I predict the protests in Iran will come to nothing but a greater crackdown and increas in power for the right wing clerics and the military.
Sounds like the protests started out as unorganized but country wide anger about economic conditions but then got ramped up to bigger things like freedom( oh how elusive) and arm raised shouting of " Death to ________". The young, in crowds , and with world wide media attention are prone to do that but it is ultimately destructive and stupid, not to mention dangerous. Anybody under 60 who talks about a return to the Shah never lived under him - so that's a one off.
President Rouhani will be forced to the right if he wants to survive politically. The same old sad story.
If western countries really want to help they must show good faith and lift sanctions and help Iran open up to foreign investment. That's what will really help the economy and reformers like Rouhani move forward with a more progressive agenda. Also drop the exporter of terrorism tag. There is no greater exporter of terror in the world than the US of A. Everybody knows that but us I guess.
2
Yes, Trump says that Iranians have the right to protest, but when it comes to the NFL, he mocks the protesters.
6
Obama understood something that the orange-man will never understand and that is that the Iranians don't want foreign forces interfering in their demand for their freedom. Obama understood that his public comments would hurt the movement and not help it. Obama had the advantage of being a well read scholar and not a real estate swindler. You see, comments don't change regimes! Iranians for their part don't really care what the American president thinks because all too often, they are taught about the lessons of 1956. Trump banning travel by Iranians to America (the most educated and successful immigrant community in America) told Iranians all they need to know about what he thinks of them.
6
Tut tut My Cohen, perhaps you should review our own dark history before tossing stones at the Iranian regime which we helped to create. In 1953-54 the CIA (and British intelligence) orchestrated the overthrow of Iran's (parliamentary elected) Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had sought to build a true democracy and follow a neutral path between the Soviet Union and the West. His major offense against the West was to have nationalized the Iranian oil fields, thereby denying the British (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co.) their control of Iran's chief natural resource. The CIA's tactics--counterfeit mobs, widespread bribery, propaganda, and help in planning and carrying out a violent coup--resulted in the return of the Shah of Iran. The Shah, an absolute monarch, bought billions of dollars’ worth of arms from the US, established a vicious secret police (SAVAK) that carried out torture and murders on a wide scale, and put the West back in control of Iran's oil. All this led directly to the rise of the Shia, whom we now either support or oppose, or both. Eventually the Ayatollah lead the Shia in seeking revenge, and that led to the 1979 Iranian Revolution, hostage taking, the further fanning of hatred against the US for what the CIA did in 1953 and afterwards, and the Iran/Contra scandal under President Reagan. Now the US finds Iran to be an untrustworthy, hate-filled enemy of democracy and stability in the Middle East.
6
What hypocrisy? Although the president claims to support everyday Iranians’ rights, his administration has spent the last year fighting in court to enforce a policy banning them from coming to the U.S.
2
In other words, outside the box Donald Trump is not Satan.
And, truth be told, Barack Obama was not the second coming of THE LORD.
Trump is the antithesis to the over-praised Obama THESIS.
In short, a typical Presidential succession, resulting in a Synthesis,
beginning a new THESIS.
Hopefully the Democrats can provide a valid counter in the 2018 midterms,
and even a possible useful positive counter in the 2020.
A suggestion: drop the specious Russian "collusion" troope, the TRUMP is NUTS 25th amendment gambit, etc: Try old school LOYAL OPPOSTION---
while providing the American People an authentic alternative to the present duly elected President, and give the electorate a chance to replace him with a better persom---Him or Her.
1
It’s becoming clearer every day: Team Obama/Hillary was a geopolitical disaster. You just can’t make up the level of incompetence this pair achieved. Iraq, Syria, Egypt, North Korea … Iran. The adults have a lot of “cleaning up” to do.
1
It is not a coincidence that the protest in Iran happened after President Obama’s nuclear deal, which made a small but significant crack in decades of ineffective isolation policies. Engaging with Iran has made its citizens aware that their voices and their lives matter.
2
"...the wealth of Iran is being looted” by a “brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”
And there have been many in the West who wish to do that looting themselves via free trade agreements and open markets. Iran has long been a desirable piece to own and manage on the geopolitical chessboard but a durable populace in the name of the Persian people has proved to be a hard nut to crank for the world's powers.
This is why we should leave these people alone. Contrary to popular conception, the US has neither been the progenitor of democracy in the world nor does the US want a truly free Iran. Much like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states show, the US is quite happy working with Islamic societies where the residents have little say or complaints.
The invention of the UN and the new world order following WWII intended to let nations independent find there own way in the community of nations. The Europeans have moved on from nation engineering. The US needs to do likewise. We should lead by example and establish positive relationships with whomever runs Iran and allow the people there to fight for a society in there own image.
Remember always that the Iran of America's ire is an invention of America itself. We do best to leave these people alone and stay far away from their domestic conversation.
4
Like a clock twice a day and a blind squirrel.
2
Did the Israeli's cheer lead or saber rattle during the First Gulf War? They knew such actions were counter productive and would only aid Iraq. I can't see how Trump's bloviating regarding Iran's present regime will ever help the protesters.
3
Let's say that popular protests succeed in toppling a despotic regime in Iran. What would that look like and what would come next? There are relevant examples in the region that offer some clues: Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen. Even a bad government is to be preferred over chaos, disorder and civil war. Obama made the right choice in 2009: stay out of it. The disintegration of Iran is not in the US interest and we should neither encourage such an outcome nor take ownership of it.
2
Wrong! Trump is absolutely the worst person in the world to offer support for the protesters in Iran. Trump is such a negative force for world peace and understanding that his support will be used by Khamenei and his Clerical Oligarchy controlling Iran as another reason to come down hard on these protestors. More will die because Trump tweeted.
3
I find it truly astounding that the Left's abject hatred of President Trump makes them blind to the fact that current Iranian regime is the epitome of the fascist religious state that the Left claims to fear the most.
2
Most of the Picks are self flaggelating folks who insist Iran isn't our enemy, and how could we possibly support an overthrow of their govt. because of previous mistakes made prior and during the years of the Shah. Are these commenters for real? Nobody said the people in Iran, save a small minority, were ever the issue; it's that government and its undemocratic elections. A ballot that eliminates most candidates isn't a fair vote; one commenter surmises that Rouhani was fairly elected. No he wasn't; there were no opposition candidates allowed, and their assembly is also rigged. Never mind the unelected ayatollah and the turbans who allegedly control him. The unsophisticated President has more insight than some so-called educated readers/commenters. I think they are actually afraid to see Iranians rid themselves of their thug/theocracy. Wonder why? Possibly they don't want to see Israel's biggest threat eliminated?
all fundamentalist religious ideologies are bankrupt. doesnt matter if they are jewish, christian, muslim, hindu, buddhist, or what ever.
2
I foolishly thought that you knew better.
2
"Trump is right..." Might as well have stopped there Roger because every liberal reader of the NYT (meaning 90% of its readership) stopped reading (or at least stopped thinking) after those three words.
2
"As I wrote at the time, “There’s nothing more repugnant than seeing women being hit by big men armed with clubs and the license of the state.”"
You should spend more time in Israel where it's a daily occurrence.
1
Even when Trump receives a minor compliment, the knee-jerk Times readership feels the need to automatically and superficially rant that Trump is ignorant and evil.
1
The question is: Is Roger Cohen selling himself for a few miserable Ducats? The camouflaged Zionism comes out at the first sign of internal dissent he perceives in Iran.
While millions of American fight against the takeover of the American government by dedicated extremists, who have no agenda but to push ‘America mores on other nations’ or internal to America ‘pushing decrepit , selfish, and unsocial ideas on government’ on fellow citizens.
Cohen, be an American and write about the miserable state America is in.
2
This just shows how much RC must hate Iran, the only Muslim country that does not kowtow to the West.
2
Having many 'o Trump's twits or tweets shoved down my throat this last year, it appears someone helped him write it. The context is subdued, almost intelligent; IT WAS NOT TRUMP. Trump tweets [twits?] about a big special button, humiliating people, governments (friend or foe), etc. His controllers may have, hopefully, straight[thumbed]jacketed him. Mr. Cohen, I agree the response from the US Gov't is rational, but reconsider the real source please. Paul
1
Trump is right about Iran? Nothing can be farther from the truth. Why is he so upset about the deal the last administration signed? If it's as bad as he says it is, why not send Tillerson to negotiate another? Isn't he a master of negotiations? Why push for a war against this country? Why send Haley to the UN to disseminate his bellicose rethoric? Does he care about human rights violations? Why is he shaking hands with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Philippines who commit atrocities against their own people? This is just another of his innumerable lies and it's hard to believe that a columnist for the NYT can actually fall for it.
3
If only President GHW Bush had asked what then before he encouraged the 1991 Iraqi uprisings.
1
I didn’t read the article but the headline says you’re missing the point. The MO is 100% the same. Support the opponents opponent, and flip when it’s time. Nothing new. You think trump has sincere humanitarian motive this time for supporting a specific group in an argument where he thinks he has an axe to grind? No. It’s the America First doctrine. Which means anything is allowed. Watch him turn this around on you cause ultimately YOU people are the enemy of the “American People”
2
Iran is an independent country. Why do we make it our business to decide for them? They have a truly ( real popular vote ) elected Government. Let the Iranian people decide for themselves. They don't want us interfering so why do it? Because we decide we can and we feel justified to act on it. Our arrogance is beyond words.
2
Even when T-Rump does something "right," Cohen and his legion of commentators find grounds to criticize him. Yet, when that invertebrate who was the previous POTUS (a) said nothing about the stolen election and the Tiananmen response by the Iranian regime, (b) drew an invisible red line in Syria, and (c) helped create a failed state in Libya (not to mention (d) dithering about Yemen while a horrible human tragedy was created) - not a peep could be heard from all these good and better people.
"Trump has been right to get behind the brave Iranian protesters calling for political and economic change."
Why? Because you are eager to see another Syria debacle? Do you suffer from amnesia? Don't you remember Syria started exactly the same way?
Mr. Cohen, you might have visited Iran a few times, but your dreamy idealism shows you don't know Iran. What happened in Iran in the last week is already over. A few hundred arrested, some no doubt will get death sentence, and Trump will be left with his idiotic meddling in yet another ME country.
No thanks.
1
Cohen's political judgment must be closely examined, given his foolish public support for the invasion of Iraq. How dare he blame President Obama for what he sees as "excessive caution"? Obama and Kerry skillfully brought about an agreement between the world and Iran that benefits us all and provided a path to the evolution of democratic government in Iran. I've spent a lot of time in Iran, and it is distressing to know that Cohen admires Trump's barbaric and ignorant policies on Iran. It's even more distressing to know that any actions our government takes in support of those marching in Iran might result in the Iran Republican Guard killing tens of thousands of young Iranians. Cohen's mind is never far from all matters Israeli, and I suspect that Cohen's admiration for Trump stems in part from Trump's embrace of Israeli political objectives. The US should not interfere yet again In Iranian politics, and Cohen should restrict his giving advice to Iranians and meditate instead on his personal and public mistakes that indirectly resulted in the invasion of Iraq.
4
Really, trump destroys democracy and civil rights every day in America, and he has no regard for freedom of speech or freedom of the press, so someone told him to support Iranian protesters while turning a blind eye to the hateful sessions who arrested peaceful protesters who attended the inauguration of the thing from the swamp, many of them facing long jail times;so trump needs to come to the aide of the protesters here at home that sessions arrested, including the librarian that laughed at his faux confirmation hearing rushed through by the colossal liar, McConnel. Do Not Align or Support 45 for saying something about rights in Iran which he never thought of;Make him do something about all the human rights violations his guilty of here in what remains of America.
1
Roger, Roger, Roger...
You are so sweet and such a beautiful man.
I am sure you could have waxed poetic about Iran's current uprising without having to give Trump the credit he does not deserve.
His random tweeting is noise and nonsense.
Why do you and others have to keep cherry picking anything you can to try and make this nightmare presidency legitimate?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day...
What about the human rights of women like Jessica Leeds or Beverly Young Nelson to be free from harassment instead of seeing their harassers endorsed, voted in by an electoral college that does not give a dime for their rights? The human rights of students, contractors or workers to not be stiffed? Of minorities to be able to cast a vote and see it (credibly) counted? To not be mass incarcerated for driving while black? The human rights of Puerto Ricans to receive proportional disaster relief and to see their global warming hurricane deaths counted? The rights of protesters at Standing Rock? The human rights of Blue State tax payers to be treated equal instead of being punished by weaponized tax policies steeped in red resentment? The human right to be free from the mentally ill running amok with assault guns? The human rights violations by Sheriff Arpaio? Human rights in Honduras, China, Russia? The rights of refugees to receive a shelter and to be free from hunger? The human right to be free from prejudiced stereotyping but to be seen, tweeted at and treated as human, free from travel bans?
There are 40 militant American oil profit greed bases encircling Iran, all in countries shredding human rights, none addressed by Trump.
Human rights are conspicuously weaponized for Military Bombdustrial Simplex, MBS´s and Netanyahu´s purposes here.
"Abused by America(n groper puppet master profits) First, human rights last" that universal girl might as well have given as her name.
1
Oh yes, let's add Iran to the other failed Arab states: Libya, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, even Egypt held together by military. And don't forget Cuba in our own hemisphere. Does anyone want to move there?
Here is the simple fact: Trump is a far greater threat to everything we claim to value - the rights of the people - then Iran will ever be. Given what he has said and done over the past year and the direction he is leading the nation at home and abroad I do not believe it is the least bit hyperbole to say he is an existential threat to the nation and possibly to the world.
The Iranian protestors did not need Trump's support to go out and protest their oppressive regime and they certainly do not benefit from his twittering support to continue protesting. His comment are purely for consumption of his followers and if anything will only inflame the Iranian regime response against the protestors. Perhaps worst of all is the very things Trump condemns in Iran are the very same things he practices himself against the American People.
Mr. Cohen seems to have run completely off the rails in "thinking" Trump is right about Iran.
1
If the Arab Spring were occurring today in Saudi Arabia, UAE, et al, would Trump be supporting the protesters or the regimes? I think we know. I don't think there is a principle at work here as most of the gulf states are largely oppressive and likely corrupt and yet we have excellent relations - the greatest ever. (Did you see that red carpet.) Is Iran worse? Bad, certainly, but worse? Hard to say. If there is no principle then it makes it difficult to get up on the high horse. (I have not heard much out of the Trump administration regarding Myamar - talk about repressive.) Of course the US should support the protesters but when your position is compromised it is easy for the regime to use this against the protesters. Trump's support seems more like the usual appealing to his base and appeasing the Saudis than caring about the protestors.
Watch carefully. when any country favors the wealthy elite that controls the economics of all those poor soles beneath them, disruption may/will follow. Many in the ruling party in this country are betting against a truly populist uprising.
The only reason Trump is taking the side of the protesters is because he loves chaos and sees an opportunity to increase it with his tweets. However, coming from an autocratic president of the country that over threw the democratically elected leader of Iran in order to put another royal on the thrown of Iran, Trumps words seem a little hollow.
I spent a week in Iran in 1972. The Shah was in power. Women were free to walk around in Western clothing, skirts and high heels. There was an undercurrent of young people, some of whom I met at parties, who were plotting to overthrow the Shah. No doubt he was a repressive despot, and those who went against him were tortured or killed. The CIA was shocked when the Shah was toppled in 1979. I worked for 25 years in the tourist town of Newport, RI, and in that time I met many Iranians. Every single one of them said that life under the Shah constituted "the glory days." That's how bad the Ayatollahs are. The lesson is that no matter how bad something is, it's often replaced by something worse.
1
While we are dealing with Russia's intereference in our election, I have a new perspective on US interference in other countries' political destiny(excluding genocide). It is up to the people of Iran to steer the fate of their country. We have no business in Iran.
2
I would be more impressed if Trump demonstrated any actual understanding of Iran's history and problems----or could even find Iran on a world map. This will not happen in my lifetime. I also agree with the content of the tweet, but I have no doubt that this tweet was authored by somebody else. Trump does not have this level of respect for free speech in his own country----so it seems a bit far-fetched to imagine him valuing free speech elsewhere.
1
It seems wrong to say that whatever stand Donald Trump takes can't be supported. But, in this case it is doubtful that he really cares about what these protesters want from their government. So far this year here in the United States he hasn't learned a thing from protests. Not from the women's march and not from Charlottesville. Why should we believe that he really cares about the needs of the Iranian people?
Cohen may be only praising the shell which means The The president of America title, but the Soul who is Trump.
Even then People are not convinced what Trump says has any meaning or sense in it.
What about Trump's failure to respect the rights and wishes of the majority of Americans on issues like gun control, climate change, health care, environmental protection, and the Russian Investigation, to name a few.
Mr. Cohen is spot on in explaining the conditions in Iran and in validating the current uprising.
Mr. Cohen is dead wrong in supporting Trump's tweet even for a fleeting second because every crime committed by Iranian regime has been in Trump's playbook of possibilities.
Consistency would be nice. He was/is silent on opposition protests in Russia.
Here is a thought. How about the US and Israel, joined by any European allies that still have some gumption expedite regime change by attacking the Revolutionary Guards and its Basij militia, preventing the regime from being able to carry out an effective crackdown. The place to start is in Syria and Kurdistan. The IDF can march into Syria tomorrow and eliminate every Guard unit in Syria within a week. At the same time the US sends forces to Iraqi Kurdistan, recognizes its independence, and together with Pershmega forces, launches an operation to liberate Iranian Kurdistan. The Guards lack the resources to fight Israel, the American backed Kurds and their own people at the same time. Putin would not dare intervene, he knows America can smash his military within a few weeks. "Who dares wins"
1
With a well educated, industrious population, Iran has tremendous potential. The protesters have it exactly right that the Khamenie theocracy wastes huge amounts of money propping up the mullahs, Revolutionary Guards and the Basij and fomenting unrest through Hezbollah and other surrogates within the Middle East. Their people want freedom and opportunity and we should support that. Trump is correct about this. But by threatening to impose more sanctions and ripping up the nuclear deal, we would just be allowing Khamenie to use us as the scapegoat for their economic woes.
This contradiction in policy once again demonstrates Trump's total inability to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with a complex problem. And by the way, shouldn't Rex Tillerson and the State Department have had a contingency plan in place to deal with this kind of development? Maybe they did but Trump as usual just shot from the lip before seeking advice from those who might actually know something about the country. Sad!!
1
Roger Cohen loses all credibility when supports DJT without paying attention to the context. So, is Trump "presidential" jsut because he managed to utter something that we can all agree upon. Furthermore, the rest of Cohen's piece contradicts his glowing endorsement of Trump.
1
I am very disappointed with Mr. Cohen's analysis. There are protests in Iran for reasons unknown. If it is about the Iranian's frustration with their government, is it not for the Iranians to resolve? Why does America have to get in the middle of a family feud, whatever the reason? What about dealing with our own protests, dangerous, pitting one American against the other? It is time we stopped interfering because we have lost all moral standing in the world. We are accusing Iran while we just doing the same thing all over the globe. We have no moral ground anymore. Let's get down from our sanctimonious high horse. If Iranians are protesting then let them handle their own problems!
Mr. Cohen retweeted Trump's support for Iranians who want to be liberated from—and this is what Mr. Cohen tellingly leaves out—the harsh theocratic government the USA installed, more or less, by destroying its democracy in 1953 and seating the dictatorial pseudo-royal Shah.
Mr Cohen is correct that Iran is a "sophisticated society of deep culture full of unrealized promise." May they have nothing to do with the USA until they achieve their own goals, with help of allies who actually want them to do well.
Trump and his pal Netanyahu are bent on bombing them, protestors and everybody else, with Mr. Cohen—through his sins of omission—pretending they aren't.
hello, I'm living in Iran, and as an Iranian who has endured a huge suffer and pain in nearly 4 decade after 1978 revolution, and have seen many terrible and sad events in these periods, and I myself had been in prison for four years as a political activist and have been dismissed as a teacher from my career, I really wish that the people across the world never, never allow this regim to torture, murder our valuable, and good young people who have been detained recently in the protest. please don"t allow the regim to repeat the 2009 tragdy. they are our innocent children and their only charge have been demanding freedom and coexistence with across the world.I' m very concern about their destiny. I "m so sad and feel helpless
It's ironic that Trump would stake out a position supporting the revolutionary elements in Iran when he openly envies the unlimited power of Khamenei, Putin, and Kim Jong-un. Trump may not like some of the things these countries do, but he sure would like the power their leaders have to do them. If he could, Trump would trade the FBI for a Revolutionary Guard.
See:
RevolutionOfReason.com
TheRogueRevolutionist.com
2
And when America's disaffected youth, making little money and cheap college education for them prevented by the president's crude and hasty tax bill, will the president praise them as he does Iranian youth, when ours begin protesting his hypocritical gifts to the wealthy and to corporations as the Irani youth fault the Ayatollah for his largess to Iraq, Syria, and Hezbollah? I await that Tweet!
8
Iran's youth are fighting for the right to choose their own path. America's youth have only themselves to blame for going into debt to earn a useless liberal arts degrees at an expensive private school. They could have worked their way through a state school, earned a STEM degree, and gotten a decent job.
We are gta.ling about an ignorant President, at best, or a malevolent President eager to have himself going down in history......no matter what for!
We Re talking about a blind nation that succumbs to internal forces despite their glaring by products.
We Re talking about a nation immersed in the benefits of ? Capitalism-Imperialism which does not know that the American public is its first victim.
We are talking about the universal bad luck of this nation being s major force that designs and implements all anti other people schemes!
clearly trump has no hotels in iran
4
Trump is right about Iran? Trump is an utterly undisciplined ignoramus. Period.
8
My what an insightful comment
Nobody will blame Mr. Chen for writing approvingly of President Trump’s Tweet supporting “the brave Iranian protesters...." I wish he had done it without being too critical of President Obama, who always asked the right question “And then what?” in similar situations.
We all remember the inhuman way the Iranian regime suppressed the Green Movement of 2009. Obama did criticize it -- firmly, but politely. He could not afford to be too harsh, for an important reason. Any wrong word or deed on his part would have stalled the efforts he had been making to find a diplomatic solution to the far more serious problem posed by Iran at the time: its nuclear program.
Mr. Trump is not constrained by any such consideration. Among the Obama legacies he has been engaged in dismantling from his day one in office is the Iran nuclear deal, which the Obama administration painstakingly concluded, in partnership with our European allies. It is too late for Mr. Cohen to ask Mr. Trump to “stop berating the nuclear deal.” He is now on the brink of discarding it. But he doesn't know that condemnation of and warnings to Iran don't have any effect. Iran has heard them by now.
Ditto is the case with North Korea, the country that poses a bigger nuclear threat. Mr. Trump has been condemning and threatening the dictator of N. Korea, using words that would put even a rowdy to shame.
What other option does Mr. Trump have now than going to war? Will Mr. Cohen applaud him when he does it?
6
The New York Times would double its readership in a month if they could rid themselves of these jingoists. But alas they cannot.
Roger, you confuse the blind pig finding the acorn, with a substantive, thoughtful process. Trump knows nothing about Iran, it's people, it's culture or its politics. He appears totally ignorant of international politics and diplomacy. It was just as likely he would tweet to the Iranian people that he had a bigger button on his desk, and tell North Korea people that they should stand up to the mullahs.
