From “Operation Ajax” to the "Bunker Buster"

A history of intrigue, covert operations, ulterior motives, and religious fanaticism.

Jun 22, 2025

The stage was set 72 years ago.

In August of 1953, rioters took to the streets of Tehran and helped foment a coup d'état against the Prime Minister of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh. Hundreds of Iranians died in the fighting.

Little did they know that the CIA and British Secret Intelligence Service had misled and manipulated them with “Operation Ajax,” a covert plan to restore Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the Shah (king or emperor). The Shah then appointed a new prime minister who would protect Western interests and stop Mosaddegh’s plans to nationalize the oil industry.

Under the Shah, political opponents were routinely arrested, imprisoned, exiled, tortured, and executed.

On September 8, 1978, the Shah's army opened fire on peaceful protesters in Tehran, resulting in a massacre that further fueled the revolutionary movement. It was subsequently referred to as “Black Friday” and set the stage for the rise of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who took power in 1979, forming the fundamentalist Islamic Republic.

“When the Iranian people rose up in 1979 and overthrew the Shah, we did not reflect. We did not ask how our interference created the very revolution we claimed to fear. Instead, we isolated them. We sanctioned them. We backed Saddam Hussein when he invaded Iran and used chemical weapons against its people. We shot down an Iranian passenger plane in 1988, killing 290 civilians, and never issued an apology. And we have spent every decade since punishing the Iranian people for refusing to bow to our will.” Frederick Joseph

A Circus of Useful Idiots

Just as the CIA played the people of Iran 72 years ago, Bebe Netanyahu played Trump. Trump played Bebe. Christian Nationalists have played Trump. Trump has played them.

It is a symphony of ulterior motives, with discordant orchestras trumpeting self-serving propaganda as the truth is silenced by the din.

Christian Nationalists, from Hegseth to Huckabee, see it as a signal of the End Times, when civilization as we know it will be destroyed to pave the way for the Second Coming of Christ.

“I’m certain that the evangelical base is ecstatic this morning, thrilled by these events. And they will be more devoted to Trumpism than ever. There will be no prayers for peace — only praise choruses of glory and victory.” Diana Butler Bass

In 1919, William Butler Yeats wrote “The Second Coming” during the aftermath of the First World War. The opening stanza reads:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Last night, President Trump ended his White House address on the bombing of Iran with, “I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel, and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.”

Postscript:

On October 9, 2012, Donald Trump tweeted, "Now that Obama's poll numbers are in a tailspin, watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate."

On November 1st, 2024, Trump said at a political rally, "If Kamala wins, only death and destruction await because she is the candidate of endless wars. I am the candidate of peace. I am peace.”