As I write this, on Sunday, March 1, I find myself thinking about that stopped clock being right twice a day and about history having echoes over time.

In the opening weeks of 2026, the United States has twice intervened violently in countries far distant from our land. Unfortunately, the President that ordered these interventions is not known for his wisdom or thoughtfulness, consistency or coherence. In Venezuela, a leader was seized from a country in the southern part of the vast Western Hemisphere. In the Middle East, Iran is twice as big, has three times the population, and is centered in an area seen by most as a highly armed tinderbox. We and others will have to live with the consequences of Saturday’s bombs and missiles.

The history of America’s intervention in Iran is not a good one. Persian history is long and complicated. As British and French colonialism declined after the end of World War Two, sparks of light appeared in places like the Middle East, Asia and Africa. National self-determination was on the rise, some of it democratic in nature. Iran seemed a place of democratic hopefulness. Weak as they were, the structures of democracy had been unsteadily developing there since the Pahlavi family seized power in 1925

In the late 1940s and early 1950s Big Power struggles played themselves out between Russia and The West. For a while Greece and Italy looked to be up for grabs and Communists came to power in Maoist China. Pieces were moving in a multi-tiered chess game among international powers

To some Iran looked like a ray of hope. As the British withdrew, a more democratic government was elected by the Iranian people. It appeared that a new country with oil assets might be able to assert a new beginning for itself. But there was talk of socialism. And an independent government not firmly connected to the US, with significant natural resources, could be subverted and overcome by Russians as had Eastern European nations with stronger traditions. Stalin might just reach out and slap that budding Iranian democracy to the ground. So the US did it instead. With the help of the American CIA and the British Secret Service, the elected, post British colonial government of Mohammad Mosaddeq was toppled and the Shah installed along with the SAVAK, a brutal secret police in service to the richest classes associated with the Shah. Iran would not be susceptible to the intrigues of Stalin. That was a “success” for the CIA. And every following murderous act of repression by the Shah would also be associated with the United States. When the Iranian Revolution began in 1978, it was no surprise that it was against both the Shah and the United States.

Since that time a crazed, unsteady, autocratic, religiously-infused regime came to power in Iran and now appears to be falling. Revolutions do not happen overnight. There will be chaos and there will be many players, foreign and domestic.

Israel, under Netanyahu, seeks to make itself the undisputed power “from the river to the sea” and throughout the Middle East. It serves and suckers the United States in that regard. The evisceration of Iran is part of that plan and Trump is happy to help out, pretending along the way that he is aiding the people of Iran, handing them an opportunity to free themselves from domestic violence and repression.

That brings us back to that clock. Stopped, it appears to be right twice a day. But what if the clock itself is smashed to smithereens?

While President Obama used diplomacy to curtail the development of Iran’s power in the region, he had no particular interest in sparking regime change. President Trump, at the behest and along with Prime Minister Netanyahu, has used massive military violence to do so, leaving it, so Trump says, to the Iranian people to sort it out.

The glass through which we view the Middle East is always fogged by conflicts among religions and ethnic groups; as well as small, medium and consequential powers. As we seek to swipe the glass today to get a better look, clarity is elusive. As the din of explosions echo throughout Tehran and elsewhere, it is impossible to tell what time it is.

Stephan Miller has spoken for Trump. “We live in a world, in the real world, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Trump loves his strength, force and power.

But Winston Churchill has expressed another view on this sort of thing. He wrote:

“Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on that strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter…The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”