7
Trump has the emotional maturity of a five year old. He engages in wishful and magical thinking and by all accounts is not willing to, or capable of engaging in complex analysis.
The fact that a five year old can distinguish between right and wrong would not lead most thoughtful people to praise their level of discernment. Yet that is what Roger Cohen is doing for Trump. Why?
3
Mr. Cohen, when the Us Government and President Trump will denounced all the Dictators like the Saudis in Arabia, the militaries in Egypt,... then I will agree with you. Until then, let say that Trump and the US Government are just a bunch of hypocrites.
9
It is nice and feels good to support the "Iranian people". It is, however, not our job to be the judge of the world. Look how well Iraq, Libya, Chile, Nicaragua, Panama, the Congo etc. worked out. We also live in a large glass house and it would be fitting and safer if we did not throw rocks, Tell me about a people's revolution that worked for the people. How about Cuba.Russia? We, humans, are what we are and it's not pretty. Pretending we can fix anything is the height of hypocrisy.
6
You really think that if you give Trump two lines of faint praise he'll pay attention to any advice that makes sense or deals with real facts? Anyway, since the fall of the Shah almost 40 years ago, U.S. policy towards Iran has been a jumble. No one can deny that withe the Shah"s demise
2
You're a single issue voter. Your pro-Israel agenda clouds your ability to think rationally. This allows you to momentarily side with a 3rd world style corrupt dictator and give him praise for getting something right. Regardless of the fact that his agenda is 99% wrong for you, unless you happen to have > $100MM net worth.
5
America cannot go to war with Iran for the simple reason that it cannot invade the place. To do so would be essentially on foot because unlike Iraq, Iran is all mountains. What is Trump going to do? Bomb the place? Good reason to build and stock up on nuclear weapons. What else, sanctions? That lead to the nuclear program. NK showed that nuclear technology development is still possible under even extreme sanction regime. Pressuring Iran and walking away from the nuclear deal, is not only stupid, but also folly as in the March of Folly, Ms. Tuchman's great book on Empires and why they all eventually fail. As in NK US has no military option, only intelligent diplomacy, something this administration has shown a definite lack of. Just look at ambassador Haley; proves my point.
1
Roger, I generally enjoy your point of view, but this is worse than re-tweeting the time of day from a clock that is right twice a day.
It is like re-tweeting Harvey Weinstein if he were to say something decrying the sexual harassment women face in the tech world.
You got it wrong on this one, man.
4
Mr. Cohen you are wrong! Actually, you are VERY WRONG!
This is one of the main problems of US foreign policy over the years, our meddling in other countries' affairs. When will America understand that just because the US is a big powerful country it does not mean that it can interfere in any way with the internal issues of other counties?
For sure we do not want other countries to get involved in our own problems, so why don't we adhere to the same rules?
3
Because we are the greatest nation on earth and it is our duty to eliminate the evil from the world.
To many of us who lived in Iran when the shah was in power, the country seemed to be a suffocating police state, managed by Savak, the domestic security and intelligence service.
That period now seems like a golden age compared to what the mullahs created.
2
Whenever I erad anything Cohen writes for the Times I am always brought back to earth by the reminiscence of his jaunt with the US Army to prove how peaceful and completed our military's control of Iraq was. Driving on an empty highway, bundled up in several flak jackets and protected by a another 6 or 7 armored vehicles and hundreds of heavily arm,ed and watchful soldiers, Cohen cdelbrated Bush's control over the capitol and all Iraq. He was so pleased that the once bustling metropolis was now empty of all people and vehicles except for the US military and their tin can like Hummers.
It took him a couple more years, but he finally realized that he hadn't been in Iraq, but in Potemkin village.
AS A result of his politicized Iraq war positions, I take everything he claims with a heap of salt. When Cohen he says the sky is blue I do a double take.
6
Looks like Roger is trying to whip-up the American citizenry for a glorious war against Iran. Don't worry, Roger -- Trump will most assuredly take us to war against either Iran or North Korea.
4
As the NYT points out in it latest report, few, if any street demonstrations or signs of popular dissent are occurring in Tehran. Until that changes, little success against the mullahs and the regime can be expected
Those who know how to govern don’t tweet.
Those who keep tweeting are just doing what they are the most skilled in.
Mr. Trump likes the fake stories about the Russian investigation and the sexual harassment.
As long as we are reading about those stories nobody is covering how Trump betrayed his very base by working closely with the Washingtonian swampers on sinking the USA into even deeper national debt instead of kicking the lobbyists out of our capital before they successfully enacted the new round of the tax cuts for their already extremely profitable multinational corporations.
Mr. Trump has been pushing his country into the largest national debt crisis ever so the global corporations could invest the windfall profits s into the red China.
Could somebody explain to the White House incumbent with only 140 characters (to match his volatile attention span) that the multinational corporations don’t have the identical interests with America?
Instead of discussing our most urgent long-term national interests we are witnessing the street-style Tweeter fight between Trump and Kim Yong-Un who has the larger… nuclear button on their desk?!
Even the Iranian ayatollahs ain’t so reckless!
Can you believe that the Tehran clergy would ever export their nuclear program to Tel Aviv because the Israeli scientists are more proficient than the Iranian ones? That would make as much sense as America depending on China exports for our basic needs…
3
Actually Roger, I've since determined, that Barack made statements condemning the violence by the authorities in Iran following the election there on June 13 2009 on June 15, 16, 19, 20 and 23 according to Politifact. You can't fault the man just for not being tweeting twit like Donald.
4
Plenty of us welcomed the exit of the Shah back in the day. We didn't foresee the rise of the religious conservatives and their takeover of the state. I agree with the protesters' objections, but what's their end game? Just what changes what they have? Let's find that out before we offer mindless support.
4
The secular reformers instrumental in the Shah's demise were liquidated by the religious fanatics, with the complicity of the CIA, which always found religious reactionaries more palatable than social reformers. The secularists who survived ended up coming here and becoming mainstream Americans. Despite the best laid plans to have the Ayatollahs run Iran as had the Shah, things got out of hand when Carter made the mistake of admitting the deposed, dying Shah to the U.S. for medical treatment. That set off the firestorm that led to the occupation of the U.S. Embassy, and the Ayatollahs, desperate to maintain their fragile hold on power, to label the U.S. "The Great Satan."
1
It's quite simple really. The US-Israel-Saudi coalition is planning to force an unjust solution on the Palestinians. To achieve this they need to soften up all areas of significant opposition. This includes the demonizing and discrediting of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian leadership. Roger Cohen is complicit in this endeavour.
They forget that the EU and the rest of the civilized nations will not abandon the Palestinians and their human rights.
6
The Middle East countries that have attempted or accomplished regime change include Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Yemen and Syria. Maybe Obama had good reason to ask “And then what?”
4
I see, Roger. So now you're recommending an Iranian Spring after the disastrous results of the Arab Springs?
You fail to differentiate between endemic corruption and the poverty of the masses. Corruption is inbred and inexcusable. Poverty is largely due to the continuing sanctions which make it impossible for major banks to finance projects related to Iran.
You write about 2009. How interesting. When you interviewed me a year earlier in Tehran (I was the only private individual you speciifically sought out based on my letters to the then-IHT) I convinced you that the economic progress under Khatemi was torpedoed by the Neocons, which led us to Ahmadinejad. The economic and social progress under Khatemi occurred DESPITE massive corruption, because all major non-U.S. banks had offices in Tehran.
Please stop confusing cause with effect.
10
Major banks cannot finance WHAT projects in Iran? The building of another multi-million-dollar mosque? Where is Iran's oil revenue going?
Next Women's March is in less than three weeks.
I can't wait to see what Trump says about Americans protesting peacefully in 2018.
Because last year he was decidedly un-American in his attacks on peaceful NFL protesters, and in his support of the violent White Supremacists who wave the Confederate and Nazi flags that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers died fighting against in our two deadliest wars.
That's our Con-mander-in-Chief.
9
Cohen is not supporting Trump he is supporting a idea that Trump has.
It is therefore irrelevant that Trump is a idiot or what ever you can say about him and it is therefore wrong to say Cohen is wrong based on the fact he agrees with Trump.
5
Shivering, Roger Cohen, not because of the freezing temps as far south as Florida, but from your column that "Trump is Right...about Iran". President Trump, in only his first year as our President, has looted America of its democracy, moral values, and solidarity. Calling Iran a "brutal and corrupt regime" is our nasty kettle calling the pot black. Robert Reich tweeted that "Trump is a madman", Peter Wehner tweeted that "President Trump is... "cognitively decomposing". Standing up for our ignorant and unintelligent President re his warning about Iran is standing up for an empty suit, or lauding a man who tweets Kim Jong-un that he has a bigger button than the D.P.R.K.'s leader - "Rocket Man, short and fat, North Korean" - does. Please stop praising Trump with faint damns.
15
Should we all take a knee for Iran?
1
Obama and Clinton are silent when freedom-loving Iranians protest and some are killed by the government's crackdown. Clinton expresses "regret". Then the Obama administration with Boy Wonder Kerry work out a "deal" for the Iranian administration to get paid billions of $ to promise to not build nuclear bombs.
The Obama administration, by showing itself as weak, allowed the Iranian government to crack down on elements of freedom in 2009. Then it paid them off in 2015. Now Iran is going to crack down on the fewer remaining elements of freedom. What would Obama do? If past performance determines future behavior, he would send them more money.
What a useless, weak-willed, please-forgive-us-for-being-successful ex-POTUS Obama is.
9
Trump does not engage, he tweets, he denegrates, he accuses, he demands but he does not engage. Bullies just don't act that way. Don't expect much from trump.
2
Cohen uses a favored journalistic tactic here -- misstating a fact that is too old for most readers to check, and then building arguments based on that misstated fact.
Here, Cohen refers to the "fraudulent election" of 2009, in which Ahmadinejad was elected with over 11,000,000 votes more than his main opponent, Mousavi. Many outside observers (I included) had expected Mousavi to win, and suspected fraud when he didn't. Many outsiders analyzed the election, but found no evidence of fraud.
Iranians in the 2009 presidential election voted at nearly 46,000 polling stations. Mousavi had personal representatives at nearly 41,000. How many Mousavi observers reported a different vote count, or wrongdoing of any kind, at his or her polling station? Zero. "Why, then," Mousavi naturally was asked, "do you dispute the result?" "Because it was fraudulent," was Mousavi's essential answer.
Not surprisingly, this didn't satisfy most outsiders, who downgraded their adjectives from "fraudulent" to "disputed." Not Cohen. Even though he, like Mousavi, couldn't cite anything in particular, he wrote in the NYT (3/22/2010) that "sometimes you just smell the truth, breathe it."
What, exactly, does Cohen think Obama should have done? Perhaps say: "We can't point to anything specific, but we just 'feel' there was fraud. And so we think you should declare Mousavi the winner, even though Ahmadinejad received 11,000,000 more votes."
Or what, exactly, should Obama have done? Send in the bombers?
4
Trump isn't right...he's mouthing off a knee jerk reaction just as he did to North Korea with "my button is bigger than your button" . He's too ill informed to have an opinion. He reacts on his self interested instinct. All words and no brains, that's El Trumpo.
8
Trump doesn't have the intellectual maturity to have a strategy (such as bring along European allies in supporting the protesters). He's just regurgitating what he saw on Fox News. A broken clock is right twice a day.
1
funny how our Dear Leader supports "peaceful protests" in Iran but fails to do the same for peaceful protesters here at home, namely the NFL players taking a knee.
8
Character matters.
Trump is in favor of torture, he has no morality to claim human rights.
Trump is a bully that wants to be a dictator himself, he has no moral high ground to criticize the dictator in Iran.
Trump wants to get rid of the Johnson amendment, and would be happy to help evangelicals establish a state-sponsored religion, he cannot in good conscience criticize the theocracy in Iran.
Trump hates Iranians, they are not welcome to the US, even though Iranians did not commit terrorism in the past 30 years since their hectic revolution period. Trump cannot be sympathetic to Iranians.
Trump is corrupt, a scanderol, and a pussygrabber he is no character to defend women's rights or transparency.
Trump is a danger to the world peace, threatening with his little fingers on a big nuclear button, he cannot even criticize Iran's ambitions for the same button on their supreme leader's desk, sigh
3
Trump is right this time , until he changes his mind at midnight or 3 am and tweets the opposite . Shame on you Roger for encouraging our would be dictator , who wants to use the FBI , the Justice Dept. , for his own vendettas , who wants the press only to publish glowing stories about what a great leader he is , who is defunding just about everything that helps our citizens , who admires thugs like Duterte and Putin , all for greed and glory. Wow how upsidedown is our world?
3
'The West-leaning middle class, fed up with the hypocrisy of the mullahs,'
How about Americans fed up with the hypocrisy of US Christian Leaders with their unquestioning devotion to Trump?
Why doesn't the NYT, with all it resources, do a report on how US sanctions are making it more difficult for ordinary Iranians, setting up the Iranian government as the straw man, when it's the US primarily responsible for ordinary Iranians facing hardship because of US Economic Warfare against Iran?
1
The Apprentice is never right about anything to do with his continued ineptitude and erratic conduct of his job. He is a reactionary personality with little, if any, good sense.
Didn’t anyone ever tell you that even a broken clock is right twice a day?
1
Dear Mr. Cohen, I appreciate your optimism about Trump
BUT
I prefer to believe George W Bush and Dick Cheney's middle east democracy project. it is more realistic not childish.
What Cohen is really saying is that Trump right now is a useful idiot for the forces of good in Iran. Cohen must know that if a revolution actually takes place in Iran, throwing out the mullahs and making the country more democratic, the new leaders will likely be just as anti-Trump as the mullahs are because the balance of power in the Middle East will remain the same, and the nuclear deal will remain under attack by Trumpian right-wing demagoguery. Trump's support for the Iranian people is about as credible as his desire to drain the swamp.
1
Report: US, Israel sign secret pact to tackle Iran nuclear and missile threat
Israel and the United States have secretly signed a far-reaching joint memorandum of understanding providing for full cooperation to deal with Iran’s nuclear drive, its missile programs and its other threatening activities, an Israeli TV report said.
The document was signed on December 12 at the White House, culminating intensive talks between representatives of the major Israeli and American intelligence and defense hierarchies, headed by the US and Israeli national security advisers, H. R. McMaster and Meir Ben-Shabbat, respectively, the Channel 10 report said Thursday.
In government, the plans to disrupt other Nations wold have already been made and filed for the Day of Implementation. This reads like a typical CIA driven event, not unlike colour Revolutions the US orchestrates in other parts of the world.
In 2007, former Supreme NATO Commander, US General Wesley Clark, blew the whistle on the CIA/Pentagon Plans brought out just weeks after 9/11, to change regimes in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and at the END, Iran.
Republican Bush did Iraq, Democrat Obama did Libya, but failed in Syria. Trump is now doing Iran.
This is enough to make one think there really is a Deep State pulling the strings behind the Republican-Democratic-Trumpian facade.
1
Sorry., mistakenly hit the wrong key in previous..
------------------
I share the President's feelings about Iran but he's wrong to go public in a big way. At best, his support for demonstrators is likely to be toxic to efforts to make Iran into a normal democracy. At worst, he will make Dulles' mistake, encouraging demonstrators to die by making them think the U.S. will intervene in Iran in support their movement. Dulles, with an assist from Radio Free Europe, did that to the Hungarian Revolution.
Don't keep sounding off Mr. President; for once, sit quietly. I believe but can't prove the demonstrations began as a provocation, like Mao's "Let A Hundred Flowers Bloom" but quickly tapped into a deep vein of popular discontent and spun out of the control of the anti-Rouhani crowd.
1
Amazing that 99 pc of the commentators have no suggestions, clue or ideas on what to do in reaction the Iranian protestors or government, but simply use this space to vent their anger at Trump. Maybe the NY Times just should have comment section devoted to "We hate Trump" which would then leave commentators who might wish to make a relevant comment on whatever particular subject of the article might be then might be allowed to do so, Curious that so many commentators call Trump so many names and call him immature. Maybe they are simply being ironic? Or is there another word for it?
4
The United States' theocracy/plutocracy is also morally bankrupt.
2
Trump has never been right about anything.
Why isn't the New York Times spending more journalistic effort to follow up on the Steele Dossier which documents Russian interference in our electoral process in order to elect Trump, their paid stooge.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fus...®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
2
Obama was in bed with the ayatollahs. No sane person would have okayed transferring 1.7 billion dollars to the world's leading sponsor of state terrorism. But the Liberal-Left loves to question Trump's sanity....Lol......compared to Obama, whose admin also looked the other way on Hezbollah's drug business in this country so as not to endanger his Iran deal, Trump is a paragon of forthright logic, common sense and sanity.
2
There has been no smart US president in the 21st century, including Clinton, Bush, Obama and Trump.
None of them warned our country regarding the catastrophic failures of the White House incumbents after they left the Office, thus making all of them mutually identical.
The longest foreign wars and the largest federal debt in our history are the proof of this claim, coupled with the colossal trade deficits and exodus of the critical US industrial manufacturing to China, our main world competitor.
Our government has wasted almost two decades on fighting the weak regimes and the local people.
See, there is no need to fight them. By definition, those regimes will collapse under their own weight.
Compete against the strongest one like China!
Unfortunately, our government has foolishly bestowed the colossal tax cuts on the multinational corporations and they invested the windfall profits into China because of the dramatically lower labor wages.
It seems that we are running the chronic budget and trade deficits to make China great.
We have the largest and most expensive military in the world to secure the unobstructed flow of the Chinese goods all over the globe…
Even the Tehran theocratic clergy cannot be as detrimental and harmful to Iran as our freely elected leaders to America…
1
This could have been a decent column if it didn't focus on the idea that the 70-year old toddler who is occupying the White House was "right" in his twitter rant. Trump's concern about Iran only comes from his desire to undo everything Obama, including the deal that Cohen speaks favorably about. That same deal that likely contributed to the current demonstrations by Iranians! And the idea that Trump can get our European allies to back us is absurd, even if he had any idea how to engage in diplomacy (or had a Secretary of State who could), he's already damaged those relationships too much.
I hope something good comes of this for the Iranian people, but it's highly unlikely that Trump will contribute to that in any way. His tweets may in fact help the Iranian government, allowing them to use him as the scapegoat for what's happening.
1
My general sense and source of some optimism involving Iran is that they had their "revolution" in 1979/1980 and they have since been struggling to evolve/develop (steps forward and backward) an Iranian/Persian governing structure that unquestionably reflects the primacy of Islam but also includes tolerance of other religions (within limits) and the right level (for them) of democratic process essential to create a supportive populace and a still modernizing state that is neither a religious nor military dictatorship. They certainly have a long way to go, but at least they have begun. Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Egypt among others have yet to begin this journey. Their aggressive foreign policy moves are indeed a threat and need to be dealt with; however, I believe their fundamental objective is state and Persian cultural survival in a very tough neighborhood, rather than than a religious oriented crusade.
1
Yes, unlike most of the other Trump haters, I'm not afraid to admit when he stumbles into a correct position about something. It almost never happens, but his aggressive stance on Iran is exactly right and necessary.
2
Roger Cohen gives too much credence to Trump’s tweet on Iran. As we have seen many times before, Trump tweets are here today, gone tomorrow. Trump quickly loses interest in what caught his eye today and tomorrow will be veering off in another direction on another hot-button issue that he can exploit. A spur of the moment tweet is no substitute for a well planned foreign policy, which Trump’s administration clearly lacks.
2
It doesn’t matter what Trump thinks or doesn’t think. He is an illegitimate President, the only thing that matters is removing him from office, nullifying the 2016 election and starting the painful process of rebuilding the Republic.
would be more persuasive if Trump sometimes showed concern for freedoms in Russia.
Mr. Cohen is quite consistent. He never fails to slip in a word or two to help promote the Israeli agenda. This time he makes a point of including Trump's "squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad" which echoes Netanyahu's "Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism".
The Israeli campaign to demonize Iran is incessant. Now they've recruited Trump and maybe columnists like Cohen. Israel will take every opportunity to label any person who opposes its illegal West Bank colonization and annexation as a "terrorist". Any resistance force must be destroyed.
Those of us who seek justice for the Palestinians will not be distracted from our goal.
2
There seems to be a battle going on between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Iran has a reasonable issue with the USA: We installed a brutal dictator in their country. Obviously the US Government of that time has more faith in their personal control of Iran than a belief in the principals of democracy our country was founded on. Keeping this tradition, the US has been a friend of the Saudi Kingdom for decades, protecting their business (oil) and defeating their enemies at the cost of American soldier's lives. I do not share our President's infatuation with extreme authoritarian dictators, and while I do not support the existing government in Iran, the Iranian people are intelligent, educated, proud of their heritage and have a middle class that, while suffering under religious autocrats, has much to offer what is left our the American middle class. I think our best political step would be to withdraw from the Middle East, rebuild our own country and stop being the world's policeman. Building our economy to match the power of China, Germany, and Holland, take advantage of robotics, AI, new power sources and become the example of what can be done to make a better world. The Saudi's will fight for the past and the Iranians will join us in the future, when ever they are ready.
2
I hope to go to Iran someday and not worry about my well being due to my holding a USA passport. I hope to go there to experience a very old civilization and sample one of the most evolved cuisines on the planet. I wish to be received there (and everywhere I go) as a human being and not prejudged for being from the USA. I believe most humans are of the "live and let live" philosophy. It is the extremists and super greedy that I am wary of.
2
For the US to support the oppressive dictatorships of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern states while supporting anti-government protestors in Iran looks to Iran if not the world to be stepping in to the Shia Sunni religious conflict. What is the difference? We should be supporting peaceful opening of civil rights for all citizens of the world. Also, Saudi backed madrassas have sown terrorism world wide. Iranian terrorism is no worse or maybe not as bad. The only apparent cause for our bias toward the Saudis is oil. We should have an even hand in all our foreign policy. We no longer need to secure oil by supporting harsh dictatorships and schools of terrorism.
1
"Trump Is Right - This Time! - About Iran" or "Trump Is Right (This Time!) About Iran" would have been better pronunciation for the headline of this article in my opinion. I wouldn't ever want to risk confusing anyone into thinking I believe Donald is usually right.
I guess if they knelt in protest while the national anthem was being played before a football match he'd feel different? He's sure not strong on moral and logical consistency.
Glad to hear of your respect for the Iranian people and their culture Roger - I feel the same way. Imagine what their country would be like if Mossadegh's government wasn't overthrown with CIA help in '53. At least Donald's not Dulles?
1
Sorry, I meant "punctuation" not "pronunciation" - obviously. It's very early in the morning here and I've been up all night.
Partly true, partly way off:
"The reality is that Iran, in the region, is dominating commerce the whole ares is inundated with products MADE IN IRAN from automobiles to toothpaste."
Not a lot of "Made in Iran" products. On the other hand, Dubai, just across the Persian Gulf from Iran, is booming and it doesn't have any significant oil -- just trading and lots of it. Stores in downtown Tehran are stacked to the ceiling with imported products, all with the usual labels -- Nike, Sony, etc., etc., etc. Not "Made in Iran," but plentiful nonetheless.
If our president collaboratively articulated a measured, diplomatic response to the opposition in Iran, perhaps public support of the opposition would have been appropriate. My personal view, for what it may be worth, was for his administration to have used opportunity to back channel support in an effort to ease tensions with Iran.
