The United States turned 250 on July 4. The celebrations were spectacular: 850,000 fireworks launched from ten sites across Washington, military flyovers every hour, a speech from a president who promised it would be the “largest fireworks show in history”. At Mount Rushmore the night before, Donald Trump declared America “the most extraordinary republic ever, ever, ever”. But anniversaries have a way of exposing what lies beneath the pageantry. And beneath this one, the foundations are crumbling. While Trump spoke of American greatness, Iran began a six-day national mourning for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in a US-Israeli airstrike on February 28. The timing was not incidental. The casket of the slain leader lay in state on the very […]