Donald Trump is still trying to play the tough guy all over the world, and it’s not working. The Iranian regime is an enemy of democracy and freedom. Iran has been a bad actor sponsoring terrorism for decades. The world would be a safer place if the regime were replaced with a form of government that reflected the will of the Iranian people.
All this said, Donald Trump’s handling of Iran so far makes Bush’s run-up to the invasion of Iraq look like a masterclass in military strategy.
Instead of doing anything as protesters were being killed by the thousands in January, Trump claimed the killing had stopped and began making threats in February.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency says at least 7,015 people have been killed in the previous protests and crackdown, including 214 government troops. The group has been accurate in counting deaths during previous rounds of unrest in Iran and relies on a network of activists there to verify the deaths.
The death toll continues to rise as the group controls information, despite disrupted communications with those within the Islamic Republic.
The Iranian government announced the only death toll from the previous protests on January 21, saying 3,117 people were killed. The Iranian theocracy has a history of underestimating or not reporting fatalities from past unrest.
The time for the government to act was in January, before the regime’s crackdown.
It turns out that Trump withdrew a month later.
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