But...to tweet his puerile view was thoughtless and reckless. What a surprise.
If the opposition is beaten down, which appears likely, we appear to have supported an insurgency against the Iran government. That accomplishes nothing positive for our country.
Trump's tweet reminds me of the stopped clock: right twice a day. I completely agree with Mr. Cohen in his assessment of the situation in Iran, and fear that the president will find a way to make everything worse.
I share the President's feelings about Iran but he's wrong to go public in a big way. At best, his support for demonstrators is likely to toxic to efforts to make Iran into a full fledged democracy. At worst, he will make Dulles' mistake, encouraging demonstrators to die by making them think the U.S. will intervene in Iran in support their movement. Dulles, with an assist from Radio Free Europe, did that to the Hungarian Revolution.
I'd be surprised if Trump could find Iran on a map, let alone understand their internal politics. The saying about a stopped clock seems to apply here.
1
These 12 NYT comments picks on Mr. Cohen's op-ed once again show how some NYT readers often outdo the writers of the pieces commented on. Mr. Cohen makes good points, but he did not point out, as some readers did, that an enemy of democracy in his own country tweeting(so dignified) in support of freedom of expression in Iran is pathetic, even if for once he said something that is reasonable. On a pragmatic level, it's terrible foreign policy. Iranians remember 1953 when the CIA and MI6 paid mobs to demonstrate to help bring down a freely elected government, as it was against business interests of foreign powers.
Let's not forget that the US has often acted against democracy abroad while bragging about our "wonderful free society". I guess what's good for the goose is not good for the gander.
What's new about Trump is that he hates American democracy, as do the Republicans of today, who dishonor a once great party.
2
Can you imagine such protests in Trump's new found best friend...Saudi Arabia?Heads would literally roll.Where are his tweets about that? Many of the supporters of the nuclear deal stated at the time that change in Iran was coming from within.They seem to have been proven right.As for the " regimes corruption and it's squandering of the nations wealth"...wasn't it Trump who stated during the election that we should have just taken Iraqs' oil after the war?I remember a writer who visited an Iranian hospital during the Iraq-Iran war fomented by Reagan and Cheney.He was shocked to hear the wounded soldiers raging against America rather than Iraq.These people are not stupid.Trump will only make things worse for them and they know it.
2
Mr. Cohen's column is "right" on the facts - most of them - but it is "wrong" in spirit. Cohen touts Trump's 2nd tweet on Iran but fails to mention a previous one: "The people of Iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt Iranian regime. All of the money that President Obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their 'pockets.' The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!" Yes, as Cohen says, "Trump's White House should keep up the pressure [on Iran] - but please! - Not from Trump himself. Trump, president or not, has zero credibility in the world regarding ethical leadership. His tweets throw shade on any good cause. Yes, Trump's second tweet, were it from anyone else practically, would be welcome. From Trump, it's the kiss of death to any legitimacy. It's impossible to view Trump's tweet "on the merits." Trump tweets lies on a daily basis. I suggest that even Iranian freedom fighters would tell Trump: Shut up! Then there's Cohen's criticism of Obama's reticence with regard to Iran's populist uprising. Obama was after a bigger prize: the nuclear deal with Iran, which Trump has scuttled, provided respite from sanctions that hurt Iranian citizens-and which made the world safer. The deal didn't enable Iranian terror funding -or tie our hands in any effort to address same - as Trump's outrageous first tweet on the subject suggests. Finally, Cohen's holding up of Bannon as some expert on Iran is beyond the pale.
1
Americans would do well to remember that they are mostly to blame for the sad state of Iran. A popular revolt nearly 40 years ago overthrew the cruel shah and led to a democratic government. That was too much for UK and USA, particularly their oil companies, who then interfered and brought back the Shah and his secret police. That was eventually too much for the Iranians, who, having been disillusioned with democratic government, succumbed to fundamentalist Khomenei and his fellow ayatollahs. The current theocratic government operates, like American republicans, following an ideology that has scant regard for the will of the people.
31
Ilmari P., your sentiment is right but your facts are wrong. The US and the UK overthrew the first democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, in 1953 (because he nationalized the oil company) and replaced him with Shah Reza Pahlavi, who had fled the country when the CIA informed him they'll create a coup. Forty years ago the uprisings against the authoritarian Shah began, which resulted in Ayatollah Khomeini returning from years of exile in Iraq (and later France), and instituting the Islamic Republic in February 1979. Your last sentence is 100 % correct.
1
During the 2009 election, Obama did exactly the same thing that Trump is doing now, and was criticized on the Right for doing too little. Of course, Trump's supporters will forget that.
It is highly unlikely that Trump wrote the content of that tweet. But even if he did, so what? Even a broken clock is right twice a day. By the way, the US Government should respect their people's rights. See, that can't be Trump. His goal is further enslavement of the people.
2
We should give this to President Trump because he truly "gets" the middle east...including Pakistan. Pakistan has played us for a fool since its inception (1947). It has cozied up with assorted bedfellows and also blackmailed some of them (The US, The Arabs, The USSR and now China) to create problems for India, which includes all the wars it has lost. In addition to China and N Korea, Pakistan is now part off the real Axis of Evil.
1
Obama in 2009 was like G.H.W. Bush in 1989. During the Beijing Spring protests, Bush 41 did not say a single word. I was teaching in China at that time, and many students asked me, "Why doesn't President Bush say anything"
Would it have made a difference? We can't know. However, it would have been the right thing to do.
Obama's silence was wrong. Obama has always been mysteriously pro-Iran. Leftists and rightists, like Obama and Bush 41, don't seem to understand that democracy is inherently moral. Conservatives and liberals, on the other hand, know that democracy brings both wealth and stability.
First of all, uprising doesn't always bring democracy, but almost always brings chaos and violence. Look at Egypt, look at Libya, look at Iran. It is much better when democracy arrives as a natural way of country development. Usually, it has more chances to succeed. Secondary, democracy doesn"t always bring stability or wealth. Democracy in former Yugoslavia brought violence, so in former USSR, so in Burma, so in Mexico. And how wealthy are Democratic Grenada or democratic South Africa? I think it is immoral to force (through support of one group against another or through direct intervention) your political system upon other countries, especially when you will not face the dare consequences of this change. And if you think you have the right to meddle in other countries affair, you should be prepared that the other countries will do it to you.
This is why the liberal “resistance” is so impotent. At the end of the day they share the conservatives commitment to maintaining the empire and privileging the interests of the 1%. All Trump has to do to silence these critics is whip up a war with any one of the countries Clinton was eager to invade.
I wish the Iranian people well in their struggle against the theocrats who dominate them. History should tell us by now that the last thing they need (or are asking for) is US intervention in that struggle, which is never motivated by concern for their interests and always driven by the desire to install a government more compliant with US corporate interests.
Cohen has always been an advocate of US intervention in Iran, so his retweet of Trump should surprise nobody. What is needed now is a truly socialist voice willing to stand up to the war mongers and Wall Street shills of both parties. It is doubtful, however, that we will ever encounter them in the pages of the New York Times.
1
While Donald is dissing Iran he should go ahead approve the sanctions against Russia for meddling in our elections. Donald needs to be working on his credibility issues before we give him a parade. Some of the actions he has enacted were most egregious against women, children, environment, education and every other facet of our existence.
5
Supporting protesters in Iran seems right, but doing it so crassly on Twitter just plays into the government’s hands, letting them blame the United States for yet another coup attempt a la 1954. Even when Trump has a correct impulse, he lacks control.
2
If they're going to play that card, they're going to do it anyway, and it's not going to make any difference whether and what he tweets.
To understand this, think shallow, like Trump:
Will my base respond favorably to my pro-freedom, pro freedom of the press, comments about Iran? Yes. Will I be obliged to actually do anything? No. Will all this play out in some far away country I don't actually care about? Yes.
If you are thinking about all his contradictory statements and actions, you are thinking too hard. He didn't think about that, why should you? Furthermore, pointing those things out only confirms the vendetta against him by this corrupt and very unfair media, which ought to be investigating Hillary Clinton.
2
Seems to me it is easy for anyone, even Trump, to criticize the Iranian theocracy. But what has he done to help the situation?
3
"Right message, wrong messenger."
Also, I suspect, interestingly, that many Iranians have been inspired by the resistance in the U.S. against Trump.
3
Support for the protesters by Trump is callous and hallow. And it will do more harm than good. Trump is hated in Iran by the hardline loyalists and the protesters alike. Inserting himself into the debate simply gives the hardliners another basis to argue that the protests are the work of outsiders. Trump ceded the moral high ground long ago. As usual he will only make matters worse.
3
Mr. Cohen: Have you ever "asked yourself" how things might panned out in the WHOLE Middle East if the CIA, Dulles and Eisenhower has not overthrown the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT IN Iran in 1953 to satisfy the British Imperial oil interests after the newly elected President Mossadegh nationalized Iranian oil?
Our act of immorality and stupidity may very well have been the spark that ignited the whole fiery Middle Eastern mess in which we are now involved almost 70 years later!
7
For Trump, it’s all about eliminating competition in the oil industry.
1
I'm so pleased to be enjoying a piece by Roger Cohen, a relatively rare experience, I almost hesitate to take issue with a minor point in what is otherwise an excellent article. He vividly recalls his participation on a march of the Iranian freedom movement in 2009 and remembers the "goose bumps" he experienced when he asked the name of the young Iranian woman with whom he'd been conversing and she replied "My name is Iran." He chooses to see the response as a symbolic one; I'm less certain. In a totalitarian society where any stranger, including a foreign journalist, may be an agent of the regime it seems more likely her response was an act of wise precaution rather than a metaphorical one.
4
You misunderstand the socalled Green Revolution, even though you walked in its midst. The 2009 uprising was not about a regime change, it was about an interpretation of the Velayate Faqih and the '57 Constitution. In that sense, it didn't fail, because the socalled reformers got their seats of influence and were able to change enough to work toward dismantling the high-cost military investments in nuclear and other unnecessary projects. And given that the uprising was not about regime change, but about Constitutional interpretation, the Obama administration was correct not to interfere nor to get involved nor to make uneducated assenine statements whether on Twitter or Facebook. This uprising, this '96 uprising, is very different. It is an uprising against the Khamanei regime and against the Velayate Faqih itself. It is against failed promises, lies, and (above all) corruption. You have women in the streets not calling for their votes to be recognized. Rather, you have women in the streets calling the Basij crooks and thieves. Equally important, you have people rising up in the smallest villages in Baluchistan and among the Bakhtiari. You have demonstrations in Bandar Abbas and Najafabad. That is different than 2009. In that context, Trump speaking so early and so quickly reveals his character and his stupidity. He doesn't really know what the uprising is about (do you?). Hasty, unprofessional, and plain stupid. That's Trump's contribution.
8
So utterly depressing that we are being "led" by a man of such shallow understanding and no strategic vision whatsoever! This is a golden opportunity to win the minds of the well-educated urban Iranians and the hearts of the rural conservatives. If the theocracy that has oppressed the nation since 1979 can be weakened, and ultimately eliminated, Iran could truly join the ranks of 21st century world leaders. I can only see Trump making a mess of it, setting the country and the region back thirty years.
4
"The West-leaning middle class, fed up with the hypocrisy of the mullahs, has long sought political change. But the working class has been a pillar of the regime — manipulated with handouts and slogans. "---
Replace a few words here and there and this could describe what's going on here.
12
"engagement rather than estrangement"... LOL to accomplish that we'd first need to deport Trump.
7
" Trump....is right to speak up in solidarity { with the Iranian people} and tweet
that the "wealth of Iran is being looted, by a ...corrupt regime".
Except for the lack of active active protests in the DSA, seems like Iranians
and the American middle class have something in common.
But not interfering in the business of other countries is not the American way.
We can be pretty certain that the hypocrite in chief will screw this situation up
as he does most others. The last thing the Iranian people need ( or probably
don't want) is support from Donald Trump. He should remain America's burden
alone as much as possible.
Leaving the Iranian people to determine their own path is the most respectful,
responsible course of action, but not likely one Trump will take. Remember, it's
always just about him. Perhaps the American middle and lower class will learn
something from them for the future.
The less American involvement in this the better. The Iranian gov't does not
like us, but it's likely, neither do their citizens.
6
How should I compare the corrupt Isanian regime with the US regime spending $700,000,000,000 on the US Military-Industrial Complex that will never be satisfied, like a drug addict, always needing more, until all the money spent on the Forces of Death and Destruction is unleashed on them and us?
Be happy you don't have live in the Divided States of America these days. Consider that our Lunatic in Chief is still solidly supported by his republican party. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Roger is half right. he describes Iran and Iranian correctly. however he neglect the fact Trump is NOT liked by Iranians of both sides. Any involvement by Trump or USA will be counter productive. This is the time for Europeans to give support
8
You are half right.
Leftists who decry Second Amendment rights need only look at Iran to see why they are so important. Cohen writes of the sad image of a woman being beaten by the Ayatollah's thugs. But if the terms of engagement had that woman armed and not defenseless, what would the outcome be? Indeed, could any despotic regime survive an armed populace? The Founders were right to point out that an armed population was the last line of defense against tyranny.
1
You have a valid point. Of course history tells us that too often an armed population defeating a despotic regime is often simply replacing one despotic regime with another. I might point to the Russian revolution, the French revolution , the Iranian revolution, and sadly, even the American revolution (based on where we find ourselves today.
When the second amendment was written, the musket you kept in your house was the same one you went to war with. That is no longer true. If the woman you mentioned had a handgun and pulled it out she would have been killed instead of beaten. If the people around her had pulled out guns and resisted, they would be machine gunned. Military and civilian weapons are no longer the same and are very unequal.
1
and supporters of the Second Amendment should take a look at Pakistan to understand why guns are not a guarantee against the oppressive Government but dangerous in fueling murderous militias that terrorize population.
Cohen may be right about Trump stumbling onto the truth in what he said about the demonstrators in Iran, but he fails to recognize Trump is ironically trying to mirror the Iranian government's behavior. Trump's constant attack on the media,on his " political enemies",on immigrants and on minorities, his embrace of neo- nazis and his poisonous invective against the institutions of government who are looking into his corruption and possible collusion with Putin are not the behaviors associated with a person seriously interested in protecting civil liberties or rights. To my mind, Trump appears to envy the authority of the Ayatollah Khamenei. It is reflected in his behavior and statements. Now that he has spoken out about the events in Iran, he should pause and re-exam what he is doing on a daily basis to damage our democratic norms and institutions.
1
Sorry Mr. C. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. That doesn’t mean you use it to tell time.
6
Around the world, ruthless dictatorships respond to popular protests against their undemocratic policies by branding them inspired, financed and led by foreign governments -- in particular the USA. Such blame-throwing has especially great appeal in Iran, because the US government helped to overthrow a elected secular Iranian leader in the 1950s and installed and propped up the hated Shan as leader there. That is why the head of our country should be very careful about commenting on the current courageous protests.
As usual, however, Donald Trump, ever in love with his own voice and playing to American voters, has done Iran's Supreme Leader a great favor by seeming to cheer-lead the protesters. If Trump really wants to encourage the protesters he should be working quietly behind the scenes to build massive international support for them, especially at the United Nations and condemnation of brutal attacks by the Iranian police or their militias. But he won't do this because it won't win him domestic applause, the only thing except making money that he cares about.
1
The thing is, even if what he tweeted was right, the fact that it was he writing them nullifies the positive effect of his words. Hypocrites are only too easy to ignore. Words from his mouth should never be heard speaking up for human rights or democratic values because, from him they will undermine their literal meaning and reek of corruption. The obviously self-serving words of hypocrites undermine the authority of the truth they espouse, subjecting it to the ridicule properly given to their speaker.
3
The reality is that Iran, in the region, is dominating commerce the whole ares is inundated with products MADE IN IRAN from automobiles to toothpaste. The US has lost their influence,dominion, and Trump is making big excuses to justify this fact, the nuclear pact, religion etc.
In a few short years we will find something significantly more lethal than toothpaste "Made in Iran". There is a reality that should keep one awake at night,
What are we to make of donald's tweet concerning the Iranian protests. At long last a presidential sounding tweet? Wait a few moments, there will be a quick return to maybe something like "I caused the protest in Iran". Lacking any policy concerning Iran, except to denigrate the Iranian deal, donald will look to make the protests favorable to his image in any way he can.
Pay close attention to the claims of the Iranian protesters, it may be our turn some day to protest in the streets against a man who never missed an opportunity to disparage anyone not showing loyalty or gratifying his narcissistic needs. Will we reach a point of intolerance that will erupt in protests against a
threat to democracy thats sits in the Oval office.
I spent 20 days in Iran this fall and came away with a similar positive impression of the Iranian people as expressed by Mr. Cohen. Many people came up to us to ask where we were from and, learning that we were Americans, were genuinely friendly and asked us to tell our fellow Americans that they want to be friends with our nation. However, they also expressed their dislike of President Trump and his policies. So, tweets from him are not helpful. They only show his hypocrisy and opportunism and can be used by the Iranian government to claim
foreign interference.
4
Trump is as right about Iran as he was about Jerusalem or in dealing with North Korea. In other words, he has been dead wrong on all counts and is beginning to sound truly unhinged. Threatening the Palestinians with an aid cutoff if they don't negotiate with Israel -- after slapping them in the face with that stupid Jerusalem announcement -- is as moronic as giving the Iranian mullahs an excuse to call those protesting their rule as American stooges. And engaging Kim in a show-and-tell about who has the biggest nuclear button is sheer folly. If such presidential derangement is not grounds for impeachment I don't know what is.
48
This posting exemplifies the hatred anger and vitriol on those on the left who despise a president who actually speaks what he thinks and feels. Believe it or not that's the reason why president trump is president. Too bad sore losers
It was not Trump who recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel it was the U.S. Congress. Get over it. It has been the capital of Israel since the country's founding. The so-called Palestinians would have had half of it had they and their fellow Arabs decided they wanted to destroy Israel, and in a disastrous lost war they also lost any legitimate claim to Jerusalem. You can blame Trump all you wish, but it is the Arabs who handed Jerusalem to Israel...and the so-called Palestinians have been playing the victim card ever since. Now, even the Arab states and Iran are bored, tired and fed up with it and have moved on to their own internal problems and other proxy wars more important to them.
It doesn't matter how right Trump is about Iran (if he is). His blustering ill-informed egotism and promotion of violent solutions is exactly wrong for this.
It will provide an excuse for Iran's authorities to persecute the protesters.
Our persistent destruction in the middle east, beginning with Mossadegh (done for and with the UK on behalf of BP and with the help of the CIA, overthrowing a democratically elected government and installing the Shah) has resulted in promoting terrorism and given ISIS unfathomable advertisement.
Unless we are prepared to fix what we break, we should go in and leave people without clean water, power, sewers, and the other infrastructure necessary for them to survive. Our rootin' tootin' shoot-em-up policies only provoke similar death and destruction reactions, which should not be a surprise.
3
Of course, I failed to mention the mess we made in Iraq, Libya, and Syria by interfering, trying to help, and staying out until DJ "bombs away" Trump made one ineffective salvo, before abdicating to Putin (surprise surprise!). His threats to the nuclear dear, won in the school of hard tact and real negotiation, was a last best hope, and Trump doesn't like that we actually made a working and effective deal that removed fissile material, because all he knows is bluster, envy, and ego.
And a typo: unless we are prepared to fix what we break, we should *not* go in and ruin people's neighborhoods.
2
We in the United States and the Iranian people share so much in common.
We both have theocrats that squander national wealth and blood on stupid proxy wars that enrichen their friends.
They then send only body bags and broken soldiers to the people.
We too should be in the streets.
10
Obama may have been subject to inaction due to multiple iterations of the "and then what?" question. I wish it were apparent that Trump ever asks that before his impulsive actions; Obama's circumspect approach is far more preferable and befitting of the most powerful person on earth.
11
"Then what" is simply excuse, not a reason, and certainly not an answer.
So after berating Obama for his inaction and/or silence during the last demonstrations, the best Cohen can come up with is...what? Get the Europeans to join us in keeping up the pressure? What pressure? What pressure is possible. If we interfere too much or speak too loudly, as Cohen knows well, we become a scapegoat for the regime, plotters who seek to weaken Iran with the help of the demonstrators.
You know some things have to be left to the people of Iran and other countries. It's a sovereign and proud state. If the people of Iran really want meaningful change, they have to bring it about themselves.
And Cohen's wipe at Obama about Syria is as wrong headed and meaningless now as it always has been. Not getting directly involved in that civil war was the right thing to do. Historically Syria was Russia's client not ours.
2
Trump right? Must be Roger’s wry attempt at Fake News.
4
80% of Iranians hate the regime and for good reason - theocracies stink (read history) and corrupt any good religion could do. Trump should keep his mouth shut on all topics. He's flapping his lips about freedom in Iran and attacking our Press and trying to undermine our democracy. This slob never ceases to amaze. We may pay dearly before he disappears.
4
Even a blind pig can find an acorn once in awhile!!! The greater picture of the "you-know-whose" foreign policy is toxic for our country and the world.
How long will it take for future presidents to right the mistakes of this leader--longer than it takes that blind pig learning how to drive so he can buy acorns at the grocery store!!!
1
Totally in agreement. Sometimes Trump is right, and he is also right to tell it as it is, throwing diplomacy to the winds. If the president can't tell the truth, who has enough power to do so?
WW2 deliberate holocausts happened mostly because the USA and the UK, and even France, didn't dare to say it as it was. If the Germans had been told how abominable their regime was, they couldn't have supported it. Instead, the UK and the USA told Germans what the Nazis wanted them to hear. If countries who oppose a policy would not dare to say why they do, who will?
Iran is a dictatorship, a plutocracy, a theocracy and a kleptocracy.
Neither Iran, nor obviously Pakistan, should have nuclear weapons. Last thing we need is nuclear armed fatwa issuing clerics, striking terror in the name of a jealous god.
Nevertheless, it's true the nuclear deal, for now, should be left as said. It's also true that Iran, with its solar calendar dating many millennia, is very sophisticated. The country was invaded by Islamists, 13 centuries ago, and, just when it was recovering from that, was trampled by the Mongols (helped by Armenian, Georgian and Franks), who eradicated the intellectual elite. Time to give Iran a chance, and that starts with telling Iranian the truth about the leeches who rule there... Indeed.
A rare moment of clarity from a card-carrying Liberal who usually regurgitates the pap seen here and on other Liberal MSM outlets. Obama was a disgrace, no doubt about it, but his passivity and drawing Red Lines and then erasing them perfectly suited his fawning, and cowardly, base.
5
Now the cruel, right wing faction of Israel must be overthrown
4
When Trump speaks of hypocrisy it’s like the pot calling the kettle black! Freedom is like a weed growing in the cracks of the pavement. You can’t stop or kill it. ALL repressive regimes should take note, fearfully, ALL populations should take heart! There is a contagion with freedom as the winds blow! Just be sure to keep breathing!
2
Theocracy does not work. No leader is SUPREME. Neither is one who declares that he is the ONLY ONE who can solve your problems. Neither is one who chooses to rely on SACRED TEXTS to justify their unjust policies.
That would put Ayatollah Khamenei, Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu is the same basket of deplorables, to use Hillary Clinton's phrase. What a revolting development!
3
Mr. Cohen,
Trump is wrong as he has always been. You too are wrong in this case.
