U.S.-backed regime change has a checkered past — Iran may be no different

Just as the streets of Tehran and Tel Aviv are strewn with debris, history is littered with cautionary tales of regime change

Just as the streets of Tehran and Tel Aviv are strewn with debris, history is littered with cautionary tales of regime change.

Does Israel want only to neuter Iran's nuclear program or is it seeking to topple the regime itself? This is the central question hanging over its barrage of the Islamic Republic.

Though his government denies it is an official goal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Iranians to use this opportunity to rise up against their clerical rulers. And his targets telegraph that he is at least seeking to weaken the regime rather than just cripple its centrifuges, analysts have told NBC News.

Past examples of successful Western-backed regime change are rare — while calamities abound. That's partly why President Donald Trump has said he is so against foreign interventionism — though he has found that trickier in practice.