Useful Idiots: When the Revolution You Cheered Comes for You
History’s most dangerous political bait-and-switch begins when groups with completely incompatible end goals unite around a common enemy. Iran’s Marxists thought they were using the Islamists; the Islamists had other plans. Today, America’s socialists, progressives, and Islamist activists sometimes find themselves marching beneath the same anti-capitalist and anti-Western banners. Iran offers an uncomfortable warning: before helping tear down the old order, you’d better ask what your revolutionary partners intend to build in its place—and whether they’ll still need you when they’re finished.
