This is according to distinguished war historian and security scholar Phillips P. O’Brien , who wrote on Thursday how since the end of World War II, "the USA has become the dominant outside security player in the region. It overthrew governments, it made massive military sales … it established military bases and it also fought shorter wars (First Gulf War) and decades-long wars (War on Terror/Afghanistan) to impose its influence. The USA even had one of its most important, if less well-known, foreign policy doctrines aimed precisely at the region: the Carter Doctrine. For many decades … they based their security on making vast and expensive purchases of military equipment from the USA, housing US military forces, and acting as US allies. As a result, “the USA cannot protect its forces against Iranian strike, as cheap and less advanced as that strike is compared to American capabilities.