The biggest help the United States government can provide to the Iranian people is to say NOTHING... Any indication that the people's movement is supported by the west is going to end up in bloodshed of enormous proportion by the brutal government of Iran. Mullahs can fabricate evidence and forge documents showing that the US is behind the uprising and use their fake proofs to crackdown the movement worse than how Asad has dealt with his people. The current movement in Iran is the result of 40 years of oppression by the Iranian regime. The Iranian government is at a crossroad: shed more blood and risk an explosion of the will of the people or try to respect the people's right to assemble and voice their grievances which will require measurable actions by the Mullahs to better the lives of millions who have had enough and are ready to die or to live in a more open, just and equitable society. Trump needs to keep himself amused by taunting his crazy twin in N Korea. Soon he is going to invite Mr. Kim in a completion to measure each other’s hands to see who has bigger hands and other body organs.
4
"Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometime"
1
The US has experienced a coup d'état by its own profoundly dishonest narcissistic religious tyrants. It throws stone from a glass house at Iran.
4
Remember your old math class where the teacher demanded to see the work. It's the same way with Trump. You can never say he's "right" because he never lays out his "reasoning" in a coherent way that would allow us to look critically at his underlying logic.
So please, don't say Trump was right, as if he cared or knew anything outside his small world of greed and narcissism.
3
and.....the big protest movement is already over. Next!
Mr Cohen (and Trump) may be right about the bankruptcy of the Iranian regime, but almost everything else is not. Trump has no moral ground to criticize another regime, when his own trashes diplomacy and freedom of expression. Summon the collective influence of our European allies? Good luck, after a year of disrespect and unwillingness to engage in multilateral initiatives. Trump’s sabre-rattling yesterday aimed at North Korea, his talk about fire and fury and a bigger button is sure to make any ally queasy about being sucked into a military confrontation in Iran. Now Trump is reaping the fruits of his America First program, and one of the most significant results is fewer options because of actions taken during his first year in office.
1
Why doesn't everybody realize that President Obama, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton have also achieved “Peace In Our Time” with their Iran Nuclear (Peace) Treaty just like Neville Chamberlin did with Germany right before WWII?
But this is only for the following ten years (7 more remaining now) and then Iran can build (and sell) as many nuclear weapons as Iran wants and sell them to anybody that has enough money in accordance with this treaty.
Ten years from now Iran will be manufacturing nuclear WMDs and selling them to the various Islamic Muslim terror groups directed by the Qu’ran that can afford to pay for these WMDs in accord with President Obama's Nuclear Treaty with Iran.
Iran, ISIS and the other Islamic groups do not have intercontinental ballistic missile delivery systems like North Korea, but they can afford to rent a U-Haul van for a WMD suicide bomber to drive a Nuclear Device from a shipping container at a NYC wharf to Times Square in NYC instead.
3
The theocratic thugs who run Iran deserve the full condemnation of the world. The brave Iranians who protest, resist, and even die while protesting the backward Ayatollahs and repressive regime deserve the world’s support. Iran is a regional threat to US interests and allies. Iran supports the butcher Assad - responsible for killing hundreds of thousands in Syrian and for using chemical weapons. Iran supports regional terrorist groups like Hamas (originally Israel nurtured as counterweight to secular PLO & financed by Saudi Arabia for decades). But Iran is also a mortal enemy of Al Qaeda and ISIS - the groups responsible for global terrorism, who are fueled by Saudi Wahhabism and funding. Iranian backed Shia forces including Hezbollah, along with Kurds and Iraqi and Syrian Sunnis, have been the ground troops (air power alone is not enough) fighting and defeating ISIS in Syria and in Iraq. Trump’s Israel First (with Likud now having green light to fully implement an Apartheid Jewish State) and Saudi Arabia First policies are destabilizing the region. Allies Israel and Saudi Arabia are cowards who never commit their own ground troops. Obama’s P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran contained Iranian nuclear threat better than any other alternative. Glad Cohen liked 1 tweet from Trump as opposed to the hundreds of constant deranged, ignorant, hateful, serial lies Trump tweets.
1
Is anyone surprised that Roger Cohen is so keen on US getting involved in yet another regime change in the Middle East? Would that guy ever have enough? Does he have any shame at all? Is million of dead Syrians not enough for him? Disgusting.
3
Poor Roger lives under the delusion that anyone in the theocracy is listening. For a guy who has been over there and who has done all that reporting--you'd think he'd get it by now. He doesn't.
Neither does Trump. Yo Roger bemoan those Basij militia all you want, but it was not any American pressure that brought Khamenei to do what he did.
The idea that Trump tweet will make a difference is, easily, one of the dumbest notions ever put forth by a NYT journalist. Diplomacy might work. Tweets do not have a snowball's chance in you know what...
1
"Good Morning, Vietnam!"
2
Trump's tweeted support of Iranian protestors, like much of what he tweets, is pure hogwash, just like the the Bush administration's feigned concern about the Iraqi people's plight under Saddam Hussein. Bush/Cheney then went on on to kill and displace millions of Iraqis under the pretext of liberation and democracy. I'm surprised that Mr. Cohen, who normally has very intelligent and cogent analysis, would fall for such transparent hypocrisy on Trump's part. The Iranian people, whatever justified grievances they may have with their own government, will find no friends in a Trump administration that would just as willingly bomb them out of existence if it served their purposes.
1
Even if the US and it's leadership were respected [it's not], it's a complete mystery to me how 'speaking out' could in any way affect internal Iran government actions. So, the alleged silence of Obama [who was respected] made no difference. Similarly, Trump's tweets - on any foreign affairs topic - can have no impact.
1
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. It's still broken clock. If you allow it to guide your fate - you are doomed.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.....
When Mr. Netanyahu came to Washington during the nuclear debate and attempted to alert us to the rot inside Iran, no one on the left -- including Mr. Cohen ---- was willing to the listen.
1
When it comes to Mr. Netanyahu there are very very few people anywhere willing to listen .... much less believe what he says.
1
Something like a clock, a bully hits the right target once every super moon.
Trump didn't pivot, but the Times did.
2
"its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad."
It's Iran that has 1000 military bases in Other Countries, bombs and destroys nations, creates-supports-arms-funds the likes of Mujahadien, Taliban, Al Qaeda, Daesh, Al Nusra and Israel?
It's Iran who spends $700B on a bloated military while roads, bridges, healthcare and social services fall apart?
On what planet?
3
So your point is: Let's get another Syria started in Iran? I'm sure that the (out)House of Saud and the comically shirtless Mr. Putin would be delighted to come in and help out. We could send our seal teams to the party. And make scads of money selling them body bags.
Why does an angry uprising of disappointed good old Persian country boys against the fascist regime they have been supporting, and that has played to them all these years, ring a faint bell? I'm old. Give me a minute and maybe I'll think of a connection.
1
Wow, what a surprise.
More support from the NYT for sticking our noses into matters they don't belong in.
1
(Trump = King George III) = Insanity. The new math.
2
What does Roger Cohen know about the Iranian people's 'sophistication' and 'unrealized promise'? And why is he so condescending towards our President and why does he even have a forum at the NY Times? This South African born imposter writing for the NY Times, is constantly mouthing off against our President:
"even if he understands little or nothing of Iran, even if his talk of Iranian “human rights” sounds hollow from a sometime advocate of torture, even if his support of the Iranian people today is grotesque from the man who has wrongheadedly barred most Iranians from entering the United States"
and yet here he is finally defending and even retweeting Trump's recent tweet. Well, gee Roger, it's nice to get a begrudgingly lousy admission from you that Trump is on the right path. And for any other reader out there who hates Trump (the majority of you from what I can see), please understand that our legally elected President is doing and has been doing the right thing for a long time now in spite of the anti-American views of many of our citizens.
1
Oh, then, by all means...go ahead and send American ground troops to help!
1
Still no reason to retweet Trump.
1
OMG me too, I agreed with the tweet
The man who undermines democratic institutions in the US is supporting freedom in Iran!!!
Nothing more than his anti Obama agenda.
2
We are in the 10-th century of American foreign policy. Erdogan’s thugs beat people up on a DC lawn while the FBI is hamstrung by Republican attack and a president praises a dictator hostile to US elections. Oorah for Iran, sure, but dude.
2
A new year means it's time for a new bogey-man, right?
Even when it's the old bogey-man, dredged up because of apparent boredom with the other 'old' bogey-men (North Korea, Syria, Iraq...) by a know-nothing, care-nothing ignoramus of a president with a ten-second attention span?
And the press of course rushes in to analyze and comment on the latest (non) news nonsense, thereby giving it a credence it doesn'tdeserve?
2
Dear Mr. Cohen,
I have read your columns for many years and have appreciated
your fine judgement and even more, your good heart.
But this time, um.
No.
The succubus in chief is nothing, a deflating balloon in terms of
erudition. So I cannot accept the lead for your article.
The Iranians that need to get the barriers are doing just that.
The Americans that need to do the same are utterly and completely
bamboozled by their tormentors and the clown that fronted for them
in the last presidential election.
1
Ridiculous. Trump is the worst spokesman for Iranian rights. He plays into the hands of the mullah's and the Supreme Leader who like Trump can blame others for their shortcomings and who better than the Great Satan. This is another "one tweet too many."
1
Cohen says the Obama administration was too timid in dealing with Iran. Yet bring up Libya and I'll bet he tells you the Obama administration was too reckless there.
Besides, with the Republican Party colluding then with the ayatollahs, in the form of Tom Cotten's letter signed by every Republican senator to the ayatollahs telling them to reject Obama's overtures because whatever Obama says or does will be over turned in the Senate, it would have been difficult for any bold action to have been undertaken by Obama back then.
Besides, how do we know that the ultimate result of these protests won't sink Iran into civil war like we saw in Iraq, post Saddam?
1
Trump should take his own advice.
1
I throw up a little in my mouth whenever I hear American politicians accuse foreign governments of being corrupt and looting their own countries. If those two things are valid reasons for revolution, we're next.
4
Yes Trump is right. He just mistakenly said “Iran” instead of “US” in the Tweet.
1
Trump condemns the Iranians and praises the Saudis. Follow the [oil] money...
4
What is ultimately behind the uprisings in Iran, and the shift from rural religious conservatism to rural economic anger, is a 14 year drought that has forced people off the land and into urban unemployment. The drought, of course, is related to global warming and climate change. Cheering on the protesters without recognizing the cause of their pain and anger is stupid and unproductive whether your name is Trump or Cohen.
1
Trump and Cohen are both wrong! Trump is ignorant, and Cohen is muddled.
The US has no legitimate interest in the internal affairs of Iran, no cause to meddle, and no political solutions to offer. The dire economic state of Iranians is attributable, in large part, to the pointless sanctions touted and spearheaded by the US government.
We Americans should concern ourselves with our own corrupt Republican regime, which is squandering the wealth of our nation on political patronage, and entrenching itself in political power by subverting the judiciary.
1
What we see here is Cohen echoing the Far Right call for war with Iran only problem is Neo -Con Democrats like Schumer have joined forces with the Trumpers & Saudis .We should always take the side of Democracies !
2
You think Trump is right?
Sorry Roger. It is never right to show any support for Trump.
Trump is a known quantity.
It is a quantity that is rotted and corrupt.
If Trump does any good it is because he made a mistake.
A liberal with a conscience should never lend one iota of support to something so foul as Trump.
It bolsters his confidence in believing he can fool all of the people some of the time.
1
Wow. There is hope.
Trump is right. And his tweets are leading the way. Like Rudolph with his nose so bright.
1
Roger,
Oversimplication alert!! The Obama/Kerry discipline to work behind the scenes, instead of grandstanding in support of well intentioned but clearly overwhelmed protestors, wisely enabled the Iran nuclear deal to occur. This deal is proving to be the best undermining of the Iran regime, since they no longer have the major scapegoat of western sanctions to blame and rally all Iranians around. That revelation is the trigger of the protests now! The regime leaders no longer have any clothes! It was an agonizing but wiser choice by Obama et al to do what they did: secure an imperfect but crucial nuclear deal before it was too late. A deal which Trumpists now blindly hope to undermine and reverse. That lunacy will retard the Iran "evolution" that is underway and the entire Mideast balance, enabling more nukes, which will bait Saudis to do the same, all the while boasting the US bigger nukes will prevail! Lunacy! My deepest sadness and condolences for the protestors. There greatest asset is not their protests, but the nuclear deal and its reduced sanctions ---which has revealed the regimes for what it is better than anything else: i.e. their incompetence in advancing Iranian economy and society, the greatest basis for their downfall. Note: Putin must be chuckling how the Trumpists do not get the long game... allowing Russia to later emerge as power broker if Iran nuke deal is killed, while Trump keeps posturing with the Iran regime... or whomever.
2
I am a democrat who hates trump but this article is 100% correct you don't need facts to try to hinder human suffering, all you need is a heart.
1
I'm not sure the the support of a President who spent most of his energy since his election to brand an entire nation of terrorists, bar its citizens from entering the U.S. and embolden corrupt Arab regimes hostile to anything Iranian has any weight whatsoever...
1
In Iran, the name “Iran” is a fairly common first name for a woman.
1
I don't believe the lady's name referenced in the article was actually Iran. She must have meant she and her stance are representative of how the Iranian people think and feel.
Trying to find things Trump has done right and then rambling on about them is not what our political pundits should be doing at this critical time. There is a real danger that our demented President will start a nuclear war with inconceivable consequences.
3
We continue to tiptoe around a fundamental problem in the Middle East - Islam has done nothing for these societies in the past two centuries.
There are four Islamic Republics in the world - Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Mauritania. All four are repressive societies, with few individual rights. Iran and Afghanistan were much better places in the 1970s than they are today (there is no argument there). Pakistan and Mauritania are horror shows, Mauritania still allows slavery.
We need to face the fact that Islam is inherently a problem, and there is ample proof throughout the Middle East. Where is there peace in the region now? Saudi Arabia has problems with Qatar and Yemen, Syria is a disaster, Iraq is a mess, Iran still exports Shiite terror, Gaza and the West Bank are dumpster fires (as the kids say these days), Egypt is doing its best to wipe out all of its Christians, etc.
Until Islam and the Arab states get it together, there is no hope for this region.
Mr. Cohen,
Are you in the habit of abridging presidential tweets to make your point? The snide comment about Obama and the payments to Iran was missing leaving what you advanced was a statesmen like comment from Trump. Isn't this intellectually dishonest?
7
"“wealth of Iran is being looted” by a “brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.”" Does anyone out there doubt that the "wealth...being looted" that DT refers to is $$$ and not the human capital that is not being invested in the people of Iran who, like people everywhere, "yearn to breathe free".
Trump's tweet is on the right side of this issue due to FOX's hatred of Iran and the Republican's hatred of Iran. Someone in the Whitehouse needs to take away Trump's Twitter privilege.
1
As the US/Israel team goes to work to promote regime change in Iran, there should be no misunderstanding that the Iranian people will change their opposition to the US presence in the Middle East nor change their support of the Palestinian cause for justice.
3
Trump is wrong about Irran just as Obama was wrong about Libya and Syria (and Ukraine).
The US always pretends it wants a "better government" in other countries.
But this desire for a better government always ends up playing second fiddle to America's strategic interests.
Moreover, America, run by nine lawyers, has little idea what would constitute "good government" in a country which has a deep culture and a history ten times as long as the history of America.
2
Trump is not right on this one. Never will be, never has been on anything. A silver spooned caricature of a leader. Not much different than any other rich boy who was handed most of what he has then used the tax code to bail him out and now sticks it to those by rewriting the tax laws to enrich himself further. The Iranians have been suffering under stooges and dictators not terribly far removed from this mans own psychology. Trump is clueless how to be helpful to anyone but to his own interests. Certainly not the American public. While Iran squanders its wealth on military adventurism so too does our own country.
1
So Trump — even if he understands little or nothing of Iran, even if his talk of Iranian “human rights” sounds hollow from a sometime advocate of torture, even if his support of the Iranian people today is grotesque from the man who has wrongheadedly barred most Iranians from entering the United States — is right to speak up in solidarity and tweet that the “wealth of Iran is being looted” by a “brutal and corrupt Iranian regime.” It is.
Exactly. But poor roger. You miss the point: who's going to listen to this malevolent ignoramus?
1
Roger, you missed the point with 45's tweets. He is only interested in Iran as it relates to his very personal ties to Israel. He knows nothing about Iran, nor their principal complaint against the "Great Satan". For you to agree with 45, and print it in the NYT, is at best not helpful and completely off base. The issue with Iran's current demonstrations is, as the NYT pointed out, is clearly the struggle between the reformers and the status quo. The US has almost without exception missed the point of others' politics and, save the dictatorships it supports, could care less for the plight of the people but only focuses on what is good for itself. If 45's regime truly cared, would it not advocate for family planning, one of the most pressing scourges in the globe? Would it not champion nuclear arm control instead of "modernizing" its arsenal while calling for NK to disarm? Total hogwash from 45 and, in this case, Roger.
1
A completely blown opportunity of our own CIA and Israeli Mossad fomenting this protest in Iran. There are no tangible goals and no alternative leader that the protestors are aligned to support and achieve. Kind of a really not very well thought out American attempt at a coup in Iran. And, come on Mr. Cohen, you believe that Trump's voice and support will do anything more than cause an even more bloody crackdown on the protestors?
It seems The Times very recently has begun a concerted push for its editorial writers to go out of their way to say something, anything in support of Trump. I guess this is what the beginning of the normalization of fascism looks like.
3
I've edited his tweet to make it more domestically relevant ...
"Many reports of peaceful protests by American citizens fed up with regime’s corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund its domestic terrorism. American govt should respect their people’s rights."
1
Trump's idea of "strong support" is a tweet. Don't expect his attention to last a moment past the next time a shiny object pops into the view of the Toddler in Chief.
1
Whenever Trump makes a foolish, boastful, or ignorant remark, we usually dismiss it by saying "consider the source." This same advice should apply on the rare occasions when he says something apparently reasonable. In fact, everything Trump says is expressed only to serve his own interests, which is the only thing he is consistent about. Nothing shows the essential hollowness of his support for the Iranian protesters as his needlessly bellicose approach to dealing with Iran, especially in ripping up the nuclear arms agreement. I suspect the Iranian people are well aware that with a friend like Trump they don't need enemies.
1
Actually, contrary to your statement, Russia does allow everybody in its dominion to vote in national elections
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. And, according to Cohen, Trump got this one - of many many wrongs - correct.
But I disagree. Tweeting some inane blather without any plan of action is just that - blather. Obama may have been cautious, maybe even too cautious, but it did keep us out of war and did not keep our allies on tenterhooks.
Besides, I'd recommend Trump start tweeting something positive about protests by African Americans and members of the LGBTQ community who are under stress instead of throwing his support to the "nice folks" in the neo-Nazi rally.
1
I'm looking forward to the day when American protesters storm the White House and President Trump is tweeting, "Help Me, before they tar and feather me and ride me out of town on a rail."
2
There is something amazing about Donald Trump. He always lands on his feet, even though he’s an “ignoramus.” He’s survived law suits, bankruptcies, divorces, the Republican primaries, facing down Hillary. Do you really think it’s just dumb luck? Consider looking below the surface. There’s something extraordinary about him. It’s worth a much deeper look.
1
there is zero that Trump is right about and any shrink willing to talk we tell you he is EXTREMELY dangerous to humanity being in the position he is
1
"Iran is...a sophisticated society of deep culture full of unrealized promise."
As is the United States Of America.
1
praise for trump (though no fan or voter) for speaking out...and a caution, past potusi have encouraged dissidents then vanished when the crunch came...so, 1: let's be sure that we know exactly the who and why of these protests (i.e. that we know what we're talking about) and 2: if they are genuine expressions of the will to freedom, that we're prepared to assist materially -no small thing - and not back off as we have before.
trump deserves some credit, too, for his push back against north korea, now a world threat but grown from a seed and nourished by our own indifference, however the pettiness of our threats in the u.n. expressed without a trace of diplomatic grace (hardly walking softly with a big stick) and school yard tweet taunts (my button is bigger than yours) erode our credibility and our dignity, foundations of trust.
when trump tweets his disdain for proposed noko/soko talks he insults our ally and reduces the stature of such talks, when he should be encouraging them, if only for the intell to be gleaned.
showing brawn is important, bluster only causes doubts.
Trump’s support for the Iranian protesters is an equivalent to being kissed by a mafia boss – the death sentence…
It turned the Iranian protesters into the American agents supported by the White House.
The smart people don’t get involved into the internal affairs of the foreign countries.
By doing it the leaders lower themselves down to the Kremlin level.
It none of our business. It’s the Iranian domestic problem.
The White House has no idea how to efficiently dismantle the theocracies. I offered them an assistance a few months after the 9/11/2001. I warned them the radical theological regimes can be undermined a thousand times cheaper than by waging the foreign wars and invasions. They didn’t trust me so America ended up waging the longest foreign wars in her history.
Hubris is the deadliest sin. It prevents us from accepting the friendly help. It implies to the stupid politicians that they are the greatest leaders this world has ever seen thus turning them into the ignorant fools.
They will sacrifice the dozens thousand troops, several millions of civilians and trillions of dollars to avoid implementation of the foreign policy they failed to envision personally…
1
Don't reinforce the tweeter in chief. It is immature, petulant, and not becoming of the leader of the free world to act like a middle school disruptive child with a cell phone. He is the chief executive officer of a democratic republic with other branches of government, a state department etc, not a dictator or king. The rest of the world laughs at this clown for good reason. Plus, he has no reason to talk as millions have marched in protest of his disregard of human rights. Let us shore up our own problems before we irresponsibly mingle in the affairs of others. We've already done severe damage in the Middle East well before Obama perhaps to thoughtful approach. Let the Iranians handle this without the drunk at the bar mouthing off.
1
There are many qualifications you need to put in order to say "Trump is right" that the statement is more misleading than it is informative. Even with brain switched off and he chose his position by coin flipping he would get it "right" 50% of the time, with no regard to the nuances of the actual situation and even less empathy to the actual pains and needs of the masses on the ground. Spare us the attention grabbing Trumpian headline. This is supposed to be the NY Times.
1
Liberal Democrats are all so small-minded they can’t give President Trump credit for anything!
3
Ironic, the Middle class and working class Iranians are protesting about the corruption and policies leading to a two class society and “ their displeasure with the Mullahs for fighting wars and spending money in Yemen, Syria and other areas of conflict in a surrogate war for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard when what they were promised was jobs would be created “. Sound familiar, our politicians make similar promises as our trillions are spent fighting surrogate wars for Israel and the Saudis( you can drop big oil from the equation there are sources opened up much closer to home)rather than a huge multi trillion dollar infrastructure project RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT providing good paying jobs for Americans with American tax dollars, not funded by Goldman Sachs with Saudi money, involving private contractors insuring the worst results, privatized everything, huge profits for the well connected and of course Goldman. Also, Roger acts as if flaunting wealth is something new and the rich Iranians have a lock on it, he apparently hasn’t visited Palm Beach or The Hamptons recently where the newly landed gentry from the four corners of the globe can’t gob on enough Vuitton and Gucci as they parade around in their Bentley’s then hop on their jets to the next watering hole. It really makes one long for the bygone days of the WASPS, their old penny loafers, baggy sweaters and khakis and the Kennedy clan cruising the island in a ratty station wagon. It’s inequality Roger in any language.
