Trump Backed Down From Threats To Strike Iran |
There was a discernible disconnect between US President Donald Trump’s fiery rhetoric to intervene in Iran’s anti-government protests and his failure to act on his threats.
According to Iran Human Rights, at least 3,428 Iranian protesters were killed and thousands were injured during the nation-wide demonstrations. Convulsing the country for about two weeks from December 28 onward, they were brutally quelled a few days ago.
The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported that 2,500 were killed during the protests, the most serious internal challenge to face Iran since the formation of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Still other Iranian exiles claimed that the death toll is actually much higher.
Accurate figures are hard to come by due to the internet blackout imposed by the regime.
As Iran’s crackdown proceeded, Trump threatened to come to the aid of the protesters. They were enraged by the catastrophic increase in the cost of living, the dramatic fall in value of the national currency, and the rigidly theocratic and authoritarian nature of the regime.
On January 2, Trump said he was ready to intervene if security forces continued firing on protesters. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he wrote in a social media post.
Buoyed by his comment, Iran’s exiled crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, whose name was chanted by some demonstrators, urged Trump to make good on his pledge to intervene. In what was perhaps a naive comment, he suggested that Trump was “a man of his word.”
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters that Trump was “unafraid to use military force,” though she noted that diplomacy remained his “first option.”
“Airstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander-in-chief,” she went open to say. “He’s made it quite clear he certainly doesn’t want to see people being killed in the streets of Tehran,........