Asked to explain how America would deal with the aftermath of a war destroying the Iranian regime, John Bolton replied, "Once upon a time, we knew how to do clandestine regime change. We need to reacquire that capability."

Yes, this is our former Ambassador to the UN waxing nostalgic over the good ol' days when the US regularly subverted, overthrew, or flat-out killed foreign leaders we considered insufficiently committed to the crusade against communism. Grand times already. But let's ignore that, and focus instead on the astonishing ignorance betrayed by this quote.

First, as far as "clandestine regime change" in Iran is concerned, we already did it once. In an episode of which most Americans are staggeringly ignorant, the CIA engineered a coup d'etat in 1953 against the Iranian prime minister. At the behest of the British government, furious with Iran's nationalization of its oil industry, and with the ever-present conviction that any regime not explicitly pro-West was by default pro-Soviet, American agents replaced a democratically elected government with the Shah. The Shah spent the next 25 years using billions in oil revenue and US military aid to brutally oppress any dissent, which (as such things tend to) led to the Islamic Revolution of '78-'79. Which brings us to today. Now maybe, just maybe, this result should make us think twice before doing the exact same thing again. The Middle East has what might be called an unhappy tendency toward unintended consequences.

Secondly, while most Americans know nothing about this bit of history, most Iranians know it quite well. For a well-known intimate of the Administration to openly call for a repeat isn't exactly going to gain us much support on the Iranian street. Additionally, it undermines legitimate reform efforts within Iran. Every word the US speaks about subverting the Ahmadinejad regime can be used to tar reformers as American puppets, a traitorous fifth column. We're supposed to be encouraging reformers, not undermining them with overblown imperial rhetoric.

So yes, John, by all means, let's get the coup machine all gassed up and ready to go. Because nothing can help America's foreign policy quite so much as reassociating ourselves with the worst excesses of the Cold War and the Great Game. Sure, people will despise us, and we'll be sidling up to modern-day Marcoses and Mobutus, and every anti-American terrorist, firebrand, and demagogue will have an endless supply of grist for their speeches, but damn it, at least we'll get to break out the cool James Bond gizmos again. And isn't that what freedom is really about?