What can the United States do to help realize its dream of a peaceful, democratic Middle East? Kinzer provides a penetrating, timely critique of America's approach to the world's most volatile region, and offers a startling alternative.

"Regime change" did not begin with the administration of George W. Bush, but has been an integral part of U.S. foreign policy for more than one hundred years. Starting with the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and continuing into our own time, the United States has not hesitated to overthrow governments that stood in the way of its political and economic goals. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the latest, though perhaps not the last, example...