Six months on, the Iran war has changed the Middle East, but not in the way its architects had hoped

Six months after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the Middle East has changed — but not in the way its architects had hoped. When they struck Iran on Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel hoped to topple its clerical leadership and replace it with a pro-Western government. Instead, they ended up with a “hardened and very radical regime,” said Barbara Leaf, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Middle East.