The security establishment is driven by US policymakers’ long-standing reliance on military force and covert operations to topple regimes deemed to be harmful to American interests. From the 1953 toppling of Mohammad Mossadegh’s democratically elected government in Iran and the “other 9/11” (the US-backed military coup in 1973 against Chile’s democratically elected Salvador Allende) to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and now Syria, regime change has long been the coin of the US security realm.
现有安全体系背后是美国决策者长期以来军力和秘密行动颠覆被认为有害于美国利益的政权。从1953年颠覆民选的伊朗摩萨德政府和“其他9/11”（美国支持的针对民选的智利总统阿连德的1973年军事政变），到阿富汗、伊拉克、利比亚以及现在的叙利亚，颠覆政权长期以来一直是美国安全政策的不二法门。