2
Kudos to Mr. Cohen for his balance. This isn't the first time he has made a valid argument that doesn't please his liberal audience. But it gets him more credibility in my eyes when he advocates for a position I'm not inclined to agree with.
How can anyone argue against calling out the Iranian regime for its violence against its own citizens. Perhaps we should also keep quiet about the Myanmar government's repression of its Royhinga citizens.
You can still say that Trump is a narcissistic buffoon, but focus on his actions that you don't like and not on just being opposed to Trump for being Trump.
Trump, can easily tweet meaningless words but words alone have no substance. Trump is extremely volatile as well as totally incompetent, so to expect something more from him is a pipe dream.
1
Clearly Trump did not write that. Simply note the proper use of apostrophes that he normal doesn't bother with.
It is like his congrats tweet to Doug Jones the night of the Alabama election. He dished it off to someone else.
1
Even a broken clock is right once or twice a day, but this president is not committed to Iran's protesters. He's committed to self promotion and Obama bashing.
He's already shaking up North Korea and the entire world by tweeting his nuclear button is bigger than Kim Jung-Un's.
Paging Sigmund Freud on line one? Get the psychiatrists pronto.
The past 24 hours have changed the dynamics, perhaps forever.
Where are the generals at the adult day care center? Send the president golfing. He's far less dangerous when on the greens.
Why complain about Putin meddling in our election then? Have we learned anything from the latest episode of meddling into our own affairs, let alone learning from the disasters of the past, recall Iraq??
2
Trump's "support" of the protests in Iran is as meaningful as the GOP's "thoughts and prayers" following any of the all-too-frequent mass shootings. Mere words, signifying nothing in the absence of action, while allowing the speakers to delude themselves into thinking they're actually doing something useful.
My hope is that the Republic can survive this incompetent buffoon.
1
How would Mr. Cohen react to Iranian President or British Prime Minister voicing support to Black Lives Matter march or Million Women march in the US. How would Mr. Trump react to such support?
What gives America, regardless of Trump or Obama in the White House the moral authority to butt into every domestic conflict in a non- African country.
When Trump talks about blacks and Hispanics as "them" how is he any different from those mullahs in power.
"Before you reform the world, reform yourself"
1
Why is it so important for America (aka the Great Satan) to get involved in every Iranian train wreck? If history has taught us anything American interference always leads to more trouble and it's just not worth the effort. It's time we backed off and let the Iranians fight their own battles for a change.
4
Very rare for an editorialist in the pages of the New York Times to afford even grudging credit to President Trump for taking action viewed positively. Is this a sign of the new publisher taking over? It would be refreshing to be able to perceive a more balanced view in the editorial pages of the Times, instead of the rabidly and mindless anti-Republican and anti-Trump fare of the recent past.
1
Two comments:
1. Trump doesn't "speak up in solidarity" with anyone on this earth. He is just mouthing the words, because he knows that in the US one can say the most horrible things about Iran without fear of consequence. Nothing is beyond the pale. But fundamentally, Trump does not give a fig about the well-being of the Iranians.
2. The US has no business telling the Iranians about "brutal and corrupt" until they have made full apology and restitution for the coup to install the Shah. The Iranian protesters are stupid if they think they have a friend in the US, and shortsighted in the extreme if they actually accept any help. Yes, the ayatollahs are barbaric and despicable, but this a problem for the Iranians to solve on their own.
1
Any announcement or condemnation by any foreign official, especially US, Israeli, and British officials, would only serve the regime's propaganda. The only way to help is to provide information, which is almost absent with such filtered, slowed-down Internet.
Read Ramin MAZAHERI if you really want to know what is happening in Iran. Roger - sorry - you are merely spruiking US paranoia and selfish hopes about a country which has suffered already far too much from US interference - such that what is going on now is no doubt engineered in much the same way as other upsets around the world have been done by the US (Venezuela, Brazil, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine - even in Australia - where thinking citizens wish the spy bases were pulled down and the ugly "rotational" base in Darwin was closed to the US military. Leave the sovereign land of Iran alone - let them sort out their own problems - and allow the US to get on with becoming a democracy - to transition from its oligarchic WMD war-mongerer character!
1
Wonderful column! Just wish he had not inserted Steve Bannon in it even if only to reiterate the obvious both about Iran and about the former.
1
Should Iran convert to a more secular government what Mideast country would be next? Israel?
1
Concerned about Iranians he banned from this country three months ago?
1
Many reports of peaceful protests by US citizens fed up with administrations corruption & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund regime change abroad. US govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching! #USProtests
1
Oh yeah...he's right about Iran, but wrong about everything else? Come on, who are you trying to kid here? This has been the mantra of Bibi Netanyahu for years, and Trump is just echoing it loud and clear. He's a very willing mouthpiece for anything Israel wants broadcast to the American public. It's funny he and his cohorts don't offer any criticism whatsoever of Saudi Arabia, which isn't quite a bastion of tolerance or human rights. At least Iran still has a Jewish community, and synagogues, as well as churches for its large Armenian minority, but you can't say that about Saudi Arabia, yet they get a pass? The fact is, Trump isn't right about Iran. He was, however, very right about Syria, but you don't give him any credit for that call, do you?
Now that the situation in the Middle East is extra fluid with a triumph Israel, and a deranged American Administration ....now may well be the time for Israel and Co to have their long held dream/ambition of the USA fighting their own war ....as in the Iraq case !
Now is seemingly a good time for Mr Cohen to come out with his first public, open, unequivocal,support of A WAR particularly if paid for, in blood and treasure, by the USA.and Israel,reaping the fruits ...also as in the conquest of Iraq!
2
Miracle of miracles! A nyt column supportive of our President. Maybe the collective choice of the people's election of Trump may have some germ of wisdom the elites in Manhattan are now catching on.
2
Mr. Cohen, I would not have given Trump any due at all. He is a like a fortune teller that happens to get one thing right out of ten thousand. YOur commentary about Iran is forceful enough without giving Trump any kudos.
1
Cohen's intuitions were superb during his exciting and brave stint during the 2009 uprising. He is only wrong about one thing this time. Unfortunately, it is the most important thing.
His horrible error is that he advocates US support for the upheaval. Good Grief! Doesn't he know that such support is about as unwelcome as support from Israel would be? That is, the movement would see it as possibly lethal, since the obvious message heard by the population would be that the CIA supports the protests. This would a credible charge which would give pause even to many supporters of the democratic revolution.
Yet, it would all be grandstanding, even if fatal to the redeeming fight against the tyrants. What can the US do, other than mouth off? Impose sanctions? We've had forty years of those, and the regime is still there, in all its repulsiveness.
Are we going to supply weapons to our side (of the week) to generate an armed insurgency, a la Afghanistan? At best, such attackers would be crushed in a day. At worst, it would be a permanent open abscess a la Afghanistan.
Or, are we going to attack militarily, and risk another Vietnam? Or get Israel to nuke'em, and risk WWIII?
That is, realistically, there is nothing we can do to aid the cause of liberation. Indeed, any attempt at support, whether well-meaning or selfish calculation, will be devastating to the democratic rebels.
Cohen should be telling the US government to back off. Stay out of it. Git.
3
It's a sad beginning to the New Year when a journalist of Mr. Cohen's stature endorses US foreign policy by tweet. There will be no follow-up, sustained pressure on the Iranian regime, by the Trump Administration of one, because as in the realm of our domestic politics, the nation's institutional foreign policy has been dissolved into the literal body and tweet voice of one pathologically insecure, nearly sociopathic individual. Mr. Trump's tweet, addressing the Iran protests, was, as usual, all about himself and nothing whatsoever to do with those brave souls facing thugs and bullets in Iran. The disgrace, in our country, is in the collapse of those individuals, elected to positions of power, who either out of cowardice or opportunism have yielded to America's presently tragic, but hopefully transient state of affairs. Buck up Mr. Cohen, and continue to push and push again against the black hole occupying the White House. We need you now, more than ever.
2
Iranian protesters do not need Trump to show support for their protests. His characterizations of what the protests are about are not necessarily true or helpful. In fact the great satan's public support gives the regime a reason to crack down. Unfortunately Trump has no State Department with deep relations in Iran or elsewhere for that matter. We are left in the hands of a tweeter to conduct foreign policy by tweets without nuance or depth or brains.
2
This is delusional. America doesn’t have any moral authority— we are helping the Saudis commit crimes against humanity in Yemen and this latest barbaric episode in the history of US foreign policy started under Obama though of course Trump is even worse. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for us. But sure, we truly and deeply care about the Iranians.
4
Perhaps that TrumpTweet needs to be edited to reflect the opinions of many here in the USA:
"Many reports of peaceful protests by American citizens fed up with the Trump administration's mindless arrogance & its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund oil and weapons moguls' interests abroad. The current US govt should respect their people’s rights, including right to express themselves. The world is watching!
3
Is Iran really any worse than the US today? Don't like its projection of influence in the Middle East. Guess what?
1
Message to Trump: The best way to support the Iranian people and the demonstrators is to shut your mouth. Foreign support only delegitimises their just demands. And the US under Trump is simply too discredited to be of any use to anyone. I am a little surprised by Mr.Cohen's comments. Perhaps as a journalist the has had too little time to read and consider Iranian history.
3
How had an Iran deal for which Obama was the brilliant architect, and indeed supported by Putin and then ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, come "too little / too late" if Iran's inherent in-house resolve is now the only thing standing in the way of Trump's bent priorities of doing things HIS self-destructive way?
1
The most adequate analogy to the current Iran protest is to envision the “deplorables” taking over the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations during the Obama presidency and unleashing their passionate hate (and not unfounded in that case) of the Liberal Elite -- with its glittering fame and (massively unequal) fortunes -- first on main-street and then on to the avenues of the American sea-shore mega-cities.
Right or wrong, in its core Iran’s recent unrest is a case of the discontented Periphery (which is still the “base” of the current Ayatollahs’ regime) rising against what they perceive (and not unfoundly) as the corrupt Center (with the anger directed more at Rouhani’s government than at Khamenei’s reign).
Similar socio-economic and moral national rifts have brought the Periphery’s idols to the pinnacle of power in Poland, Hungary, Israel -- and America and the tide is going globally strong.
Understanding that, definitely Trump was “right to get behind the brave Iranian protesters calling for political and economic change”; that is, if by “right” one means taking care, as always, of Trump-First.
Mr. Cohen’s so-felt confession is a glaring evidence of the way Trump has not only stood the howling attacks of the “resistance” but is actually turning the tide to portray himself as the legitimate bearer of vaunted American values (no more “Moscow’s Candidate”) and paves his unique way for a second term.
Shouldn't this support be considered as meddling in internal affair of Iran? Seems like hypocrisy on display again. Outrage against Russia meddling in the US affair and yet cheers for the US meddling in Iranian affairs.
4
The Russians are allowed to say publicly what they think of America and it's election, not that they need anyone's permission. The complaint is that they weaponized Facebook and supported Trump's candidacy. Likewise, America can say publically what it wants about the Iranian protests without being hypocritical, as long as it does not sneak commentary into their social media, or send money or other actual aid to the protesters.
It's like the difference between a secret agent and a registered agent. An American citizen can legally work for an adversary, as long as they register that fact with the State Department, who will tell them exactly what they can and cannot do. If they fail to register, then they are a secret agent, aka a spy.
It saddens me when people choose to oppose Trump, and thereby support the autocratic rules of Iran, rather than support the president of the US when he does or says the right thing. You condemned those who opposed Obama no matter what the issue or his position. Are you proud that you have sunk to that level? Respect the office, if not the man, and support your government when it does the right thing. Whoever claims "Resistance" is a strategy worth of any ethical or moral acclaim hasn't a foot to stand on. Vote for change when you have a chance to vote. Until then, support or don't support based on the policy in question, not your tribal passions.
1
Sorry, we moved from America #1 in the world (culture, science, armed forces, diplomacy, technology, etc) to America first. The days of regime change (like in 50's Iran and 2000's Iraq) are over. Speaking of which, I remember the US encouraging the Kurds after GW1 but letting Saddam Hussein slaughter them shortly thereafter. The best thing we can do at this time is keep quiet and work behind the lines. Funny, is it not what Obama did? And that is why ISIS is now basically dead. Speak softly, we still got a stick although it is not as big now thanks to the deconstruction of the state department.
2
Seems to me that Trump has been consistent, and is proving himself to be RIGHT on most things, absent the left-leaning media's ongoing obfuscation regarding right, and wrong.
The Iranians should continue to protest, for a variety of reasons that are duly noted on this board. For the GOOD of their own people, and country... AND, so that, at some point in the future, the United States will be better able to trust people from Iran seeking to enter our country.
At present, the safety of Americans is paramount, and should continue to reign supreme with the restrictions put on access to the US from countries like Iran that continue to LEAD only in state sponsored terrorism. Their own people need to rise up, and effect change in that area BEFORE we let out our safeguards down.
3
An Iranian friend in the country told me today that at least some of the protesters (including her) support the return of the late Shah's son as ruler of Iran.
At first I thought that if Trump wanted a war to appease the military-industrial complex, such a war would occur in Iran. The pretext might be some "trumped up" charge involving our withdrawal from or some Iranian violation of the nuclear deal.
But now I realize that Trump is too much of a coward to start any new wars. All he knows how to do is sue and stiff people who actually thought he could be trusted. He will get people killed at home and abroad, in myriad other ways: violence in the Middle East caused by the Jerusalem decision, the Iranian government murdering these protesters egged on by Trump's tweets, US citizens dying from lack of health care. But no war. Trump is a tweeting fool, but in the end he will always cut, run and hide. Just wait and see.
2
Mr Cohen is trying to isolate a single tweet from the bereft policies and pronouncements of the tweeter, our own Grifter in Chief, Donald Trump. Given his history of dishonesty and a failure to follow through, as well as his bigotry and inclination to suppress civil debate, his words can be construed as nothing short of empty rhetoric, with a potential for use against the protesters.
1
Trump is not right this time or anytime. He cozy's up to dictators all over the world. He could care less about human rights or any kind of rights.
The reasons for the Iranian protests are complicated and they are Theirs. Let's not get all exuberant and make this into another media event Arab spring.
The Iranians are smart and can handle their own affairs. The very best we American hypocrites can do is STAY OUY Of IT.
Nobody believes us on human rights issues anymore anyway. Nor should they.
2
As the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Donald Trump happens to be an excellent diagnostician. "Washington is a swamp," "the system is rigged." It is his prescriptions to cure that are the problem.
While the protestors are certainly worthy of our support, I can't help but see Trump as the proverbial blind squirrel who stumbled into a nut. He only has two foreign policy moves in his playbook, no matter what the situation: Complain about what Obama did (check) and threaten and insult leaders and regimes he decides are bad (check again).
Obama's big foreign policy shortcoming is widely seen to have been his failure to bring American "power" to bear in certain situations, like in Syria and Iran. His tendency was to wait and see, often with tragic results (like Syria). Presumably this strategy was due to lessons he had learned from recent history about the use of military action to remove leaders and the vacuum of governance it created (see Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya).
Instead, we now have a president who threatens any perceived enemy with military force, including nuclear weapons. No carrots, all sticks. No diplomacy. Trump's only foreign policy strategy is tweeting a bunch of insults and threats and then having Sanders, Tillerson or one of his generals "translate" them. For all of his hatred of Obama's deals, how many better ones has the "master of the deal" done? Zero.
Roger, Trump has no idea what he's doing and will get the world into a war. Your laudable desired ends--supporting opposition to the Iranian regime--don't justify the clueless Trumpian means. Our foreign policy cannot be to tweet insults and bomb everybody we hate.
2
When Clinton was president, Iraq had WMD (the US had the invoices). Clinton convinced Iraq to get rid of all its WMD, with inspections, so his successor could easily force regime removal in '03 (the year before the election).
When Bush, jr was president, Libya was feared to have WMD. Bush, jr, convinced Libya to get rid of all its WMD, with inspections, so his successor could easily force regime removal in '11.
When Obama was president, Iran was feared to have WMD. Obama convinced Iran to get rid of all its WMD, with inspections, so his successor could easily force regime removal in '19.
So Trump will force regime removal in Iran, just as Obama planned, and Mr Cohen will give Obama all the credit for a job well done.
(The international news reports that the protests in Iran are very small, and the pro-government rallies are much larger, but the New York Times focuses on the anti-government protests, as it did in Libya, so Trump will be 'saving millions of lives' by his removal of the evil, bloodthirsty Iranian regime.)
Why is Iran America's enemy? Must we struggle for dominance changing partners will-nilly while the ghosts of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadafi shame us from wherever? We were content when the "surrogate" wars of Iran helped us in Syria. Now they are the latest poster child for repression by the police and military.
Every epithet against the mullahs can apply equally to us. Donald Trump has embodied their "great Satan." He drops any pretense of human values with his war mentality of guns and bombs and bluster over taking care of our citizens. Sure we can't at this time unilaterally disarm or anything like that; but we can't just compete against the rest of the world forever.
And yes, the "slippery slope" with a shove from our neocons is a truism.
1
Once again Roger Cohen finds a way to sneak in the Israeli narrative that incessantly strives to demonize Iran. By inserting Trump's statement "squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad" he advances the concept that Iran's support of Palestinian legitimate freedom fighters is to be viewed as support of "terrorism".
Iran is not an "existential threat" to the State of Israel, but it is a real threat to Israel's colonization and annexation plans for the West Bank.
1
Don't berate Obama for keeping out of the 2009 protests. The worst think Obama did was say 'Assad must go'. Because he was US president, Syrians figured the statement would be followed be overwhelming force. So many took up arms against Assad and, along with their families were brutally crushed.
2
Hats off to Larry Lundgren whose post elequoently exposed the weakness of Roger's perspective. The only thing that Trump cares about is protecting Isreal's sphere of infuence and the House of Saud's survival. Even in that, he is greatly influenced by the likes of Miller and Kushner, because his brain cannot process anything more complex than TV ratings of entertainment shows.
Roger, what makes you think that people in Iran care about what he says? He has no credibility! How do you think that he would react to demonstrations by blacks and hispanics in this country and gross violations of human rights by Israel in occupied lands and Saudi's cluster bombing of the innocents in Yemen.
You’re right about the sophistication of the Iranians. They’ll achieve their goals Trump or not.
We will be able to take Trump's support of protestors more seriously when they are in Red Square.
The protest in Iran seem to me more like very small groups committing acts of arson and rioting. This is very similar to the CIA operation Ajax of 1953 when the USA overthrew the democratically elected government of Mossadeq and installed the puppet dictator the Shah.
The Iranian government is playing this 'uprising' just right by letting them carry on with their rioting and arson and by so doing they discredit themselves.
The number of protestors remains small and I see no popular support for them in Iran.
Donald Trump is intellectually on par with Albert Einstein.
Both of them created the theory of relativity, the former in the economics and the latter in the physics.
The former claims that the best way to pay the bills is not to pay them at all so he cut the taxes on top of the colossal national debt.
The only difference is that Einstein theory was factually correct while the Trump worldview is backed solely by his own ego.
At least Mr. Trump already accomplish something of historic significance. He proved Ronald Reagan right.
Don’t you remember that Gipper famously claimed the government was the problem?
We have the president that thinks the foreign conflicts are solved by the bigger size of nuclear button.
In any normal country that would the reason big enough for the immediate impeachment.
In America you get impeached only over the sexual harassments.
Isn’t democracy supposed to protect us instead of embarrassing as previously depicted?
However, let’s focus on Iran again so we could ignore our domestic problems as always…
Given our grouper-in-chief‘s authoritarian instincts, it’s fair to question his sincerity in siding with the Iranian protesters. In fact, his tweet is nothing but cynical opportunism, and will be seen as that by the whole world, including the Iranian protesters. Why Roger Cohen can’t see that is beyond me.
1
I also visited Iran, but it was 1980 and the demonstrations I saw were hopeful for a new day free from the Shah's tyranny.
I didn't witness brutality against demonstrators but I visited the morgue where the photos of those killed by the Shah's troops were displayed. Many were shot in the head, including women and I couldn't count them all. There must have been over a thousand.
But I disagree with Roger Cohen. The best thing the US can do is issue a statement supporting democracy and pledging to stay out of Iran's affairs. Our history there is one of supporting repression, not democracy and Iranians have long memories.
Our resent conduct in the region suggests that American support is the best way to discredit any popular democracy movement. American support while wrapped in the rhetoric of human rights always carries strings designed to weave countries into America's empire.
Iraq has been destroyed. Libya stands in rubble, ruled by Islamist factions and Syria was slated for the same fate. In each of these countries we could have supported real popular democracy, but instead opted for authoritarian regimes, even jihadists, as long as they aligned with our interests.
The most dramatic examples were the Arab Spring movements in Tunisia and Egypt, which we opposed because they weren't under our control. The supporters of democracy in Iran need America to keep its distance. There are plenty of other places where we can prove our commitment to human rights. And then we'll see.
3
Saying "These particular 2 sentences uttered by Donald are correct," is not much better than saying "The fortune in this particular cookie is correct." The sentences may be right, but the source is neither right nor wrong but simply random.
And statements of the form "Trump’s White House should.." are simply fatuous. They presuppose competence and integrity that Roger Cohen well knows do not exist.
3
The Infinite Monkey Theorem states that Donald Trump, tweeting for a four year term, will almost surely say a few things that are sensible to Roger Cohen. Trump won't know what those things are, or whether they are correct, and Roger Cohen needn't feel guilty about recognizing that a monkey typed out some Shakespeare.
3
Trump is just an oppositional child; contrary for the sake of being contrary. Regarding his acumen he doesn’t know whether it’s 2am or 2pm! You can’t threaten war against someone and then be considered “compassionate” to them. Can you? Riddle me that! Agreeing with Trump IS the slippery slope: when he changes rhetoric next week you realize you’ve stepped in a mess. Those who speak and act from courage don’t need the fraudulent to give them credence or support. The Iranians are in the midst of a revolution. Trump merely wants to see what he can get out of it: a humanitarian award? Hardly! By supporting the Saudis, Trump cares not what happens to the Iranians. Make book on it!
Although my heart and thoughts go out to the Iranian people, what caught me was in this piece was a self-centered thought...”But the working class has been a pillar of the regime – manipulated with handouts and slogans. If they have shifted now”...I couldn’t help but see a parallel with our current plight in the US. Our working class is being similarly manipulated, and many see this as being orchestrated by a sort of religious regime of evangelical Christians. Many especially watch this in horror, for it seems facts do not matter and therefore perhaps no way to change the minds of this class. Reading this nugget in the piece gave me a spark of hope. Do we live through the decline that is sure to happen, with the hope that as the working class sees promises are not being kept and their standard of living declining, they too may one day rise in protest. And of course I wonder, isn't there a way to fast forward and skip right to them seeing the light, without having to live through horror?
Trump may have struck a note by noting and encouraging the hopes of the Iranian people. They long for a democratic government and are chafing under the rule of the Ayatollah. At this point we just don't know whether he'll strike the next note on time and on key. That's the issue with Trump. He lacks the discipline to stay on task.
2
So when the crackdown begins in full force, will Trump also say that there were fine people on both sides?
Both Cohen (who is usually spot-on) and the other op-ed piece from an ex-CIA official promote the idea that the US govt's voicing support for these protests is essential. WHY?? Neither has explained exactly how this would help the situation. I still am convinced that more vocal support for the protesters will only reinforce the Iranian gov't's claims of foreign interference. If I am wrong, please explain what concrete ways this support will help.
