The seven countries argument
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The seven countries argument is John Kiriakou's dissent from the position that the American wars of the past quarter-century, the list of seven countries whose governments Benjamin Netanyahu is said to have wanted removed, were fought on Israel's behalf. It was put to him during the 2026 Iran war that America had started those wars for Israel; he took the list apart country by country.

"Look at them independently," he answered. "Libya was no threat to Israel. Never. Never was, never would be. Libya was a thorn in the side of the United States. The US didn't overthrow and kill Gaddafi for Israel. We did it for ourselves." Pressed that Gaddafi's plan to decouple oil from the dollar was the real trigger, Kiriakou agreed and said that was his point exactly: "That was a threat to the American economy. We didn't need the Israelis to egg us on to overthrow Gaddafi."

Somalia he treated the same way, "no threat to Israel at all. Never was", but a threat to the United States, or at least to American commerce.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan draws his one partial defence of an American war. "For a while that was a righteous war. It was a war to destroy al-Qaeda." What followed was not: "It morphed into this never-ending war against the Taliban, who had never attacked the United States." Israeli preference was not the driver: "It's not that the Israelis wanted us to. It certainly was in Israel's interest, but that was the United States all the way."

The conclusion

Kiriakou states his own position before drawing the moral, so that the argument is not mistaken for a defence: "I am not a fan of Israel. I am even less of a fan of Israeli leadership, but we can't blame all of our problems on Israel. We can blame the United States for its mistakes, too."

He does not dispute the influence itself. Told that Israel had held a strong grip on American politicians for thirty years, he agreed, "I'm not denying that American and Israeli interests intersect", while maintaining that on those seven countries "the US had in their own national interests reasons to overthrow them."

See also

- Greater Israel
- Israel-United States relations
- The Saudi request on Gaddafi
- Syria as a regime-change template
