The Blogs: Mr. President, Iran Is Not Venezuela: Think Again!

Looking back at the foreign policy of your first term, one could argue that you had only two genuine successes: the elimination of two Islamic terrorists, Qassem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Unfortunately, you became so intoxicated, infatuated, and utterly consumed by the prospect of striking an agreement with the Shiite mullahs that you seemed determined to present it to the Democrats as proof that your JCPOA 2.0 was superior to Obama’s. Yet, behind closed doors, you knew perfectly well that the mullahs’ regime in Tehran was savage, belligerent, vicious, and criminal. And the Iranian people thanked you for humiliating that very regime.

During your second presidential term, the Iranian nation owes you a debt of gratitude for one particular act: you stood alongside Israel and removed Iran’s bloodthirsty, notorious, and disgraced dictator, Ali Khamenei. As an Iranian living in the United States, I have personally endured considerable hardships under both of your administrations—experiences that were inhumane, morally indefensible, and fundamentally at odds with American civilization and the values upon which America prides itself. There is no need to recount those experiences here. Nevertheless, for this particular act, I remain grateful to you.

Unfortunately, however, you have disregarded the will and aspirations of the Iranian nation, remaining captivated by the pursuit of something that has so far eluded you: a commemorative photograph with a savage mullah. You have demonstrated no firm political determination to bring about regime change in Iran, nor have you shown any willingness to stand among those historic leaders whose names became inseparable from the defeat of Nazism, apartheid, and communism. You, too, have an opportunity to inscribe your name with distinction in the annals of history through the destruction of Islamic terrorism. Yet that opportunity demands something far greater than the pursuit of another agreement with the very rulers whose continued existence stands at the center of the Iranian nation’s struggle.

Let me speak to you plainly and frankly, Mr. President, because the Shiite mullahs have already read your hand and understood the limits of your determination. You interfered with Israel’s efforts to dismantle the remaining layers of the Islamic Republic and eliminate the criminals who continue to operate within its structure. Then, at the very height of the Iranian nation’s national uprising, you suddenly inserted yourself into the confrontation, urging the people to go home with the assurance that help was on the way. Yet, rather than respecting the will, aspirations, and immediate needs of those who had risen against their rulers, you began speaking of negotiations and the survival of the Iranian outlaw regime. In doing so, you threw a lifeline to a regime already sinking beneath the weight of its own disgrace and isolation, offering it another chance to survive at the very moment when the Iranian people were demanding its end.

You committed thousands upon millions, of dollars belonging to the American people to this war. Yet the fundamental question remains unanswered: what purpose can such enormous expenditure serve when it is not accompanied by a firm determination to bring about regime change? What lasting benefit can possibly emerge from a military confrontation if the political will to complete its objective is absent, and if the very regime against which those resources were deployed is ultimately permitted to survive?

Meanwhile, you have allowed the Islamic Republic’s notorious lobbying networks to continue operating inside the United States, while media outlets under the influence of Tehran’s propaganda machinery in Washington (VOICE OF AMERICA) and Los Angeles (Chanel One and etc) remain free to defend Islamic terrorism. What makes this failure even more consequential is that, over the past ten months, you have squandered the precious time of the Iranian nation, only to find yourself pursuing yet another political formula—this time, an attempt to prescribe the Venezuelan model for Iran. But Iran is not Venezuela, Mr. President, and the failure to understand that distinction reveals a far deeper problem: a failure to comprehend the history, identity, political consciousness, and aspirations of the Iranian people.

Do you understand that the Iranian nation possesses 7,700 years of history and civilization? Do you recognize that, as the president of a country whose democratic history extends back no more than 250 years, you cannot presume to determine the political destiny of ninety million human beings who are angry, outraged, freedom-loving, impoverished, exhausted, and oppressed?

By what historical authority could you claim the right to decide who should govern them, who should represent them, or whom they should recognize as their leader? No one has granted you such authority, and no foreign president has the right to manufacture a leader for a nation whose people have already raised their own voices.

The man whose name so many Iranians have been calling is Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the living symbol of Iran’s monarchy and the heir to a royal legacy deeply rooted in the nation’s modern history. Have you ever seriously studied that history, Mr. President, or understood what the Pahlavi name represents to those Iranians who continue to invoke it?

He is only a few miles away from you, close enough for you to meet him face to face, once again. Yet you have failed to recognize the voices of the Iranian people who call upon him, while allowing yourself to be deceived by the very regime they are struggling to overthrow. Iran is not a political vacuum in which Washington may manufacture a leader, nor is its national identity something that can be rewritten according to the calculations of a foreign administration.

You would therefore be wise to abandon the Venezuelan prescription and listen to the demands and aspirations of the Iranian nation. If you refuse to hear that voice, let me warn you now of the consequences I fear: Iran could descend into civil war, while the same Islamic terrorists entrenched in the basements of its mosques could drag the country into domestic unrest, violence, and a profound national crisis. You must acknowledge that your work remains unfinished, and that attempting to replicate your Venezuelan policy in Iran would be a grave historical mistake. A policy that disregards the will of the Iranian people, misunderstands the nature of their struggle, and seeks to impose an artificial political arrangement upon them cannot leave behind the honorable legacy you might wish history to remember.

Regrettably, the White House appears to lack precisely this historical understanding. Had Washington acted rationally in 1979, it would neither have abandoned its loyal friend, His Majesty Mohammad Reza Pahlavi—whose birthday anniversary we commemorate today—nor would the world have witnessed the birth of Islamic terrorism and the establishment of the Shiite mullahs’ Islamic Caliphate in Iran.

Here lies the enduring failure of American policy: even after nearly half a century, Washington remains unwilling to acknowledge that it understands neither Islamic terrorism nor the political character of the Shiite mullahs. Until that failure of understanding is confronted, America will continue wandering through a barren political wilderness, searching for a distant glimmer of hope in negotiations with a handful of Islamic criminals and gang of terrorists.

The tragedy would be not merely that America misunderstood Iran once again, but that, having failed to learn from the catastrophe of 1979, it might repeat its historical mistake by sacrificing the aspirations of an ancient nation for the illusion of another agreement. And if you insist on applying the Venezuelan model to Iran, Mr. President, history may remember you not for completing the struggle against Islamic terrorism, but for leaving that struggle unfinished and misunderstanding the very nation whose future you presumed to shape.

Mr. President! Just finish the job—and stand on the right side of history. During the Cold War, you Americans used to say, “The only good communist is a dead communist.” And Iranians say, “The only good mullah is a dead mullah.” Period!