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  Almost forgotten about the Heir to the Peacock Throne.
  
  One of my revisionist analyses of 'where it all went wrong in the ME' revolves around the USA's withdrawal of support from the Shah ,who was only in place due to previous dirty deeds by the CIA and our own SIS back in '53. (I have always wondered if the fact that our bit was run under the name of Operation Boot was some sort of homage to the hero of Waugh's novel Scoop?).
  
  Until that time we had always backed various despots with a real-politic Faustian pact that they could (literally) get away with murder as long as in the Great Game they acted on 'our' side.
  
  Unfortunately at that time Johnny Frog, like us, had put up with all sorts of Arab revolutionaries, handing out political asylum to all and sundry with the unspoken agreement that we didn't give a toss what they got up to as long as any unpleasantness happened abroad.
  
  The Shah turned to Carter for help who, being a very nice Quaker (though a crap president) did a Corbyn on him. The Shah fled. Khomeini returned from exile in France and to add to the West's humiliation members of the US embassy were taken hostage.
  
  From this point on all rulers in the ME knew that when push came to shove they could not rely on the West to back them. Meanwhile all who wished to overthrow the status quo, often to set up an even worse regime in terms of human rights, knew we weren't going to do a lot to stop them.
  
  I suspect that if any post-war president had been in situ instead of the useless Carter the world would be a much better place.
  
  It's all a bit like the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy threw back the curtain to find the Mighty Oz was a peanut farmer from Georgia. If it had been my hero Trickie Dickie he'd have lamped her!

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