After the “Islamic Revolution” in 1979, that all changed.

Sharia-observant leaders stripped women of all rights, including what to wear, weren’t allow to drive, were denied education, and in too many cases, being forced to marry crusty old men while at the ripe old age of six, and could be stoned to death for a variety of “misdeeds”.

The barbarism that became Iran was accepted, condoned or conveniently ignored.

“When we say our women should enter the community, we should have provided them with a very safe work and social environment. Stoning is a very important restraining law to protect the marriage contract of families.”
— Secretary of High Council for Human Rights Mohammad Javad Larijani, 1/14/23

According to that piece, their “judiciary placed a moratorium on stoning in 2002 and it was replaced by the death penalty more than a decade ago.”

Remember that when you hear ignorant young people, mummified activists like Jane Fonda and deranged blabbermouths like Tucker Carlson express horror about the freeing of a nation and demand things go back as they were because life in Iran was just peachy!

Democrats Erupt Over Trump’s Iran Strikes
Rep. Ilhan Omar spreads false claim about America attacking Muslims during Ramadan
Tucker Carlson Denounces Trump’s Iran Attack as ‘Absolutely Disgusting and Evil’
Nonprofits Began Mobilizing Anti-War Protests 10 Minutes Before Trump Announced Strikes

“Right now we are witnessing the horror of an unnecessary, unprovoked war of choice, waged by the Trump administration. This dangerous and insane war against Iran not only violates international law and our constitution and War Powers Act, but risks exploding into a vast war of mass proportion, taking the lives of many, including U.S. service people.”
— Jane Fonda, Los Angeles, 2/28/26

Leave aside the fact that Democrats didn’t say shit when then-President Barack Obama conducted military operations in Libya, drone and airstrikes in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia al-Qaeda and affiliated groups, and airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria without congressional approval; Democrats didn’t say shit when then-President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, and airstrikes in Iraq and Syria without congressional authorization. Many soldiers were killed and injured on their watches and they stopped keeping count.

During this latest turn of events, even our media had to reluctantly report that unarmed “peaceful protesters” were being mowed down by the regime.

More than 7,000 dead in Iran’s crackdown on protests, activists say
Iran Protest Death Toll Could Top 30,000, According to Local Health Officials
Over 36,500 killed in Iran’s deadliest massacre, documents reveal

Now RINOs, Democrats and the new Supreme Leader are complaining about Donald Trump‘s strikes to end Iran‘s attacks on the United States and the world.

Because they know what’s best for the Iranian people.

MAGA rebels Massie and MTG echo sentiments by prominent Democrats including House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer

Those “Republicans” are calling the Trump strikes “America Last” but if you were to go back and count, “Death to America” appears to have been winning. It’s the kind of thinking that allowed Iran’s proxies to actually target and kill Americans for decades.

A lot of Americans….

William Cohen, lawyer, author, and politician; Les Aspin, politician and economist,, William Perry, academic and businessman, none of whom had any military experience, were the Secretaries of Defense during President Bill Clinton’s terms. Donald Rumsfeld, who had no military experience, was the Secretary of Defense during President George W. Bush’s terms.

1983: Beirut barracks bombing: Hezbollah operatives killed 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service members in a truck bombing of a Marine compound.

I think it could be argued had Donald Trump been president at this time, the Beirut bombing alone would be all it took for him to finish off the Iranian regime and all that follows may never have occurred.

1983, 1984: U.S. Embassy bombings in Beirut and Kuwait: Iran-backed militants attacked diplomatic facilities, killing Americans.

June 1996: A truck carrying 5,000 pounds of explosives blows up the Khobar Towers, a U.S. Air Force housing complex in the Saudi Arabian town of Khobar. Nineteen Americans die and some 500 people are injured. The Iran-backed Hezbollah Al Hijaz, a terrorist group in Saudi Arabia, is deemed responsible.

August 1998: With the assistance of Hezbollah, al Qaeda suicide bombers almost simultaneously blow up the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounding thousands. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, al Qaeda developed “the tactical expertise for such attacks months earlier, when some of its operatives — top military committee members and several operatives who were involved with the Kenya cell among them — were sent to Hezbollah training camps in Lebanon.”

September 11, 2001: While the 9/11 Commission Report concludes that Iran had no foreknowledge of al Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center, the report indicates that Tehran facilitated the travel of some of the terrorists. “In sum,” the report notes, “there is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.”

