There is no ‘Middle East.’ There’s a Levant America loves and a Gulf China needs

of hostile regional energy producers).

As early as August 1948, the National Security Council recommended that Persian Gulf oil and gas facilities be destroyed or disabled in the event of a Soviet invasion of the region. President Harry S. Truman approved this recommendation on Jan. 10, 1949. The 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup in Iran that overthrew Prime continue reading …