1
The President -- especially Donald Trump -- is not just an analyst; he is head of a superpower with sixty years of troubled history with Iran. When he endorses the protestors, he validates (validly or not) the claims by Supreme Leader Khamenei that the U.S. is behind the protests. Those concerns were not allayed by General Joseph L. Votel, whom The Times quoted last night saying that Iran operates in the "gray zone" in other countries, and the U.S. needs to do so as well. Strangely, a few minutes later, the quote was edited out of the article online, and it does not appear in today's print edition. (The article was Mark Landler's "Trump Reiterates Support for Iran Protestors...")
While I agree that Iran is repressive, that the theocracy has enriched itself while suppressing the masses, I do NOT agree that the President of the US should embrace the protesters. We should stay out of their business unless there is a direct threat.
Yes, the Ayatollah is clinging to his power and suppression of free thought. That is what Islam is about in the first place. However, have we learned nothing? Obama embraced the Arab Spring, to the detriment of those people in countries where protests occurred - Egypt, Syria - how did that turn out? We cannot look at and judge the world by our standards.
While Mr. Cohen is right that American sympathies should be with the Iranian protesters, it is simply inexcusable to accuse President Obama's cautiousness as one of his administration's "worst failures." It demonstrates the short memory of the American public - we elected Obama on the heels of President Bush's lack of caution and shortsightedness in spearheading the Iraq war - which was in fact a slippery slope. How are we forgetting that what was promised to be a 'cake walk' became the longest running war in US history, with trillions of dollars wasted, and countless American and Iraqi lives destroyed.
To think that an even more large and sophisticated country like Iran would be even remotely easy to deal with begs a real answer to the question "And then what?" I'd rather we ask that now than after President Trump blindly stumbles us into what would potentially be the worst self made disaster in American history.
Was the Shah's regime in 1978 bankrupt? Yes. Should we have supported the protesters or the monarch we helped put on the throne in 1953? In fact the Carter administration was widely criticized for not doing more to help the Shah then.
The problem is that Iran is a very complex issue, and our president is a very simple tweeter. Not just by his tweets, but in his thoughts and actions. Obama may have been too careful, cautious with Iran, but the Iran nuclear agreement is still a much better agreement than NO agreement, and getting to an agreement with Iran on this was a diplomatic coup.
Trump is like a broken clock, except he's only right once a month instead of once a day. And even if he's right, what follow-up does he have? The only card he plays is the threat of the military option.
This issue calls for a strong state department and a strong, thoughtful president. Can we get those back, please?
1
Trump should look in the mirror but he's still right about Iran this time. Is it possible to agree with the ideas he expressed without agreeing with him? Perhaps it would be better to voice those same ideas without retweeting realDonaldTrump. Leave it to his followers--the ones who condemn Iran--to decide for themselves whether to follow him in supporting the Iranian people and the rights of citizens against oppressive governments. How many will be able to do that?
We can not comment about Iranian government. Our President and UN Ambassador probably have no knowledge of 1953, but Iran will never forget Mosaddegh and our overthrow of their freely elected government. We have to have clean hands before we judge. Until then, hopeful prayers for peace would better serve our side.
This will play out like all the other Middle East (or South American, or Central American, or African, or Balkan) upheavals of the past. The Iranian military will stand with the hard line theocrats until doing so jeopardizes its interests and existance. Then they will switch sides and join the "people" so that they can install another "supreme leader" that will protect the military's interest in exchange for the illusion of power and the chance to pillage the country's economy.
If you want to get together a group of countries on any policy you need a State Department -- one with a Secretary who can create coalitions. All things that we have not got or are working to destroy.
The extreme right wing likes to say there would be a civil uprising if Trump was impeached or had to resign. Clearly, and more significantly, there will be a nuclear war if Trump continues within this status quo.
It's no comfort to us that Generals Mattis & McMasters "could stop him," when they can't even manage to prevent these deadly tweets.
Nuclear weapons are all about psychological deterrence. Mr. Trump doesn't realize that fact. This presidency is not a Trump reality television show.
Has any Republican legislator weighed in? Or all they huddled trying to destroy Obamacare?
These tweets remain a threat to world peace.
And North Korea is right about the United States. As are the leaders of Iran. Everyone is right about everyone else. But the statements and actions of power driven murderous governments everywhere in the world. as well as those forces that prop them up have more in common with each other than they have with with rest of us. So maybe General Cohen, he is not always that but here he is that again, should keep marching with the people of the streets and stop identifying and looking for silver linings in the actions of the various rulers, cynical and murderous as they are, who are often "right" about each other and who we as a global people should resist with determination, passion and affirmation of what life could be like outside their control.
1
A broken clock is correct twice a day and that betters Trump's record.
The president's support of protesters in Iran is rooted in cynicism. As individuals Trump would consider them all 'terrorists' for they truly embrace democratic processes, which represents an existential threat to Trump and his corrupt family clan and regime.
Trump has been a supporter of war with Iran for five year's and has appointed Irani hawks at every opportunity. The future for Trump depends on serving up a war in the Mid East because Putin's mono-dimensional economy hinges on $100+. PPB oil.
America needs to keep its nose out of Iran and Syria. All of the evidence shows that when we get involved in the Middle East; we make everything worse. Iran is the perfect example. Without the US support of the Shah, the Iranian "Republic" might never have come into existence. We can also count Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya as interference that ended up not being in the best interest of anyone. We can sit this one out.
President Trump is 100% correct in his Iranian Tweets. Proving that even a stopped watch is correct twice a day.
1
The most meaningful observations are in the last two paragraphs of this article. And these are the least likely ones Trump will embrace.
"Trump’s White House should keep up the pressure. It should bring European allies in behind its condemnation and warnings. It should stop berating the nuclear deal, which gave Iranians hope and deprives the regime of a convenient scapegoat (it could always say times were hard because of Western sanctions).
It should not, whatever happens, impose new sanctions: They only benefit the Revolutionary Guards."
We should work behind the scene and through allies so we don't give the regime additional reason to claim the protesters are illegitimate and under the influence of the U.S. Also, Trump's bluster places the protesters at greater risk. He is not going to send in our troops to protect them if the regime starts killing them, such as in Tiananmen Square.
And, Trump should quit threatening the end the nuclear deal and re-impose sanctions. That just plays into the regime's hands. And, it communicates to Kim Jong-Un that any nuclear deal with the U.S. is meaningless.
Why all the misgivings? After our support of the overthrow Americans will be greeted with flowers - no?
It may be wise to remember that the USA is not the favorite of the Iranian people. It was the peoples revolution that imprisoned our ambassador and the entire delegation. Remember the Iran contra crime. Remember the Iraq/ Iran war in which we sided with Iraq and Sudam, which killed millions of Iranians. So don't assume the people are looking to become our friends.
3
not so much an example of Trumps understanding of Middle East politics, more a strategy for attracting Sheldon Adelson's campaign contributions and for Nikki Haley's 2020 presidential ambitions
13
A stopped clock is right twice a day.
Here is The Donald telling the Iranian people to continue to protest, while barring those same people from coming to the United States. That is the most mixed message possible. Moreover, you cannot separate the messenger from the message.
What has Iran done to the United States? Seize the embassy and hold hostages nearly 40 years ago. What has the United States done to Iran? Overthrown a democratically elected leader, installed a despot and supported his oppression of the people, supported Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war with information that allowed him to use chemical weapons, shot down a civilian airliner, and imposed sanctions.
The Iranian people will prevail. We can only hope when they do they still have feelings for the American people.
83
Most mixed message possible? Hardly.
The Iranians should continue to protest, for a variety of reasons that are duly noted on this board. For the GOOD of their own people, and country... AND, so that, at some point in the future, the United States will be better able to trust people from Iran seeking to enter our country.
At present, the safety of Americans is paramount, and should continue to reign supreme with the restrictions put on access to the US from countries like Iran that continue to LEAD only in state sponsored terrorism. Their own people need to rise up, and effect change in that area BEFORE we let out our safeguards down.
As for separating the messenger from those very clear messages, no need. Trump has been consistent, and is proving himself to be RIGHT on most things, absent the left-leaning media's ongoing obfuscation regarding right, and wrong.
3
Thank You John Graubard.
Rising expectations cobbled with a stagnant, repressive, reality are especially problematic for Hassan Rouhani.The Iran nuclear deal has not produced the expected economic boom, in part because IRGC, no longer content to just defend the Islamic Revolution, now has a stranglehold on Iran's economy,and has skimmed a large portion of its oil profits. Rouhani understands that he will share the backlash along with the Supreme Leader. He knows that the conservative Ayatollahs, who really run Iran,will employ the IRGC and the brutish thugs from the Basij to absolutely crush the protests if it feels the least bit threatened. Rouhani's pleas for moderation are based on the fact that unless the demonstrations subside, the resulting bloody crackdown will destroy his political influence and deal Iranian moderates an existential defeat.
2
Trump should pressure America's European "allies" into supporting his Iran policy?
Which European allies are they? The ones that the president keeps insulting? The ones that are told to pay up to provide more for their own defence rather than rely on America?
Just which European politician would hitch his or her star to the President's policies when he is among the world's most reviled leaders as seen from the European perspective.
"What comes around, goes around". Repeated insults directed at European leaders are not the way to built alliances, let alone preserve them.
4
Former politician: Refusal to identify yourself raises questions. If you're out of politics,why should you care what other people think? "Reviled leader from a European perspective?" Since when? According to which sondage?And should all those "Jean foutres" in the European Parliament who make 3 to 4 times what average working man makes and r on duty 1 or 2 days a week be taken seriously?JJ Susini, whom I shared many a dejeuner with when I was investigating the OAS and who, after being amnistied for his crimes, served as a member of the Parliament told me all about it!If assimilation is the highest form of patriotism, and if assimilation in Canadian terms means learning both French and English fluently, why do so few Canadians speak a fluent French? How is YOUR fluency in the idiom of Rabelais?
Mr. Cohen,
It is a rare occasion when our organization agrees with any of your articles or points of view but today we are all Iranians and thus concede that you are correct about the plight and bravery of the Iranian people.
For too long has the autocratic regime of the mullahs ruled over Iran with an iron fist. The promise of the 1979 revolution has been forsaken The depravity of the current regime resembles and exceeds the financial depravity of the Shah. The great promise to free the Iranian nation from corruption has turned out to be a smoke screen for the installation of unconscionable religious rulers who bastardize the revolutionary goals.
The Iranian nation has a long history of great achievements and moderations. The resolve of young Iranians has for generations changed the future of Iran and the world. Yet today the proud and brilliant young Iranians are being doomed for years to come by a regime that is bankrupting Iran and wasting its future.
It is the hope and prayer of this organization that the nations of the world stand in solidarity with the brave young Iranian men and women who are forging boldly ahead with a New Iranian Revolution (“NIR”). In the words of our great president John F. Kennedy “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
4
What about the fact that the US has Iran on a list of terrorist sponsoring states? No amount of saccharine support for a worthy people (and they are) will shift the tilted dialogue around Iran. The regime's original sin of taking US embassy staff hostage 37 plus years ago has been enshrined as being permanently vendetta worthy in the minds of the American right-wing. The result is that there can't be diplomatic nuance because Fox and friends would have to change their tune. Even while we buy our socks from Vietnam (a country we actually were once "at war with"), we keep getting told: hezbollah, hamas, Assad, as if that was enough to keep us mindless and angry.
We are very far from a rational position on Iran (or anywhere else with DJT at the helm). Our allies are at war starving children in Yemen and we can't even honestly discuss that as a moral problem.
59
What about the fact that Iran is a terrorist sponsoring state?
This from the Obama State Department in mid 2016, as cited by CNN:
On Iran, the report said that country "remained the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world."
1
The "original sin" occurred well before 37 plus years ago and was the overthrow fomented by the Eisenhower/Dulles administration of the democratically elected Mossadegh in favor of the dictatorial shah.
1
If your going to mention Original Sin and Iran in the same sentence you can't omit the 1953 Assassination of Irans president Mossegagh by the CIA !
3
Nearly breathless, we read Roger Cohen's opinion which catapaults us forward to that day when Theocratic extremists no longer have so much influence in America.
Trump may be right now, but Trump does not understand the significance of this moment and what it will unleash in America.
Point in case: Trump never condemned the beating of peace activists in Washington DC when President Erdogan's Turkish security thugs beat up peaceful American protesters. Trump is now cornered.
6
Who is more delusional here, Cohen or Trump?
The latter has fulfilled the Reagan prophecy and turned our government into the problem.
Both the Iranian and American governments are looting their people. The only difference is that our government can borrow against the future by piling up the colossal national debt. If we couldn’t do it there would be dramatically more people protesting here.
Do you remember that we believed the housing bubble were making all of us wealthier? We are now equally foolish. We believe that the rising national debt is making us stronger.
The bubble always looks rock solid until it bursts. No smart leader would be in business of making the great bubbles.
That’s Trump’s objective – making the huge bubble.
Remember this forecast!
It comes from the same guy that accurately predicted the futility of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that the Bush tax cuts would result in the colossal national debt, that the housing bubble would cost the taxpayers at least a trillion dollars, that the free trade would ruin the American middle class and make China great and that both Obama and Trump would get elected as the presidents…
The voters were desperate for the change but both Barack and Donald made it worse…
By the way, Iran should be the least of our worries. All the theocracies are doomed to implode. We should focus solely on our own structural faults…
3
Left unanswered in this column is how, exactly, voicing support for the Iranian protestors helps them? Trump is merely doing the opposite of Obama regarding Iran; trashing the nuclear deal, boasting (rather emptily since Iranians are banned from emigrating to the U.S.) about "freedom," even as he has chosen sides in the Middle East by siding with Saudi Arabia -- Iran's implacable enemy.
Cohen notes that U.S. pressure gives the Iranian regime a convenient scapegoat to blame for the unrest, but he dismisses that because our support will give Iranian citizens hope, and that's what is important. Well, how will that play after the protests are snuffed out with ruthless efficiency by the regime's brutal internal police force.
Wouldn't hope be on offer more effectively if Trump supported the nuclear deal, thus demonstrating U.S. commitment to honoring deals made in good faith? Wouldn't he be expressing support more effectively by encouraging U.S. business deals with Iran, instead of blocking them?
Wouldn't Trump be more effective generally, around the globe, if he stopped his silly, juvenile and costly revenge tour on Barack Obama, in Iran and elsewhere?
10
Trumps statement is so broad that it could virtually describe any nation at present. There are few enthusiatic supporters of our leaders and their regime, which is exactly the platform Trump was elected on. But as he has demonstrated after the election, he was less interested in changing the system than making it work to his benefit.
It isn't exactly news to those who have paid attention that dissatisfaction is brewing beneath the surface, in Iran and elsewhere. But pointing at the problem is the easy part. The difficulty lies in finding workable solutions, and this is where Trump has little credibility. His disdain for the UN, his pandering to Israels right wing and his America first foreign policy leaves little to work with in finding solutions to Irans predicament. Except, of course, to 'fund terrorism abroad' and hope that your enemies are their enemies too.
Trump is right about alot of things. That there is an opioid epidemic in US. That rust-belt workers slipped from secure middle class to precarious unemployed. That Washington is a swamp of lobbyists and special interests.
That doesn't mean he has any clue about how to deal with it, or even that he cares beyond its potential to rile up his base.
1
Iran is a wonderful country trying to get itself from a Stone Age theocratic culture to a modern democracy with access to the digital realm, in only a few decades. Imagine if America in 1790 had that task, to become as we are today, well, as we were under President Obama. It would mean lots of conflict, lots of confusion, lots of dangerous confrontation with authority.
But Iran isn't America's enemy, it is a Shia country and is also involved in a terrible civil war in the Middle East. All that needs to be worked out, without American fingers on the scales, or in the planes. Let them work it out.
They are further along that any other country in the Middle East. They aren't our enemy, and we should keep our noses out of their affairs.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
45
I will agree with you that Iran is not America's enemy as soon as their leaders stop yelling "Death to America", and blaming this country for all their problems. Their nuclear bomb clock is ticking. Only six years away (if one can trust their word). It's later than you think.
In the first place, an American President speaking in support of protest elsewhere needs to have a little thing called, "moral authority," of which Donald Trump possesses precisely jack.
In the second, blatting out tweets at 4 AM isn't speaking. It's blatting, on a topic about whch the man knows precisely jack.
And in the third, Trump has no interest at all in Iran's people. He's interested in, "See me? See how big I am?"
1
I hope that Iranians are able to throw off the yoke of their theocracy and it’s cudgel, the Revolutionary Guard. But Trump is the wrong voice to be hectoring that regime. He precipitously refused to re-ratify the nuclear arms deal, to all appearances because it was part of Obama’s legacy. The Iranians have deep historical reasons not to trust the US. Trump’s words, no matter how apt, spring from the mouth of a man undeserving of a listen.
1
There are far better ways to support these brave protesters than re-tweeting Trump. I admire your columns but you have made a mistake here. Trump defiles everything he touches. You risk being defiled by association with him.
1
Everything Trump touches is diminished. Roger, why do you expect this to be any different? Trump's words are meaningless and carry no weight whatsoever. No one believes anything he says. Let's find some other way to support the brave Iranians.
1
Trump is not "right" about anything, ever. And Mr. Cohen is "wrong" for suggesting otherwise.
What is the point of encouraging a career criminal to keep on committing one crime after another. Every single solitary day that Trump hold's office is a crime against our nation's government.
1
What comes across is that the two protests (now and 2009) are different. We have a nuclear deal now, love it or hate it, we did not have in 2009. And we are many more years distant from our invasion of Iraq. The biggest fear in the Arab world is the US acting like an imperial power in their neck of the world. The other thing that stands out is the 48 fold increase in cell phone ownership (how is that possible in an impoverished nation?) which allows the protests to grow quickly. Also the notion the US had nothing to do with these protests is nonsense. We have been promoting dissent in Iran for years. And not just by presidential tweets. Lastly, hindsight is always 20:20. I certainly can understand why the Obama administration felt a hands off approach might be the better way. Turns out, perhaps, that was the wrong approach. And they are adult enough to admit that. Trump, although many of his supporters would disagree, is not an infallible god. He certainly will have no regrets about anything he does. And he has and will continue to make mistakes along the way. Trouble is his supporters won't admit that.
21
Being right about Iran does not mean Trump really understand what is going on or that he will do something about it in the same way he thought that by tweeting against Venezuela's regime, he did something for Venezuelans. This is the president of the USA. A man that has a fixation with Obama and Clinton and cannot make policy without trashing others. Total lack of self-confidence.
I wish the best to the people of Iran, I wish they prevail and, that they do not become yet again another totalitarian regime.
Really? The best way Trump can help any cause is to keep his mouth shut about it. In this case in particular the last thing needed is "American meddling", real or perceived. We must not forget the C.I.A.-backed 1953 coup against a democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister that installed the Shah. The Iranians haven't forgotten.
1
If there is a revolution in Iran at this point in history, what will the Trump Administration do? Find a long lost heir to the Peacock Throne to install in power?
in 1953, our country through the engine of the CIA saw fit to bring down Iran's last truly democratically-elected head of state, Mohammed Mossadegh, and to install Shah Reza Pahlevi (and his CIA-trained secret police) in his stead. That folly sowed the Islamist seeds that seized our Embassy in 1979 and who once in power leveraged the Shah's educated elites (many of whom were US-trained into the technocracy) that has bolstered their regime.
Like Mr Cohen and many Iranians who are demonstrating today, I do have no truck with the current lot of Iranian leaders and their Islamic adventurism. But I can only hope that whatever regime comes next, it is come by honestly. The Iranian people deserve a crack at self-determination.
1
Finally, I agree with Mr. Cohen in his support of President Donald J. Trump's support for the people of Iran. Yes, the silence from the White House during the Obama years was deafening. Well, Iran no longer has a friend in the White House willing to allow the supreme religious leaders of Iran run roughshod over its its people. It was so shameful that Iran, North Korea, and the other rouge states got by with so much evil under Obama. Under President Donald J. Trump that nonsense is going to stop. I hope Mr. Cohen continues his support of the President on the issue and others. Thank you.
21
If you read the comments on Trump's tweet, you'll understand that it's difficult to "support the president on the issue" when the president cannot say just what the issue is.
1
@amabobama,
Trump's tweet says it all, it seems to sum up the situation very well. In fact its not as bellicose as many of his tweets. Rather polite. Say what you may, I and millions of other Americans support the President. We support Trump. Thank you.
Interesting. So you believe that Trump supports the idea that the United States should be the policeman of the world? So when any people, anywhere, are unhappy with their government, we should send our soldiers to invade that country, topple the "regime", and build a new nation for them?
I don't think that's the Trump white house view, at all.
In August, 2013, citizen provocateur Donald Trump tweeted "Be prepared, there is a small chance that our horrendous leadership could unknowingly lead us into World War III."
Of course, he was trolling Barack Obama at the time.
However, out of either boredom or incompetence, President Trump is taunting by tweet Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. This strategic failure.
--As experts point out, a nuclear war will be a civilization-ending event.
--As Hillary Clinton pointed out, "A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons."
--3 times Trump had asked the generals "if we have nuclear weapons, why can't we use them?"
--Now we're facing 3 inflammatory tweets.
--Time again for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss Mr. Trump's access to the Launch Codes.
Obama ignored the protesters because he wanted a nuclear deal with our enemy. He didn't ignore the protesters in Egypt but used them to help pull down Mubarak, our ally.
His disastrous policies were 180 degrees wrong.
2
I've always felt that Iran with its well-educated, modern, "West-leaning middle class" was our best hope for peace in the region. Unfortunately, despite the Trump tweets, his action speak otherwise. He along with Israel and Saudi Arabia--the true "fifth century" medieval kingdom--seem dedicated to using the unrest to open a wider war with Iran that now is being waged in Syria and Yemen, but could extend into Lebanon, as the Saudis recently failed coup attempt indicated, as well as to Iran itself with new sanctions and the termination of the nuclear deal. The failure of the Arab Spring haunts the situation in Iran today, but perhaps it can provide a useful lesson of how to deal with the potential for helping the people of Iran. The question is: Is President Trump listening to more informed voice as well as "watching"?
I think Iranians know down deep that the world's oldest democracy stands with them.
(Imagine how much they would love us had we not helped overthrow their prime minister in the 1950's - would we like that?)
So, what practical steps can we take in this very moment?
It's easy to take a very public stance.
And just as easy for the power structure in Iran to accuse protesters of being in league with Americans. (American protesters against the Vietnam War were accused of being in sympathy with Russia - same dynamic)
I think the the tone of Trump's tweet was balanced - indicating he absolutely didn't write it himself!
But, what do we do? What action?
Trump has no ability or credibility with allies to do the slow work of diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran. It's beyond him and his weakened state department.
So, on balance we can say Trump weakens us by not knowing how the game is played. Tweets have zero bite. Too simple.
Hard work is harder.
Obama didn't have a hand to play during the green protests of June 09.
But, his longer game got Europe and Russia to force the nuclear agreement - which is generally lauded (even by non-radical Israelis).
