The navy rests at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. The oil is not flowing.

President Trump said the goal was "freedom for the people." Regime change. Democracy export. The same words, the same logic, the same pattern as in Iraq in 2003, as in Libya in 2011. The same think tanks that recommended the intervention. The same arguments: weapons of mass destruction, imminent threat, terrorism.

Senator Tim Kaine said after a classified briefing that the administration had been unable to produce "any evidence of an imminent threat from Iran." Only a quarter of Americans support the war. The Pentagon speaks of four to five weeks.

And nobody — nobody — asks the only question that matters:

What if Mossadegh had simply been allowed to govern in 1953?

IX. The Counter-History

It cannot be proven. But it can be thought.

An Iran in which Mossadegh governs. An Iran with a functioning democracy, a national oil industry, an educated middle class. An Iran that sells its own oil — like Norway. That invests its wealth in education — like Norway. That has a secular constitution — like Turkey in the 1950s.

In this counter-history, there is no Shah. No SAVAK. No revolution. No Khomeini. No hostage crisis. No Iran-Iraq War. No Iran-Contra. No Revolutionary Guards. No Hezbollah in its present form. No Houthis as Iranian proxies. No nuclear crisis. No Operation Epic Fury.

A million people who died in the Iran-Iraq War would have lived. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children who died under sanctions would have lived. The millions who died in the Iraq War and its aftermath would have lived.

Everything — everything — goes back to a single moment. August 1953. Operation Ajax. The decision to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister because he nationalised his country's oil.

The realpoliticians of 1953 would say: one could not have known. The region was unstable. The Soviet Union was a threat. The oil was too important.

But that is the logic of realpolitik: it always calculates the short-term gain and ignores the long-term price. It sees the utility of the son of a bitch and overlooks the cost of his rule. It wins every day and loses every century.

X. The Pattern

It is not only about Iran. The pattern repeats, continent by continent, decade by decade.

Guatemala, 1954. Jacobo Árbenz, democratically elected, nationalises unused land belonging to the United Fruit Company. CIA coup. 36 years of civil war. 200,000 dead.

Chile, 1973. Salvador Allende, democratically elected, nationalises copper mines. CIA-supported coup. Pinochet. 17 years of dictatorship. Thousands dead, tens of thousands tortured.

Congo, 1961. Patrice Lumumba, democratically elected, wants Congolese resources for the Congo. CIA-supported assassination. Mobutu installed. 32 years of kleptocracy. Millions dead in the subsequent wars.

Afghanistan, 1979–2021. Mujahideen armed against the Soviet Union. From the mujahideen came al-Qaeda. From al-Qaeda came 11 September. 20 years of war. Trillions of dollars. In the end: the Taliban govern again.

Libya, 2011. Gaddafi overthrown. Democracy export. Result: two governments, civil war, slave markets, armed militias, uncontrolled migration to Europe.

Every case: an elected or at least stable leader is removed because he is not our leader. A son of a bitch is installed. The son of a bitch becomes inconvenient. The son of a bitch is removed. The country is destroyed. A new son of a bitch is sought.

The costs are always borne by the same people: the population. The people who sit in none of the planning rooms, in none of the think tanks, in none of the Situation Rooms. The people who die, flee, starve, mourn — while in Washington, London, or Paris the next "strategic partnership" is sealed.

XI. The Question That Is Not Asked

Why does it not stop?

Not because the realpoliticians are stupid. They are not stupid. They are intelligent, well-educated, well-informed. They know the history. They know the consequences. They have read files we will never see. They know that Operation Ajax led to the Shah and the Shah led to Khomeini and Khomeini led to everything that followed.

It does not stop because the pattern works — for those who operate it. Not for the populations. Not for peace. Not for democracy. But for the seven pillars that live from it.

The arms industry profits from every phase. From arming the son of a bitch. From arming his opponents. From the war against him. From the reconstruction afterwards. From the next son of a bitch.

The intelligence services justify their budgets. Every failed son of a bitch proves that the world is dangerous. That more surveillance is needed. More operations. More budget.

The think tanks produce studies. Before the war: why it is necessary. During the war: how it will be won. After the war: why it failed and the next one is necessary.

Politics wins election campaigns. A president who topples a dictator is a strong president. That the country lies in ruins ten years later is his successor's problem.

The banks finance everything. Arms exports, reconstruction contracts, oil concessions. Three businesses from every conflict.

The media have headlines. Invasion, bombardment, regime change, chaos, humanitarian crisis — every phase delivers content for months.

The think tanks supply the theory. Democracy promotion, stabilisation, capacity building — every word a euphemism, every euphemism a business.

Nobody in this chain has an interest in asking the question: what if we simply let it be? What if Mossadegh were allowed to govern? What if Árbenz were allowed to reform his country? What if Allende were allowed to keep his copper?

The question is not asked because the answer would destroy the business model.

XII. The Bill

73 years. From Mossadegh to Operation Epic Fury. A single, unbroken chain of decisions, each of which produced the next catastrophe.

A democratically elected prime minister was overthrown because he nationalised his country's oil. The consequences: a quarter-century of dictatorship, a revolution, a theocracy, an eight-year war with a million dead, another war with hundreds of thousands dead, a quarter-century of sanctions, a nuclear programme, a proxy network from Beirut to Sanaa — and now a new war whose end nobody can foresee.

The Strait of Hormuz is closed. The oil is not flowing. The global economy is reeling. Six American soldiers are dead. Hundreds of Iranian civilians are dead. Hospitals are destroyed. Schools are destroyed.

And it all began because a prime minister believed his country's oil belonged to his country.

"He's a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." The sentence is not cynical. It is honest. So honest that it explains everything. And excuses nothing.