2003-2011: Iranian-backed militias kill at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. Iranian training and material support for Iraqi militias during the surge greatly increased the difficulty of U.S. forces to combat the insurgency and included some of the deadliest weapons used against American troops, including explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Ash Carter, an academic with no military experience, was the Secretary of Defense and was followed by former Air Force officer/CIA analyst and university president Robert Gates during President Barack Obama’s terms.

2003–2011 Iraq War: Iranian-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops, using advanced weapons like explosively formed penetrators (EFPs).

There were no direct Iranian attacks against Americans during President Donald Trump’s first term.

January 2020: Iran directed a ballistic missile strike on Ain al-Asad Airbase in Iraq, causing traumatic brain injuries in over 100 U.S. troops.

October 7, 2023: Hamas kills at least 48 Americans and kidnaps at least 12 Americans in a massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel.

October 2023–2024: Over 216 attacks by Iran-backed militias targeted U.S. bases in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, involving drones, rockets, and missiles.

January 28, 2024: A drone attack on Tower 22 in Jordan killed 3 U.S. soldiers and injured 47.

June 23, 2025: Iran launched 14 ballistic missiles at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in retaliation for U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites; one communications dome was hit, but no casualties were reported.

For time, I left out smaller attacks but it didn’t take long for Iran’s remaining leaders to take advantage of the cover and defense from American leftists….

Iranian Ayatollah Arafi Is Appointed Supreme Leader After Khamenei’s Death – Led Chants of “Death to America!” During His Sermon

Like the Mossad doesn’t already know where Arafi rests his head at night.

There was little outrage by Democrats when prior to leaving office, President Obama authorized the unfreezing of Iranian assets and gave them pallets of cash, even while knowing that money would pay for future terrorism operations all around the world.

The Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash (consisting of Swiss francs, euros, and other foreign currencies) to Iran. The money was owed as part of a failed arms deal prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but payment coincided with the release of four Americans held in Tehran.
— PBS, 8/4/16

We were always assured by Democrat presidents that the United States didn’t negotiate with terrorists for the release of hostages and then went right ahead and did so. Definition of insanity, anyone?

The Iranian people were subjugated by a regime that was never democratically elected and seized power at the onset of what was called the “Iranian hostage crisis” in 1979 where the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over and Americans were held hostage for over 400 days.

Many Iranians fled to countries like the United States to escape the strict imposition of Sharia tyranny. It’s past ironic that so many of those today who’ve taken to American city streets to protest Operation Epic Fury, a military action taken by President Trump because the regime continued trying to produce weapons-grade nuclear materials and again denied access to their facilities to United Nations observers. The TDS-afflicted were quick to condemn an operation they deemed unnecessary because they’ve never had to survive under those barbaric conditions for over a generation.

But they know what’s best for the Iranian people.

Not even a full twenty-four hours after the joint military action by the Israel and the United States had happened, the usual Trump-haters in the media just had to piss on the long overdue elimination of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his generals….

…
Washington Post Touts Khamenei as Man With an ‘Easy Smile’ and Love of ‘Poetry’

What’s really got leftist heads exploding are Iranians on the ground waving Israeli and American flags, praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and actually likening President Donald Trump to… wait for it….

“Every Iranian is celebrating the powerful actions of #DonaldTrump. He’s like Jesus for us. He’s a savior of the Iranian people. We will always be grateful to him.”
— @ariel_oseran, 2/28/26

“I have been singing, screaming, celebrating with my people,” Iranian-American journalist says.

Despite Iranian journalists who work for American news companies celebrating the long-awaited liberation, we’re now being told to be cautious as pundits and so-called experts who’ve written white papers, taxpayer-funded jet-setting State Department envoys and staff who achieved nothing outside over the decades, are now pissing on a day millions of Iranians in-country and around the world are #MostlyJoyful for a day they’ve prayed for.

‘Unlikely, Unlikely, Unlikely’: MS NOW’s Barry McCaffrey Predicts Failure In Iran

Kamala Harris is not happy with “dragging the United States into a war the American people don’t want” even though she was too busy to ask us and once dribbled out, “I think it important to find those moments of joy and not feel guilty about that….”

Iranians Take to the Streets to Celebrate Khamenei’s Death
Iranians celebrate worldwide after supreme leader is killed in Israeli strikes
Iranians tear down a statue of the Ayatollah Khamenei in Galleh Dar, Iran

Those oh-so inconvenient optics of leftist protesters in many American cities, but with the exception of bought-and-paid-for exhibitionists in New York City, there were much bigger and happier celebrations all across the United States and the world the media was forced to cover it.

Sure, the next for weeks and months will be important as those remaining in the regime choose to either succumb and work for elections and a new Iranian government or lash out in a desperate attempt for self-preservation.

