coup d'état

On 8 March 1963, a handful of young Ba'athist officers seized Damascus in a coup so bloodless and unremarkable that the population greeted it with indifference. Nobody noticed. That was the problem.

On 22 February 1921, a Cossack officer named Reza Khan marched on Tehran and seized power. The dynasty he founded lasted fifty-four years. Its heir now calls for revolution from a suburb of Washington.