There are stark similarities between the US-led intervention against Gaddafi in 2011 and the US-Israeli campaign against the Iranian theocracy. There are stark differences, too. While the former was largely heralded by Western public opinion, the latter has been met with widespread opposition. Yet, in principle, they are identical: a struggle to depose a ruthless regime. Today, Iran represents a far greater threat to its own people and the West than Gaddafi’s Libya ever did – the same Libya that Sir Anthony Giddens, writing in The Guardian, “presciently” hailed as the future “Norway of North Africa” only a few years earlier. The discrepancy in support likely stems from the geopolitical and ideological stakes: the fight against Iran is a battle for........

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