55
Dear Sir,
I am afraid I cannot concur with your views as regards the policy upheld by the US president in supporting the protests in Iran, certainly not where such support is guided by accusations of involvement of the Iranian government in terrorism finance. The US seem to apply double standards, supporting other Arabic regimes that have a proven involvement in support of radical groups operating in Europe that contribute to increasing tensions between Muslims and non-muslims living for decades peacefully on our continent. In balance, US policies result in aggravation of the issues on other continents. I’d rather see the US indeed pulling back to their own jurisdiction and mind their own internal affairs in stead of being a permanent threat to world peace.
Regards,
Bart Joosen
1
The issue is no longer whether Trump is right or wrong. The issue is whether or not anyone, other than Americans, care.
1
There is no excuse to applaud Trump's hypocrisy. I would support Trump when he start pushing the Saudi Arabia to toward democracy and human rights. What about Egypt and Philippines. Trump is not defending democracy in Iran he is only hoping for Iranian regime to fall so that the Saudi-Israel axis will be become stronger and rule Middle East.
1
So the guy in the White House might occasionally be correct, whether based on his own analyses or those from people close to the White House. So what--even allowing that there is a "right way" to respond?
I understand the desire to appear "balanced" and allow that some good decisions might be made. But there remains a sense that any one of hundreds of people who might aspire to the White House would be correct every once in a while. Not many people at these levels are wrong all the time. This does not begin to excuse the inexcusable behaviors of the current guy in the WH.
Trump is not right about this or anything else... he keeps it up about the Nuclear Deal, shouting falsehoods over & over, like we gave them money and all kinds of other nonsense. Then half the population repeats it, even in these comments. They banned Iranians from coming, mostly students studying. And even you say they should stop with condemnation of the deal. Yes sure, Iran needs to do much better with human rights. And improve the wealth disparity ( so do we ). But the right move is to stay out of it, and definitely not impose more sanctions. But Trump, Sen Cotton and the other hard liners will probably impose them anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if we ( the U.S.) had a hand in what's going on there.
1
Trump's approval and support of anything, and I mean anything, is suspect and has no permanent credence. Taking sides in the Middle East quagmire is dangerous at best. We've seen what happened in Egypt so an outcome of a return to futility is very likely. Trump's approval of anything is tomorrow's kiss of death.
1
Considering that Trump dismissed those who demonstrated against him right here in America as 'media plants,' it is more than inconceivable that he respects peaceful protest.
Considering that Trump is enamored of the world's strongmen, particularly the ruthless Duterte and Putin, it is more than inconceivable that he respects democracy.
Considering that Trump included Iran on his immigration ban and described it as a nation of terrorists, it is more than inconceivable that he is concerned for Iranians.
Considering that Roger Cohen is a very knowledgeable and insightful person, he should know better than to take Trump's tweets on the Iran protests at face value.
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Funny that a President who on a daily basis trashes the very foundations of democracy in the United States - freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, rule of law, just for starters - should be tweeting about the rights of foreigners to "express themselves". Mr. Trump seems to forget that he doesn't seem to think that same right should extend to Americans in their own land. Sad.
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I totally agree.
On a different note, the ending of your post "sad" made your post like a Trump tweet:)
Obama and Hillary supported many popular uprisings during the Arab Spring in the Middle East but were silent when the Iranians took to the streets. Why ? Only Obama and Hillary know. It could not have been to protect Iranians from their government because Obama and Hillary supported the Syrian uprisings with disastrous consequences for the Syrian people. And you can argue the same for the other Arab Spring countries. There were other dynamics with respect to Iran that I do not know if it was revealed to the American public. Obama and Hillary were decisive in supporting other uprisings in the Middle East but not in Iran.
2
Revolutions have a life span and it looks like Iran's is in its final stages. Government without the support of the people does not last long today, the people of Iran are fed up with the dictates of a few who believe they own the answer to everything. Maybe this time, the people of Iran will triumph.
1
I am no expert but when I survey the wasteland that is the Middle East Iranian youth are absolutely the only contingent that I have even the tiniest bit of sympathy for. And I suspect that nothing could be more counterproductive to their cause than having the US government in general, and our current "leader" in particular, weigh in on it in public statements.
If indeed Mr. Trump -- like a broken clock -- happens to be right about something, any grain of truth or good judgment is lost in the din of constant lies and exaggerations.
Did he tweet about Iran before or after he took credit for a safe year for commercial aviation? Did he tweet before, after or during a round of golf? We're pretty sure it was before he threatened nuclear war with North Korea by describing the size of his imaginary button?
We no longer attempt to parse his remarks or label them as true or untrue (ran out of those stickers). We either express our outrage du jour or simply let them go straight to voicemail. It's the fatigue setting in.
I don't pretend to know the best way to approach the situation in Iran, but I'm pretty sure that tapping out sporadic thoughts via Twitter is not an effective use of our influence.
And so it begins. Trump's sophistication in his understanding of Iran is about as deep as a five year olds understanding of nuclear physics. So this is part of the new normalcy, Intelligent journalists giving Trump credit in a bold headline for a tweet that plays to his base and may have a slight ting of truth to it.
One can only wonder what present-day Iran would be if the US hadn't engineered the overthrow of Mossadegh. I would guess we'd have a very strong ally in the region, or at least a secular government that we could work with, one that wasn't trying to control the entire Middle East.
I applaud any group of people who peacefully protest against injustice by their respective governments, no matter which country they live in.
Let's see how supportive Trump is of the protests, if and when the middle class of America finally becomes fed up with the "legal" looting of the wealth of our country by the corrupt Republican Party.
Beyond Trump, where is the UN its Secretary General and its human rights commissioner? How about the EU? Seems like they find events in Iran to be an unwelcome distraction from other agendas.
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Assuming that it is not counterproductive for the President to give to the Iranian authorities a foreign influence at which to point the finger, why is it that protesters in Russia, who also seek human rights and a more fair economy, do not also get Presidential support?
I had two Iranian friends in college at the University of Delaware in the late 1970s, Kaveh Moshaver and Hassan Rassooliplanah (forgive misspellings). I have thought about them many times and hoped for their safety and well being. I wish only good things for the people of Iran. I am glad our President expressed support for protesters.
Cohen should be ashamed for stoking the case for war against Iran. This is what Trump's tweet means. It is up to Iranians to change or live with the system they have. Although not ideal, it is immeasurably more just and inclusive than that of Saudi Arabia and of most of the Arab Middle East. There are large protests; have you noticed these in the Arab Middle East lately? There are elections. The election of Rouhani triggered vast popular celebrations completely ignored by most of the US media, because, unlike the current demonstrations, they didn't offer a pretext for violent attack and regime change. Trump's fishing in troubled waters has nothing to do with the advance of human freedom. Europeans are taking the side of the protesters and urging dialogue. If they're smart they will not appear to endorse anything Trump says or does on the issue.
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Well said. The fact that the Republicans are cravenly using the Iranian protests to falsely claim they are regarding disapproval of the nuclear deal is, as you say, stoking the case for war. That is, a more easily nuclear armed Iran.
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Agreed, the outside powers should stay out of it. Let the people of Iran determine their future. West’s interference has been a disaster in other middle-eastern countries. Obama was right. He had seem wars and did not want to jump into another —Syria, North Korea or Iran.
"Not ideal?" It's amazing what leftists will do to rationalize the evil done by regimes they are comfortable with. If you want to know more about the police state that is modern Iran, just do a search in this newspaper about its torture prisons. Iran tortures women just as much as it does men. Have you checked out Amnesty International lately? If you have, you'll find that there's nothing "measurably more just" about Iran. (Just how DO you measure justice, anyway?) Information is good, especially when it's information that you don't want to hear. Cognitive dissonance can always be resolved by just looking at the facts and not trying to reconcile them with your ideology. Whether it's Saudi Arabia's or Iran's, evil is evil.
The irony of course is Trump's behavior so far and his cabinet picks resemble the same behavior we see from the religious leaders in Tehran--- deep down, Trump would love the kind of power Khamenei has and instead of the FBI would love some for the Revolutionary Guards at his disposal.
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I am not sure if these protesters would be happy that Trump tweeted about them. After all, they are very proud nationalist Iranians and they would favour any corrupt Iranian than a president that wants to please Saudis.
Also, let's not forget that this came after Rouhani the president presented a transparent budget showing expenses directed toward foreign countries and the clerics. Is there anything more democratic than this...? Rouhani started some reforms but the problem is the clerics. Let's give him some credit. Your retweet you could have wrote it in another way in your own words rather than retweeting someone saying something obvious and wants to take advantage of the situation.
Worked in Iran as a young man. Iran under the shah had a vibrant economy with oil exploration work, major building construction, a new nuclear power plant under construction, with the help of western oil and engineering companies. Iran under the mullahs has been an economic disaster, and their people are likely fed up. They need a new revolution and the US should help and work with the replacement government.
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While professing to substantial ignorance about the complexities of Iranian politics, I find myself wondering whether hubris is at the heart of the garment-rending in the left and chest-thumping braggadocio elsewhere.
Give the Iranian people some credit for being able to fight their own battles - I'm not sure that the addle-minded tweets of a quixotic, ill-informed U.S. President are the support they want or need.
We continue to act as if our position as a world leader is not being steadily eroded by the torrent of churlish and childish rhetoric, the inexplicable about-faces on foreign policy issues.
At some point, "America First" translates to "America Friendless". And the tweets will be seen as empty rhetoric.
If Obama had voiced support for protestors, even with the same words, what would your reaction be? Are we judging Trump because of our view on Trump, or because of the words and actions in this particular case? Let's not pre-judge people.
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“Given where American-Iranian relations stand, there is not much downside to this [Trump’s] bluntness.”
What of the downside of having Donald Trump as a cheerleader for your side to those who are protesting? What better way to legitimize a crackdown by the theocratic rulers they are challenging?
Roger’s uncritical support for Netanyahu and band wagon support of Trump’s embassy fiasco is so predictive of his commitment to Iran’s role in global terrorism.
Trump and Netanyahu are holding hands with Saudi Arabia, the source of support and inspiration for Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boka Haram via it’s theocratic Wahhabi cult. Cohen and others lose sight of the source of world terror when their loyalty is to Netanyahu, or Big Oil, or the Defense Industry, or Banks. A truly formidable propaganda machine.
Chances of the Iranian people to end the theocracy in their country is not aided by outsiders and national enemies like Trump. The Saudi theocracy and the Netanyahu theocrats are known Trump allies. So how does Trump’s support help?
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Donald Trump has no understanding of Iran, and he relies upon two sworn enemies of Iran, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman, for what information he has. In spite of this, Trump’s tweet about the Iranian demonstrations was correct, as Roger Cohen observes.
The problem is that the last thing in the world the Iranian demonstrators need is an endorsement from Donald Trump.
The failure of Barack Obama to act in Iran on behalf of demonstrators in 2009 was a mistake. At the least, he should have spoken out quickly and forcefully against Ayatollah Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards.
Barack Obama was a much better president than his predecessor and much, much better than his successor has shown himself to be already. Obama, however, tended to have too much Jimmy Carter in his veins. He sometimes micromanaged, tended to overthink things and often was too cautious about quick decisions.
Obama’s inaction may not have made a difference in 2009, nor may Trump’s single tweet in 2018.
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Amazing
You agree with Trump but because of your hatred for him and Netanyahu you can't give credit where credit is deserved.
This is why liberals do not succeed in getting their ideas accepted by people who are not liberal.
If you can't admit they are right when they are why should they even listen to you,
.
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When one is criticizing Obama for his failure to respond quickly to the demonstrations in Iran in 2009, one must put the time and event in context.
1. Obama was only in office for about 6 months when they began and admittedly too involved in working on bipartisanship;
2. The US was world-weary and angry with Bush for taking us into, and then prolonging, an unnecessary war in Iraq and had no appetite to get involved with another country's internal problems; and
3. The US was in the throes of an economic downturn the likes of which we have not seen in many of our lifetimes making the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid," relevant again.
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You don’t have to convince me, julie. Everything you write is true. The 2009 demonstrations in Iran were at a time when even the loser in a fixed Iranian election was reluctant to pursue his cause. A couple hours ago I posted a comment to my own comment to clarify my view. It has not been published. In my view,
Barack Obama was brilliant regarding a long list of issues, domestic and international. It is because of Obama’s achievements and popularity that Trump is desperately trying to erase him from history.
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Our Western military alliances demand major roles of us in international conflicts to preserve the imbalance of power between NATO’s European supremacy over the developing world powers. Hence Trump’s support for any weakening of Iran’s government’s military and economic influence in the region. Not only are we happy to destroy Assad’s Syrian power in the region, but we have almost total military and political veto power over regional government policies towards our one European ally there in Israel from Turkey to Oman. And as one of Israel’s supporters, Mr. Cohen, you would support Trump’s provocative encouragement of Iran’s protesters against any Iranian government so long as the leaders are hostile to our regional role.
As with all neo-colonial roles, the bill for our international military adventures in our blood and treasure comes with hidden costs as well in immigration problems, man-made regional, environmental catastrophes, and terrorist attacks. And the Palestinian bill for our entangling alliance with Israel is becoming plain all too soon, such that Trump’s business experience in paying such a large bill, even with our taxes, gives little confidence that he will cover it.
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I, too, was disappointed by Obama's silence in 2009. It should be pointed out, though, that Obama did get the nuclear deal. Would a big show of support for the Tehrani protestors in 2009 have poisoned the well, and made negotiations impossible? Honestly, don't really know, but neither does Roger. There is some utility to the "OK, then what?" approach.
In any case, these types of communications need to be thought through and handled carefully.
I guess it is time for regime change in Iran. To bring freedom sometimes you have to give the freedom fighters advanced antitank missiles. The US will bring freedom and democracy to Iran just like the antitank missiles given to Al Nusra in Syria promoted democracy.
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I too support the Iranian people protesting against their govenment. The problem with Trump's tweeting his support are his words are not backed up by his actions. He decertified Iran's compliance with the Iran treaty when clear evidence showed otherwise. He's threatening to withdraw from the Treaty period. God knows what will happen when he does. Moreover, all signs show he'll push for more sanctions on Iran. And don't forget his discrimatory travel ban.
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The responders so far seem as conflicted as I am about the proper American response to the protests in Iran. We can reject out of hand Trump's tweet as any sort of guideline. The man has repeatedly demonstrated his lack of empathy for anyone challenging abusive authority. His action simply reflects an emotional response to any regime or institution that refuses to flatter or support him, no different, in fact, from the recent attacks on the Justice Department.
That said, should a thoughtful president have responded with Mr. Obama's silence or with Reagan's aggressive challenge to Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall? Mancuroc reminds us that American verbal support for the Hungarian protesters in 1956 misled them into believing that they would enjoy military support. In 1989, on the other hand, Gorbachev stunned the world when he refused to send in the tanks to prevent the overthrow of his East European satellites.
Each case is different, and we cannot know in advance whether rhetorical support for the protesters would hurt or help their cause. But a country which presents itself to the world as a defender of democratic values should not remain silent while brave individuals in another country risk their lives to defy tyranny. The government's official expression of solidarity, however, should appear in the form of a statement from Secretary Tillerson, not as an early morning tweet from a man who routinely uses the medium to rant about his enemies.
The basic law of averages and regression toward the mean is in play here. Should one tweet enough, occasionally one will say something that will be construed as correct or insightful. Insight and thoughtfulness has not been a characteristic of Trump or his administration save for General Mattis. What I see here, from the Iranian protesters is the disappointment that government policies do not improve the daily life of its citizens, instead spending its limited capital on fostering conflict elsewhere, unneeded weapon systems and improving the status of those who are already in power(the 1%). Best if we take this opportunity to reflect, not react.
Quiet as it is kept, the world can function without commentary from a president of the United States and without the United States taking a position.
Trump asserts himself when American leadership is neither needed nor welcomed, but withdraws when it would benefit the United States. Witness TPP and the Paris climate accord and more.
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Well, alrighty then:Trump is supporting the protesters. I hope this opens up the floodgates for more protesting pro-care crowd.
Thanks Trump
When did Western meddling ever help? We should not do anything. The last thing we need is another state in that region collapsing into chaos and releasing another tidal wave of migrants. Anything, including a stable dictatorship, is far better for us than that.
If the Iranians manage a peaceful transition to democracy that maintains the integrity of their nation and keeps the institutions functioning, great, I'm rooting for them. But order and stability are more important than all else.
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Boy, oh boy, how our military industrial behemoth must be champing at the bit, as it anticipates this next arena of warfare, the billions upon tens of billions of dollars to be made on weaponry sales and use, and the trillions more if somehow or other we are "invited" in, to assist the long-suffering oppressed throw off the shackles, and still even more lucre will be avariciously grabbed up from the rebuilding, after we obliterate infrastructure, industry, and the odd city here and there as we spend the next 50 or more years trying to erase Islam from its home in this area of the planet.
Methinks these nations of the Middle East were just fine, living as they did for thousands of years, until the West, led by the United States of America went after their resources, beggaring their poor and their middle-class, and not satisfied with that, the West has been seeking to erase their culture and religion, in other words their identity, so they become the latest batch of consumers, the lifeblood of western capitalism.
Yes, that about describes how the world works, insofar as the capitalist overlords see it.
And Trump, wow, talk about that Overlords' perceptions of how things should be.
Mr. Cohen, you disappoint me.
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Oh, please. I could see giving Trump some credit if he exhibited any effort to learn, understand, or consider anything new. So far, Trump is right the same way a broken clock is right twice a day.
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Not sure how any statement from the US serves a positive purpose in a society as paranoid of - and scarred by - foreign interference. For the Iranian people who want change, a statement from Obama or Trump doesn't lend them credibility, it gives their opponents additional evidence of collusion with a foreign meddler. Now, if the Islamic Republic was a client state like Marcos's Philippines, a statement from the president might make a difference. But it's not, so I say let them handle their own internal affairs.
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So why is the US concerned about Russian interference in our elections when it's quite appropriate for the US to interfere in Iran's internal affairs? The US will call an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss the protests in Iran? Really?
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For me, this wonderful piece is a beacon of hope, not for the reasons Roger Cohen would wish, but because it was brave for this columnist and the NY Times to write the words "Trump is Right." In this age of depressingly predictable media polarization (to which the NY Times Opinion section is not immune), I am heartened that "our side" at least has the courage to play away from bias confirmation from time to time. Kudos!
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If the imperial (neocon) Mr. Cohen is agreeing with a Trump (foreign) policy, you can pretty much be guaranteed that Mr. Trump has gotten it wrong.
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A broken clock may be correct twice a day, but I would never refer to it to get the time.
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Anyone with a nineteen year-old grandson appreciated Obama's "excessive caution". And it appears my thinking isn't too far from the powerful demonstrators in Iran, the ones Trump is praising, too. "Among the most powerful slogans of demonstrators have been those expressing fury at money wasted in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere when President Hassan Rouhani had promised jobs, not more of the surrogate wars of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps." I am thankful Obama stayed cool.
1
Trump’s hamfisted blustering about the nuclear deal and threats to impose greater sanctions have made the problem worse. The climate of uncertainty he is promoting there makes foreign companies everywhere afraid to invest in businesses that would create jobs for the poor and largely unemployed people who are demonstrating. He should, instead, be promoting a promise of stability and cooperation and, mostly, he should stand down his rhetoric.
OK, I'll admit it - Trump's record of being wrong about everything has been breached.
And still he is the greatest danger to our national integrity.
Reading most of these comments is a hoot.
Obama was a dignified and honorable man, but the timidity of his foreign policy will be haunting the US for years to come. Trump may be an objectionable person but his response to the Iranian protests is right so far.
More to the point, if the left insists on opposing everything Trump does merely because he does it, then it serves neither our country nor itself well.
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The things you say are true however trump can not be the front man. First as he says he is behind them on one hand he goes out of his way to make their life harder. As he talks of the freedoms they should have he tries all he can to take those freedoms away from us. Lastly, given his live of absolute power I believe he wishes he had his own Revolutionary Guards to send after people who protested against him, women and children included.
2
As usual, Trump's thoughtless tweets hit a truth once in a while. But as we should know by now, any credit given to this child will let him crow about it for months. It's one thing to credit someone for understanding a situation and doing the right thing, and blundering into the truth, without any thought or understanding. He has demonstrated repeatedly that he does not deserve any credit, but he does need to resign and soon.
1
We understand hopefully what Iranians feel. You have diluted that sentiment by trumpeting Trump. In fact I would say Obama was right in predicting that people will rise against the regime. Give him that credit.
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Let's see how many comments pop up for this column that say "a broken clock is right twice a day." I think in Trump's case it's more like "an old calendar is right about once a decade."
1
Even a loose cannon might hit the mark by odd chance.
Trump lacks any moral authority or consistency so even the chance credible utterance is subject to automatic discredit.
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Trump tweeted something about the people being in the streets to protest the theft of money from them going to the elites in the government. I couldn't help think about the theft of American elites from us, the people of the United States.
Why aren't we out in the streets protesting? Why aren't we Americans in the streets protesting every day? We certainly have enough to protest about!
We Americans need to emulate the bravery of the Iranians.
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I read the column and the description of what is happening in Iran is similar to what is happening here in America. I wish the Iranians the best.
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The problem is that your last two paragraphs essentially nullify your column. Because Trump's White House won't do any of those things. Trump's tweets about Iran are, as usual, whistling to his base and denigrating Obama without the least understanding--or desire to understand-- of the complexities or history of Iran. Period.
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Trump is looking for a reason to start a war. This kind of tunnel vision regarding what the administration is actually doing is what got us the Iraq War. Given the role that the Times played in legitimizing that debacle, opinion pieces like this are deeply troubling. The Iranian hardliners are already using this administration's statements about the protest to suggest that outsiders are behind the protests. It isn't true, but look at how many Americans believe whatever Trump tells them.
1
We're talking about a president who knows nothing about Iran and has no understanding of how his own government works. This is the same guy that saw crowds that didn't exist at his inauguration event and has recently taken credit for no loss of life on commercial airlines in his first year as president, completely ignoring the fact that the no US air carrier has had a loss of life crash since 2009. Behind this claim, he has not implemented any policy to change air travel safety. HIs tweets and statements about the Russia investigation and how no one in his campaign communicated with Russian operatives ended up with two guilty pleas from those in his campaign orbit and two indictments and the investigation is becoming even deeper than previously expected. The Fusion GPS testimony debunked the claim that the dossier was the impetus for the Russia investigation but the Republican congress doesn't really want to talk about that. Now Trump tweets the "deep state" is out to get him. His own cabinet appointees. A tweet about Iran is just giving their Mullah's a reason to claim the US is interfering with their internal politics and the protesters are in bed with the CIA. The US will do nothing to help those protesting in that country. Trump's tweets are meaningless and are a reflection of his ignorance and flawed view of the world. Nothing more. The guy is an empty suit protected by a complicit Republican congress unwilling to acknowledge his perfidy for their own agenda.
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You are missing the point. Cohen agrees with you that Trump is generally wrong. But in this case, he is correct. And in terms of "doing nothing" to help the protesters, Trump is at least supporting them with rhetoric. His spineless predecessor is the one who did nothing.
Reply to Achilles;
His spineless predecessor stopped that country from its path to a nuclear nation. Moreover, Obama understood that rhetoric supporting the protesters will just be used against them by their government.
You're confusing logical long term thinking with nonsense. Rhetoric without the means to follow-up with action is missing the point.
