Why Trump’s Patient Strategy in Iran Shows a Discipline and Intelligence the Failing Legacy Media Can’t Acknowledge
An Iran without the Ayatollahs. This idea is almost unimaginable to most Americans, as well as most around the world. The brutal and repressive Iranian regime has run the country with an iron fist for nearly 6 decades, and most of the terrorism in the Middle East over that period of time has had Iran’s fingerprints all over it. The Ayatollahs have financed and supported Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and many other violent groups in the Middle East for years. Iran has also been a thorn in the side of the US, with every President ranging from Carter to Trump facing some challenge from this regime.
The situation on the ground in Iran finally looks untenable, and the Iranian government appears about to fall. Inflation is rampant, gas lines are long, and the respect for the government, even within most corridors of the country, is gone. When the US destroyed most of Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran did not respond with any substantive action, the government looked weak. The years of sanctions imposed on Iran by the US and most of the West have also crippled the country’s economy, which can no longer be supported by oil money, since energy prices have fallen significantly over the last year.
The Iranian government is cornered largely because of how Trump, even going back to his first term, was able to effectively enforce the sanctions to cripple the Iranian government. Joe Biden stopped enforcing the sanctions against Iran, which, along with higher oil prices, enabled the regime to survive longer, but Trump has reversed that policy since coming in, and the results are showing. The Iranian government looks weak and incompetent, because that’s exactly what the regime is.
Still, what Trump deserves more credit for, although he won’t get any praise from the corrupt and obviously failing legacy media, is his deft approach. If the President bombs Iran too early, the country’s regime will be able to portray the Iranian people’s revolution as one being controlled by the West, and the Ayatollahs may be able to discredit the attempted revolution. What Trump is doing, instead, is voicing his support for its people, making sure they have access to information and the internet, while also making clear that if Iran’s government becomes excessively violent, there are red lines that would lead to American military intervention.
As was seen with Trump’s action against Iran’s nuclear program, the President has real red lines, not fake ones, as Obama did. If the US intervenes in Iran only after the regime uses excessive violence, then American military action won’t be able to be portrayed as coopting the Iranian people’s revolution, but if the United States takes action too early, the Iranian regime may be able to portray an Iranian revolution as a foreign-controlled movement. Trump’s approach in Iran is what America First is about, peace through strength and the use of both soft and more narrowly tailored hard power. The President’s strategy is skillful and disciplined, and this approach is also likely to get the results that previous US leaders could only dream of
