Egypt'S Morsi Does An Erdogan And Sacks Army Top Brass.

Slightly unfair criticism.

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Indeed Farouk's overthrow in 1952 was part of the US anti-colonial policy that also saw it support the Viet Minh against the French 1942-46 amongst others, as it focused on the right to self-determination and not supporting unrepresentative, repressive regimes.

However as the Cold War kicked in such idealism soon went by the board and more of an "any port in a storm" attitude came into effect with realpolitik being paramount over more edifying, altruistic motives. Hence the overthrow of Idris in Libya is highly unlikely to have been inspired by the US, especially given the discovery of significant oil reserves in the late 1950's. Idris got caught in the Arab nationalist wave post the 1967 Arab-Israel war.

the changed nature of the US attitude is best summed up by the Baghdad Pact of 1955 when another British created kingdom (Faisal's Iraq) became part of the anti-communist central Asian US alliance. Certainly Faisal's overthrow and murder in 1958 did not suit the US.

There is well documented evidence that I have seen, regarding the CIA grooming and support of Muammar Ghaddafi and his four lieutenants. This is unfortunately still covered by the various official restrictions that supercede the FOI acts. From what I have seen there is more reason to regard the CIA activities in Libya as being solely pressure against the UK than the US support of Nasser, which was concerned also with the Aswan Dam and other major construction projects (which were later transferred to USSR when the US CoE failed to achieve what Nasser had anticipated).

I agree that the Baathist rise was not engineered by any Western power - I don't know if there were any Soviet fingers in the pie. Baathism in Iraq and Syria seems to me to have been a home-grown movement, aimed at overthrowing the Sykes-Picot plan and the subsequent appointment of the Husseini family to so many levers of power between the wars.

And then we come to Iran ...