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Robert, you took the words right out of my mouth (if I was as literate and knowledgeable as you are). Thank you.
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Our support for these protest provides justification to the Iranian government to use extreme force to suppress them. It provides "proof" that the US is behind the protests. Plus it's none of our business especially given the US Police response to protests in the US. Again we are hypocrites.
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What is the practical benefit of Trump's tweet, given that he lacks any semblance of moral authority in domestic or world affairs? That certainly wasn't the case with President Obama. But if he had sent out a similar nessage in 2009, how would that have helped the protest movement? One can imagine Iranian intelligence and security forces even more aggressively going after the leaders of the reform movement, under the pretext that they were being directed by the "Great Satan," the United States. After all, just a few years earlier, the US had invaded Iran's direct neighbor and toppled its government.
Roger Cohen once again criticizes Obama's "excessive caution," but as usual he doesn't address the alternative. And as usual, neither does Trump.
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Obama and 6 other national leaders created the conditions and cause of the current protests when Iranians saw no direct benefits from the lifting of financial sanctions. Trump, in his blame of Obama, is wrong. Obama's actions directly contributed and led to the protests.
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Bravo, Mr. Cohen. You have said what had to be said and is long overdue.
Despite Trump's bone-deep ignorance, he is right on the issue of supporting the protestors. Yes, he is wrong (as usual) about other aspects of Iran's fraught relationship with America, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Dictatorial Islam will probably win this round, but it will collapse in the not-too-distant future. The question is...what comes after the mullahs?
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@ dbsweden - you are back, bra, but neither Blackmamba, today a rare Readers' Picks no. 1, nor I about 5 down agree with you.
Perhaps you could tell us who benefits from his professed support for the protesters.
Protesters in Mashad and Qam, not a chance. They are described as lower SES class and anything Trump may bring off can only hurt them more. I have a friend here in Sweden, never went to school but learned usable Swedish when UN sent him, an Iranian deserter, from a UN refugee camp in Babylon, Iraq to Sweden. He reports regularly on the situation of all the poor in his extended family. Every Trump sanction only makes the price of bread rise another step.
The Ayatollah and the Guard may benefit from Trump appearing as a friend of those who oppose him. Surely you do not want that.
As for your question, what comes after the Mullahs? If what comes after is an Iranian Trump, perhaps at least the first Ayatollah will look good. He at least championed higher education for women and, as you know, the majority of students in Iranian higher education are female.
Perhaps you can devote one of your well-written blog posts to explaining exactly what positive results can be expected from Trump's tweet(s).
for my 2018 wishes to all my comment writer friends see
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
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How does Trump feel about Americans hitting the streets? Will he turn water cannons on us even though he supports the Iranians hitting the streets? Will he arrest us? What will he do?
We Americans need to start protesting in the thousands - every day.
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Trump is as useless (and dangerous) as a clock that is stopped. We need a clock that is right for way more than 2 of the 1440 minutes of the day.
1
If Trump was really in support of the liberal cause and democratic reforms in Iran he could have better served the cause by observing silence and calm rather taking up cudgels on behalf of the protesters by instant tweets, which might provoke the hardliners to crackdown on the protesters resulting into more confusion and fear among the public.
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Roger Cohen's very clear that exactly what Obama did and the regime nonetheless slaughtered the protestors in 2009. Trump is at least saying the world cares about the Iranian people who have suffered enough.
1
C'mon, Roger. You don't think everyone knew this about Iran already? There are corrupt regimes throughout the planet on every one of its continents, including this one. That doesn't mean you can ignore them or refuse to engage them when it is in everyone's best interests to do so. Trump is no more right about Iran than any of his predecessors, so he gets no points for that and you shouldn't give him any. But he might just stumble us into a war with it and that is in no one's best interest.
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The 2009 protests were led by an educated elite that looked to open Iran to international influences. With this crowd, there are way too many calls for the restoration of the monarchy for comfort. Would such an outcome lead to less turmoil in the region? Or would it only serve to strengthen nationalistic tendencies?
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Wow. Roger likes Trump (for ten seconds) and castigates Barack Obama (and even Hillary, back-handedly) for a too-tentative attitude toward contentious foreign affairs. Will wonders never cease?
It really IS a New Year!
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Yeah, it really was kind of a silly column, wasn't it? But since it's a New Year and all, could you maybe point to where President Obama said, "Hooray for Iran?"
It may not be easy for Americans to understand, but voicing very public support for people in other lands rising up against unpopular governments is not often the wisest thing, and can be counterproductive. How does Roger Cohen know that trump's verbosity will be more effective than President Obama's reticence?
I recall that during the Hungarian uprising of 1956, the United States' vocal support emboldened the revolutionaries to expect US military intervention - which never came. So is Roger Cohen prepared to support bombing, invasion or whatever if that's what trump chooses to follow his words? If so, it's hard to follow his thought processes, since he even opposes increased sanctions. If not, he should not be encouraging trump's bluster. What's his game, just looking for a feelgood excuse to convince trump's supporters that he doesn't always oppose his actions?
If the 21st century has any lessons for America, it's that it's much easier to get into a war of choice than to get out of it.
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A thought experiment: How would it sit with us if the leader of some other nation began giving vocal support to the efforts of "The Resistance" to oppose Trump? My guess is that we would conclude that the statements make little to no practical difference, that it's up to us to be the agents of change, and that if anything the statements are counterproductive. The analogy, of course, isn't perfect, but it reinforces your point, I think.
Unlike Ike, Voice Of America, and Radio Free Europe, Trump is not promising overt military intervention, so this is a false dichotomy. Even though the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was a failure, many Hungarians managed to escape to America, Australia and other free countries.
Best of luck to the Iranian people in ridding themselves of the Ayatollahs.
1
The analogy is so wrong, and it shows how some Americans don't value the freedoms we enjoy, whether under Obama or under Trump. It also shows that you don't understand the conditions in Iran if you think they are at all similar.
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It was, to be sure, a great pity that a newly-elected President Obama didn't bring his moral authority to bear by weighing in on the demonstrations that greeted the fraudulent reelection of Ahmadinejad in 2009. The Donald, on the other hand, has no such moral authority now, partially as a consequence of how he won his own election and partially because of the combination of malignance and ignorance with which he has addressed Iran over the past 12 months. The brave folks now demonstrating in Tehran, Mashhad and so on don't need Mr. Trump cheering them on from the Peanut Gallery. The mullahs and the military, on the other hand, see him as a convenient scapegoat for the economic problems that the regime has brought on itself. Which is to say that our feckless leader may, indeed, be right about Iran this time but that's still no reason for him to tweet the kind of sentiments that could only do more harm than good.
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Liberals accused conservatives of opposing President Obama based solely on who he is, which was never true for the overwhelming majority of conservatives. President Obama was bent on advancing a progressive agenda (and he was often successful), and Republicans were resisting an agenda with which they profoundly disagreed.
However, as Mr. Freeman's comment once again demonstrates, liberals do oppose Trump based solely on who he is. Even if they agree with Trump's position, he is still wrong.
I did not vote for Donald Trump, but I can view him objectively. When he speaks or acts in a way that is repulsive, such as when he endorses an accused child molester or proposes banning all Muslims, I can condemn him. However, when he speaks or acts in a manner consistent with my values, such as when he bombs the Syrian butchers or stands behind protestors yearning to be free, he receives my praise.
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@Charles: It would, admittedly, be very easy for me to oppose The Donald simply because he's a racist, sexist, xenophobic, self-aggrandizing, opportunistic, unethical liar (which, alas, is "who he is"). On the other hand, I've explained here why his support of Iranian demonstrators would actually be counterproductive. All he's doing now is playing to the crowd (i.e., his base). If he really had the best interests of those demonstrators at heart he'd hold his tongue- or rather his twitter finger.
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I cannot agree with the author. Trump's actions may provide the autocrats in Iran the arguments they need to tell their people that these protests are directed by Trump and his allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Trump has shown much disregard for democracy and the well-being of the people to be listened to when democracy and human rights are at stake.
The Europeans are in better position to support democracy and human rights in Iran.
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Our silence has not supported human rights in Iran. Gay rights, womens rights, religious rights, civil rights, are non-existent despite Obama's ostrich head in the sand approach.
The Ayatollahs can claim that the protests are being directed by the Great Satan and the Little Satan, but the Iranian (Persian) people are not stupid.
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Trump has absolutely no concern for those protesting the Iranian government. He is so ignorant about Iran and the rest of the world that his bellicose statement today on Twitter could be counterproductive as the Iranian government cracks down even more harshly.
Instead, he takes a shot at Obama policies on Iran, including the nuclear deal which is the best possible policy option to prevent a nuclear Iran with international supervision.
Let’s see, where have we gone down this road before backing “freedom fighters” as a pretext for war?
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It plays well with the bumpkins who gave Trump the majority of electoral votes, which has little to do with the opinions of the majority of voters in this sadly and poorly governed land.
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Your correct! Trump's only concern is Mullahs don't mix well with Nukes, and that's a good enough reason for me.
Obama lit the nuclear fire for Iran. That showed utter lack of understanding of the Ayatollahs. While you may not like Trump, he understands the Ayatollahs and the Persian people a lot better than Obama did.
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Fair points. The Iranian people, protesting in the streets, an dying from the abusive Revolutionary Guards, need our support. But not the 'shoot from the hip' capricious bombastic big-mouth Trump assertions, used only for his self-congratulatory nonsense and to inflame the very people that agreed to obey the nuclear agreement. Crooked lying is the absolutely worst emissary to support them, as he lost all credibility eons ago.
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Trump condemns peaceful protests in America by black athletes and activists while praising violent Neo-Nazi Confederate Ku Klux Klan white supremacists in Charlottesville and elsewhere. Trump is wrong as usual.
Unlike Russia and Israel, Iran did not interfere in the last American Presidential campaign and election.
Unlike Iran, neither Russia nor Israel allow every one under their dominion to vote in national elections.
Unlike Saudi Arabia, Iran has elections and is not home to the roots of al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and 15 of the 9/11/01 hijackers.
Unlike America, Iran does not have 25% of the worlds prisoners with only 5% of humanity.
Unlike America, Iran has never engineered a coup against a democratic American leader, installed a tyrant in American power, encouraged a tyrant to make war on America, shot down a civilian American plane and engaged in cyber, drone and murder war against America.
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Amen! I had the unavoidable displeasure of visiting Iran during the days of the Shah. The only enjoyable and relaxed part of that visit was the moment when the plane out left Iranian airspace. i say the same about a business visit to Nigeria.
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Let me refresh your memory of how bad our relations with Iran have been over the years, Black Mamba. In 1979 Iranian militants seized our embassy and held our staff hostage until the coup of 1980 when tough guy Ronald Reagan defeated a weakened Jimmy Carter for president. Didn't you think it was a bit odd that the hostages were released five minutes after Reagan was sworn in? Coincidence? No way. During the 1980's Iran blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon killing over 200 marines. We got the message, surrendered to Iran, and got out of Lebanon. Let's not forget the Iran-Contra nightmare where we sold our lethal technology to Iran.
Iran is not the Disneyland of the Middle East.
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This comment perfectly exemplifies why I no longer consider myself a Democrat.
From Human Rights Watch: "Under Iranian law, many nonviolent crimes, such as “insulting the Prophet,” apostasy, same-sex relations, adultery, and drug-related offenses, are punishable by death."
Many on the left seem to have lost all perspective. It's as is the President criticizing protesters is the equivalent of executing them.
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yeah, yeah, we have heard it before. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan are all blooming democracy. Some people never learn.
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Roger Cohen gives Trump far too much credit - the man is an ignoramus, who bumbles his way through the world. HIs "instinct" to support the Iranian protestors would evaporate overnight if the Ayatollahs were overthrown and replaced by a democratic government that did not, say, kowtow immediately to Israel and the US. Let's not forget that the vast majority of Iranians support Iran's nuclear program and its right to generate nuclear power - something that the Trump WH would never allow, given its preferences. The situation in Iran now is complex. It's been evident now for decades that the Iranian theocratic state would, eventually, run its course. Iran is one of the youngest states in the region with much of its population coming of age in a brutal regime that has, ironically, delegitimized the religion itself. The Iranian Gorbachev is among those protestors today. But the question that must be considered is that the West, and the US in particular, have done a great deal to strengthen the regime and stretch out the conflict with Iran through the West's own stupidity and intransigence. This happened during the Cold War, too. I remember when the Bush WH refused to talk to the Iranians because it believed it could soon launch a war against Iran. The US has done a lot to make this problem in the first place - as it has messed up every situation it has been involved with in the Middle East.
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"Let's not forget that the vast majority of Iranians support Iran's nuclear program and its right to generate nuclear power"
Under the OBAMA deal US inspectors are not allowed to inspect if the nuclear program is being used for energy or weapons. The government that chants Death to America should not be allowed to have nuclear reactors without US inspections.
President Trump would most definitely allow even help with a US inspected clean energy program in a friendly environment, even Israel would help. Under a friendly government the Persians would probably choose solar fields over a nuke program seeing how Iran is prone to earthquakes.
Roger, you have made an unforgivable mistake. A Trump tweet does not arise from knowledge and analysis of a situation as you yourself write in that most telling paragraph containing this truth: "...even if his support of the Iranian people is grotesque..."
Do you think that any Iranian protester is grateful for support from the man whose only commitment as concerns Iran is to end the 5 + 1 agreement?
What if the Saudi people were to begin to demonstrate against a regime that allied with the United States rains down terror on the people of Yemen? Would Donald Trump be writing "Saudi govt should respect their people's rights, including right to express themselves.?
You know the answer.
Donald Trump has no interest in the Iranian people and not much in his own people of the same classes said to be demonstrating in Mashad and Qum.
Retweeting is a dangerous thing, Roger. As LE says in the only comment showing, "positive tweeting hypocrisy meeting with Trump are such unlikely kin.
Cohen credibility collapses.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
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@ Lundgren
Let me add something:
Mr. Trump is no dump. In his zero sum world he is interested to weaken Iran who is seen as a real enemy by him and he focussed to end the nuclear treaty to take further action.
The domestic riots in Iran are an (additional) inner weakening of this country becauses this raises the pressure on the hated government and on the economy of this country. In hawkish strategic games advocated by Mr. Trump this is a welcomed effect and exactly because of this it´s completely logical that he is in favor to support this movement. This destabilizing of Iran is the only reason, nothing else.
In fact this is an hostile act in the eyes of Iranian offials searching for a higher grade of defense requirement against US. Because of Mr. Trumos announcement of his will to cancel to treaty this puts puts Iranian government in the "Kim´s squeeze".It´s the next step to endanger the nuclear treaty Mr. Trump and his friends want to shake off. From this point it makes sense.
Mr. Obama´s government was fully aware of this - in times when US had still an intact and smooth working Foreign Service - and did not fuel movements that had no positive outlook for a stable development in Iran. This was strongly supported by Europeans who have better insights in domestic situations of Iran. Ms Clinton disagreed as she is known as more hawkish - like Mr,.Trump is now.
Mr. Cohen seems not to understand this situation in any regard.
This is extremely disappointing.
That a stopped clock is right twice a day is not noteworthy. That Mr. Emoluments is a deranged, depraved narcissist who fixates on the size his hands, & his "more powerful" nuclear button should bring the 25th amendment into focus.
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@ Sauerbrey:
This is one of the examples that shows why you are riding a complete wrong horse in your Op-Ed.
On one side of the scale: Trump’s tweet. On the other side: Trump cutting the legs out from moderates and reformists like Rouhani who staked their political capital on the nuclear deal by constantly threatening to renege.
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Yes, he is right. However, it's all about blaming Obama. Nothing more, nothing less. HE has no skin in this game, or any other. Besides, tomorrow's another day, and time to change his "mind". Wait for it.
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do you really expect that obama should have gone to war with iran? should have ferried in the marines? should have sneaked in weapons?? what precisely was his failure? the agreement to end their nuclear weapons program? when it comes to aggression in the middle east you seem to see things far too much through eyes that approximate netanyahu's--an unsettling comparison for an otherwise insightful columnist.
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I totally agree with the fundamental point of this column, but squirm uncomfortably at the understated comment: "even if his talk of Iranian “human rights” sounds hollow ..." It sounds more than hollow. Trump does not favor human rights in his own country if it applies to the poor or people of color, nor does he favor free speech if it should disagree with his royal edicts.
His appearance of supporting free speech and human rights in Iran, simply because it provides backing for one of his loudmouth campaign issues, is Trump hypocrisy at its best.
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"In Tehran, then, the silence of the Obama White House was deafening: too little, too late. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed regret over this in 2014. Excessive caution was the mother of the Obama administration’s worst failures, not least in Syria."
"Trump has been right to get behind the brave Iranian protesters calling for political and economic change."
"Trump’s White House should keep up the pressure. It should bring European allies in behind its condemnation and warnings. It should stop berating the nuclear deal, which gave Iranians hope and deprives the regime of a convenient scapegoat (it could always say times were hard because of Western sanctions)."
The deal is flawed and bad, but as Mr. Cohen correctly points out, this is not the time to harp on that.
"It should not, whatever happens, impose new sanctions: They only benefit the Revolutionary Guards."
In any case it is necessary to see how all this plays out.
"sophisticated society of deep culture full of unrealized promise better served by engagement than estrangement."
That is correct, but not (!!) the Iran of the Revolutionary Guards and the ayatollahs:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/20/kamin-mohammadi-top-10-ira...
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I agree that Trump is right on Iran. He is wrong on many other things, but the struggle for freedom, by the Iranian people, is anything but “fake news”.
While the US has grappled through all of the Trump presidency, about our own nationalist squabbles, the world has carried on without us. The struggle in Iran, is one worthy of our attention, as well freedom loving people around the world.
Now, will someone tell our president to quit squabbling with the press and North Korea, and continue to act like the leader of the free world, before either North Korea or the US blows it up?
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The US condemning Iran's behavior is about as useful as a Presidential candidate getting the endorsement of the KKK. The only result will be to give the Iranian conservatives a chance to blame protests on the Great Satan and to cause moderate Iranians to have second thoughts about supporting the protests. The US is Public Enemy Number 1 in Teheran for both good and bad reasons, so even if Trump were not already seen as a buffoon by world leaders the US would still have no positive influence on the Iranian public.
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To continue one must have started in the first place.
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In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.
~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
Let Iran find it's own way. It doesn't belong to America.
We've meddled in the foreign affairs of so many other countries, over the course of our nation's history, and usually with pretty lousy results.
Let's resolve to let the Iranians the right of self-determination. Just as we would want for our own citizens.
Let's allow them the option of peaceful protest, or direct altercation with their government, should that be their choice Our leadership should not be advocating any particular course of action, and should stay out of the next mid-east mess.
President Trump, stop tweeting, and allow Iran to choose it's own way forward. We've grown tired of your thoughtless twitter ramblings, and it's time for you to stop.
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"Excessive caution was the mother of the Obama administration’s worst failures...."
I don't know about you, but when it comes to spending the blood of our youth and the treasure of our land, I find excessive caution to be an admirable quality in a President.
Obama's caution followed close on the heels of the disastrous Iraq war (4300 American lives); ongoing war in Afghanistan (2300 and counting); hundreds of thousands of civilian war dead; and trillions of dollars drained from America's threadbare pockets as a greedy Pentagon keeps asking for more, and more, and more.
Maybe Obama, like me, found sense in the tenets of the Powell doctrine:
-Is a vital national security interest threatened?
-Do we have a clear attainable objective?
-Have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed?
-Have all other non-violent policy means been fully exhausted?
-IS THERE A PLAUSIBLE EXIT STRATEGY TO AVOID ENDLESS ENTANGLEMENT?
-Have the consequences of our action been fully considered?
-Is the action supported by the American people?
-Do we have genuine broad international support?
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Doctrine)
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@Laura Benton
I agree with you on most everything except Colin Powell and his misleading the World with his speech at the UN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErlDSJHRVMA (not the original but will suffice) and the push to war w/Iraq by the entire Bush administration and the Congress. Yes, I include you Democrats, you all failed us. Except for a few brave Congress people including Barbara Lee from Oakland, CA who opposed it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Resolution.
Colin Powell, Cheney, the Defense Sec (luckily I forgot his name) and his numerous neo-con underlings who sold the war to to the compliant media, messed up the the war and postwar management. They should all quietly go away. George W. should be ashamed as did his father who instigated (alleged/rumored) the first Iraq war but excellently suppressed the truth. The U.S. Ambassador to Iraq (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Glaspie) blurted out the truth but was silenced and probably retired. After all Saddam was our "man" till he wasn't and paid the price.
Its no wonder Kim whathisname learned that lesson, he's not giving up his nukes, no matter what. But we Americans have a goldfish memory. So its a potential war with Iran.
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Too bad Powell didn't follow his own doctrine when he was Sec. of State
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From the President's tweeted condemnation of the Iranian regime, the prospect of some follow-on political wisdom is hardly likely. We have 70+ years of Trumpian history to shape our expectations. There has been nary a hint of wisdom yet.
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Thank you, Mr Cohen. You are thoughtful, insightful and compassionate as ever. And thank you for writing so beautifully. And you are right: sanctions only hurt the people and the nuclear deal should be honored.
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...and therefore Mr. Cohen is completely wrong. There is no value to the US commenting on the internal conflicts in Iran's quasi-democracy, a country with whom we have a hostile relationship and which deeply distrusts and dislikes the American government. Add in the fact that no world leader at this point sees Trump as anything other than a spoiled brat in President's clothing that is best mollified and otherwise ignored, and it should be clear that Trump's vapid tweets are not likely to influence events in Iran at all.
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Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump may be "right, this time." But let us not be fooled that the bottom line has absolutely nothing to do with compassion for the people of this oppressed Middle Eastern nation. On the contrary, we should be aware that there is instead an alternative motive. I would put my money on the Iran Nuclear Deal. He will find and use any reason to extricate the US from it, even as it gives a green-light to North Korea's goals.
I shudder when any credit of common decency is given to this man. Have we learned nothing after an angst-ridden year based on his relentless lies, spins, thuggery, and blatant bigotry? No, he cares nothing for these people and their human rights. He doesn't even care for his own citizens' welfare, white, Christian ones included.
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And even a broken clock is right twice a day.
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Whether Mr Cohen agrees with trump is another story, but in other resources, most of the commenters are very skeptical of trumps emarks, considering his itchy fingers
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“It should stop berating the nuclear deal, which gave Iranians hope and deprives the regime of a convenient scapegoat (it could always say times were hard because of Western sanctions).”
Clearly, you are not well-verses in Trump logic. I expect, to support protestors, Trump will announce the US is withdrawing from the nuclear deal. Maybe ask Congress for budget amendment for “More nukes. Big, beautiful, nukes.”
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The proximate cause of this uprising is Obama's lifting of sanctions on Iran and the return of their assets. Once Obama lifted sanctions and returned Iran's money the Iranian leaders could no longer continue to blame their people's economic suffering on The United States. Now, those same leaders are being held responsible for failing to deliver on their promises. It is the failure of authoritarian regimes that is the story here, nothing more.
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So then how do you explain the uprising in 2009?
That's a non-sequitur Charles. Two different uprisings can have two different sources. Further, this uprising has different demographics and started in a different part of Iran.
T'would be a boon to let them in
Being Moslems is a mortal sin,
So positive tweeting
Hypocrisy meeting
With Trump are such unlikely kin.
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