Iran’s Guards say they ‘struck’ US aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln
US says they all missed: ‘LIE’
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s ex-president who said ‘Israel must be wiped off the map,’ killed in Israeli airstrikes
Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ali Khamenei is dead in air strike
The Iranian Regime is actively targeting civilians and has attacked more than a dozen locations
Protesters storm US Consulate in Pakistan, at least 9 dead

And the next few weeks and months will be interesting, abroad and locally.

Thanks To Democrats, Potential Iranian Terrorists Are Already On American Soil

It’s again Democrat politicians and the pundit class being the predictable Debbie downers because Donald Trump did something they didn’t believe possible as they were unaffected, fat, happy, comfortable and could be bothered even fucking trying.

They know what’s best for the Iranian people and American lives really don’t mean shit.

While many are reporting that the Iran nuclear deal has “stalled”, albeit now because of inconvenient Russia involvement, too many aren’t including why it’s still a bad deal and who (aside from the Iranians) has the most to gain from it. Everything coming from the Biden administration is being taken at face value and little seems to have been learned from the media’s last go-round on the topic.

They were played then and they’re being played now, again, and for the same reason.

The Obama administration exploited the media’s ignorance, thus willing compliance, and even bragged about it when it came to pushing the Iran nuclear deal in 2016.

All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus. Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing. We created an echo chamber. They [the seemingly independent experts] were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.
— Ben Rhodes, Obama deputy national security adviser for strategic communications

As it doesn’t take much to spark media outrage, especially when criticized, one would think they’d be clutching the pearls and screeching back at Rhodes in unison. One would think….

Hardly.

When reporters had the chance on Friday to confront Obama about the revelations contained in the Times article, they asked four questions: Three of them were about Donald Trump and one was about the ongoing safety problems with the Washington, D.C., subway system. Zero were about Ben Rhodes or Iran.
— Investors Business Daily, 5/10/16

This is yet one more reason to disregard the media noise coming from the White House. Many of them know little about what they’re reporting as they couldn’t address relevance to what similarly happened years ago without quickly going to Google on their phones.

Despite all the things we now know were wrong (Trump-Russia collusion, COVID-19 was natural, no 2020 vote fraud, masks work, vaccines are safe and effective, January 6 was an “armed insurrection”, no bio-weapons labs in Ukraine, etc.), there are those in the media and Big Tech who’d be the first to admonish and implement banishment for anyone who dare doubt them and their anonymous, so-called “fact checkers”.

The truth is we, justifiably, have no reason to accept anything from the media just because they say so, especially today.

There was a time when a reporter would have to work in the profession for decades and have a proven track record of excellence to even be considered for a White House correspondence gig. Many of today’s White House reporters are literally a few years out of college and somehow landed the prized position.

It’s important to acknowledge age and life experience-challenged status simply because frame of reference is physically limited by time. Back in the day instead of the evening news for updates of events while happening, many of today’s White House reporters were probably watching the Power Rangers or waiting for Clarissa to explain it all.

So while you consume anything regarding the “Iran nuclear deal”, assure yourself that the majority of the information provided is coming from those who many need to be reminded that this was tried less than seven years ago, how and why it failed, who would benefit, who would be under immediate threat, and why it was shot down.

If they don’t know the answers to those historical facts, they have no business reporting on it today.

So, it you were currently in hiding in Afghanistan, running low on money, food and knowing that at any time your door could be kicked in and you’d either be shot there or dragged in the street to be beheaded, would you have any optimism that the U.S. Department of State (under Joe Biden) would be soon coming to get you out?

On Monday Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared ‘a new diplomatic mission has begun’ in Afghanistan to try and get those remaining Americans out. He vowed to use diplomacy and leverage to bring out any Americans, allies, or Afghanis who assisted the US and want to leave, as critics pounded Biden for allowing the withdrawal before all Americans were out, comparing those who remained to hostages.
— Daily Mail, 8/31/21

While the left and their media have been gaslighting the American people on a variety of issues for years, their latest is the whole Afghanistan debacle is the fault of Donald Trump and with regards to those left behind, oh well. Let’s move on to things more important, like January 6th.

One thing is for sure: Donald Trump would NEVER leave hang Americans out to dry behind enemy lines and wouldn’t leave it solely to the State Department to use “diplomacy” (“strongly-worded” letters) on tyrants.

He’d didn’t rely solely on the impersonal Department of State bureaucracy to deal with some of the United States’ prominent adversaries (North Korea, China, Iran, Yemen) and his track record gave room for optimism.

For example….

