Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me twenty times, I’m a Democrat.
Iran Playing Biden for a Dolt.
By Chuck Warren
The Islamic Republic of Iran detained a fourth American on bogus charges as there are ongoing talks with the Biden administration to release American hostages in Iran. This came days after Iran seized an oil tanker, itself one day after it failed to seize two other oil tankers.
The Biden administration’s only response to Iran’s pressure is working with the media to keep the news from going viral and giving Iran money.
Reports suggest that the Biden administration and Iran have been negotiating for a $24 billion package of Iranian frozen assets to be released in exchange for minimal nuclear concessions by Iran and the release of American prisoners. Already, the United States has released nearly $3 billion of the money. This is on top of Biden’s refusal to enforce some of the sanctions on Iran’s oil exports. And the more the United States makes concessions to show goodwill, the more aggressive Iran becomes.
Complicating the matter more is the case of Biden’s special envoy for Iran policy, Robert Malley. He is a figure notoriously accommodating to Iran with a concerning background, such as unauthorized meetings with Hamas terrorists which got him fired from Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign—until he was hired in the administration. Earlier this month, Axios reported that Malley had been put on leave. It turns out that he is under FBI investigation with his security clearance suspended. The Biden administration is yet to give further explanations, but it has since announced Malley’s deputy as his replacement. But one must wonder, since Malley conceived the administration’s Iran policy, and if he is an untrustworthy person, is it not time to reconsider?
The administration’s answer is “no.” If anything, it has doubled down on Malley’s policy by continuing the talks with Iran and offering cash for hostages.
Biden needs to look at where Iran was when he took office and where it is now to change course. The result of his appeasement has been an Iran that is only weeks or months, depending on whom you ask, away from a nuclear weapon, more American hostages, and more attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. It is also worth mentioning the fourth unfortunate outcome: The Iranian people, once one of the most pro-America populations in the Middle East, now are turning against the United States for Biden’s appeasement of their tyrants.
Iran’s appetite for money has no end, but also, its fear of American power—if Biden ever decides to use it—has no end either. After the U.S. military killed the notoriously evil General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq under Donald Trump’s order, Iran caved for the rest of Trump’s term. Soleimani’s replacement did not leave Iran until Trump had left office fearing for his life. There was no retaliation. Why Biden is scared to pressure such a weak enemy has no explanation.
But Biden is not the only guilty party here. Americans who travel to Iran are guilty too. The Islamic Republic debuted on the world stage in 1979 by taking American diplomats’ hostage for 444 days—releasing them on the day of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration. Since then, it has continued to take foreigners hostage and ask for cash to release them. The blame also goes to those who continue to travel to Iran, despite the obvious risks, leaving the burden of being released to their countrymen and U.S. taxpayers.
What those careless Americans and Biden have in common is a lack of appreciation for the depth of evil that consumes the regime in Iran. Those average Americans traveling to Iran believe that this is all politics, and being apolitical, innocent bystanders makes them immune to the regime’s evil. Biden shares the same naïveté in thinking that giving Iran cash will make them leave Americans alone—instead of using that money to harm us even more.
Biden’s old boss, Obama, also shared this view. He pursued a nuclear deal with Iran partially because he believed that elevating Iran and relief of sanctions would make the Islamic Republic more responsible internationally—as George Orwell said, ‘some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals can believe them.” In this pursuit, he ignored everything Iran was doing to harm the United States, from fighting a proxy war with the United States in Syria to supporting drug cartels in Mexico.
Folks, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me twenty times, I’m a Democrat.
Iran’s Islamists have fooled every Democratic administration and president, beginning with Jimmy Carter who believed that Ruhollah Khomeini was a freedom-loving democrat at heart. They have also fooled them by making them believe that the Islamic Republic is a 20-foot giant that can’t be antagonized, despite all the contrary evidence. At every turn, their policies have backfired, yet, they insist on doing the same thing. Some people never learn.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Chuck Warren only and not his co-host Sam Stone or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.