Not known for subtlety or nuance, Trump handling Iran just right
If you’ve got a minute to pause from our collective obsession with a gossipy book of dubious veracity, other issues of compelling importance reveal another side of the US president and his administration: Iran; how Donald Trump addressed the deadly anti-regime demonstrations there; and the Islamic Republic’s role as the linchpin of any future regional stability or instability.
Barack Obama was painfully reluctant to involve the US, even rhetorically, during the Green Revolution of 2009, the last time nationwide protests erupted in Iran. The former president’s limp comments about peaceful demonstrations were uttered only after resolutions from Congress and a tongue-lashing from Sen. John McCain highlighted their absence.
Then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton later admitted, “We were too restrained in our support of the protests in June 2009 and in our condemnation of the government crackdown that followed.”
Though there is little media attention paid to the demonstrations this time, there is no confusion. “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever,” Trump said. “The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”
Vice President Mike Pence gave a lengthy interview to Greta Van Susteren for Voice of America to broadcast in the Farsi language: “We’re going to continue to send, from the very outset of this effort on the streets of Iran, an unambiguous message that the American people stand with freedom-loving people in Iran and around the world.”
In a Washington Post op-ed Pence wrote, “We stand with the proud people of Iran because it is right. And because the regime in Tehran threatens the peace and security of the world.”
Obama’s reluctance to confront Iran was tied to his all-consuming desire for a nuclear agreement with Tehran, a leaky pact that Trump has now declined to re-certify and which Iran is not obeying.
Any president, especially one like Trump who is not known for nuance, walks a tightrope in such situations. He must make clear that America supports strivings for democracy. At the same time, he must not create false hopes of direct US intervention, as was done during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which was ultimately squashed by Soviet tanks.
Iran’s second nationwide uprising in nine years against the mullahs is being fueled by rural Iranians, once the regime’s strongest pillar. Demonstrators now chant for regime change because the anticipated gains from more than $100 billion in unfrozen assets were squandered on weapons, foreign forays, terrorism, and in all likelihood, corruption. REPORTERS SEEKING news offered Trump’s spokeswoman an opportunity to reveal her boss’s support for regime change in Tehran. Instead, she said carefully, “I think the ultimate endgame would be that the citizens and the people of Iran are actually given basic human rights, and he’d certainly like to see them stop being a state sponsor of terror.”
Trump’s “Little Rocket Man” tweet aimed at North Korea’s Kim Jong-un drew instant media attention, even igniting speculation about the president’s mental health. Such reports reinforce a popular perception that this president is a loose cannon, an idea he seeks to feed at times with unorthodox presidential behavior and statements.
What’s puzzling is what doesn’t get so eagerly reported or attributed to Trump’s presidency: economic growth exceeding 3% by Trump’s seventh month in office; unemployment falling to long-time lows; 1.84 million jobs created since Trump’s inauguration; confident stock markets soaring to all-time highs; homebuilding up; and dozens of large companies granting bonuses and wage hikes. Even Trump’s job approval rating was climbing at year’s end.
How can so many things be going so well with an unbalanced usurper in the Oval Office?
Trump’s firm stance on Iran’s global export of terrorism goes willfully unnoticed. His sober conduct toward Iran’s mullahs, as reflected by his refraining from name-calling tweets, goes similarly without comment, because such respect does not fit the favored anti-Trump narrative.
So too does his mutual decision with South Korea’s president to suspend potentially provocative joint military exercises ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics there. Ditto with Trump’s instantly implemented vow to quickly crush ISIS, which is no longer an organized fighting force.
The same goes for his carefully targeted response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons against its own people; the imposition of new sanctions on Russia; the sale of badly needed defensive weapons to Ukraine; the deployment of troop to Eastern Europe in fulfillment of American commitments to NATO; and now, the suspension of $2b. in aid to Pakistan for its harboring of terrorists, a firm consequence to such actions that was dodged by recent administrations.
These and other actions demonstrating freshened resolve abroad suggest when it comes to foreign policy, friends and foes alike would do well to note that Trump follows words with action. – (MCT)
The writer is an author and a national and foreign correspondent who has covered politics since the 1960s. Follow him @AHMalcolm.