Since that more aggressive version of the strategy was launched, the illusory nature of the regional dominance strategy has been laid bare in one country after another:
•The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq merely empowered Shi’a forces to form a regime whose geostrategic interests are far closer to Iran’s than to the United States’.
•The U.S.-encouraged Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 2006 only strengthened the position of Hezbollah as the largest, most popular, and most disciplined political-military force in the country, leading ultimately to the Hezbollah-backed government now being formed.
•Israeli and U.S. threats to attack Iran, Hezbollah, and Syria since 2006 brought an even more massive influx of rockets and missiles into Lebanon and Syria, which now appears to deter Israeli aggressiveness toward its adversaries for the first time.
•U.S.-Israeli efforts to create a client Palestinian entity and crush Hamas through the siege of Gaza has backfired, strengthening the Hamas claim to be the only viable Palestinian entity.
•The U.S. insistence on demonstrating the effectiveness of its military power in Afghanistan has only revealed the inability of the U.S. military to master the Afghan insurgency.