Otto Warmbier, an American sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor by North Korea for alleged “anti-state acts,” has been released. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced Tuesday morning that Warmbier, 22, was on his way back to the U.S. to be reunited with his family.

Warmbier has apparently been in a coma since shortly after his trial, according to The Washington Post. He was sentenced in March 2016. A statement from his parents, Fred and Cindy Warmbier, dated June 13, stated: “Otto is on a medevac on his flight home. Sadly, he is in a coma and we have been told he has been in that condition since March 2016. We learned of this only one week ago. We want the world to know how we and our son have been brutalized and terrorized by the pariah regime in North Korea. We are so grateful he can finally be with people who love him.”
— Newsweek, 6/13/17

Three UCLA basketball players released from China for shoplifting thanked President Donald Trump, who later said, “you’re welcome.” Freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill spoke at a news conference Wednesday at the UCLA basketball stadium, the first time they had spoken publicly since Nov. 7, when they were held in Hangzhou. The three athletes were arrested a day before Trump’s arrival in China, and Trump said he spoke to his Chinese counterpart about the situation.

I had a great conversation with President Xi,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Tuesday. “He was terrific, and they’re working on it right now. And hopefully everything is going to work out.”
— NBC News, 11/16/17

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has secured the release of 17 prisoners foreign governments had detained.

“We’ve had 17 released, and we’re very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming,” Trump said Saturday evening as he welcomed home Joshua Holt, an American citizen who had been detained in Venezuela for two years without trial. Unlike his predecessor, the president has managed to bring these prisoners home without freeing terrorists or paying millions of dollars in suspected ransom payments.
— Daily Caller, 5/27/18

The names of the released include Sabrina De Sousa, Aya Hijazi, Mohamed Hassanein, Sandy Phan-Gillis, Joshua Boyle, Caitlan Coleman, Kim Dong-Chul, Kim Hak-Song and Kim Sang-Duk.

And that was as of 2018. Who knows how sooner these could have occurred had it not been for the partisan, and in some cases, manufactured scandals that took up valuable time and attention of the Trump Administration.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that Lebanese-American Amer Fakhoury has been released from prison, describing the development as “very big.”

“Today we are bringing home another American citizen, big thing, very big,” Trump said at the beginning of a coronavirus task force briefing. Trump also said that the US is working hard to secure the release American journalist Austin Tice, who disappeared in Syria in 2012. Separately, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that Iran has released American Mike White on medical furlough.
— CNN, 3/9/20

President Donald Trump has secured the release of two American hostages held captive by Houthis in Yemen, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday. The two Americans, Sandra Loli and Mikael Gidada, and the remains of a third, Bilal Fateen, were released in exchange for the return of about 250 of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Oman, according to the White House.

Kash Patel, a deputy assistant to Trump who worked on the deal, told The Wall Street Journal that Loli had been held by the Houthis for about three years and Gidada was held captive for about a year.
— Fox News, 10/4/20

One would think President Joe Biden would personally understand and appreciate the American tradition of not leaving anyone behind.

Erik Prince, the co-founder of defense contractor Blackwater, ​is responding after the White House took a shot at him for offering to fly people out of Afghanistan on charter flights for $6,500 a seat — recalling that Blackwater ​soldiers had to rescue Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel when they got lost in a snowstorm in 2008.

“They were on a congressional visit to Afghanistan in the winter and their US Army helicopter got lost in a blinding snowstorm and set down in Taliban territory on the side of a mountain,” he told Tucker Carlson. “And the US military launched a ground convoy to get them and they got lost and the Blackwater guys launched and they did not get lost. And we recovered them. We rescued them from Taliban territory. That was the winter of ’08,” he said.
— New York Post, 8/26/21

Meanwhile…

An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue then Senator Joe Biden and two other senators in a valley in Afghanistan is stranded in the country under Taliban rule pleading to be rescued on Tuesday.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family. Don’t forget me here”, the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying.

Mohammed’s (who asked not to use his full name) visa application became stuck after the defense contractor he worked for lost the records he needed for his application. The Afghan interpreter tried to join the thousands of people who swarmed Kabul airport in an effort to get on one of the evacuation flights out of the country, but he was “rebuffed by US forces.” He says he could get in but US forces would not allow him to take his wife and four children with him.
— Al Arabiya English, 8/31/21

Obviously some people are more deserving and entitled to rescue than others and it must’ve been a relief to Joe Biden as it’s doubtful “strongly-worded” letters from the State Department would have been of any meaningful assistance when HE needed it.

Barack Obama is no longer president and John Kerry is no longer his Secretary of State, so WHY is he meddling in foreign affairs against the Trump Administration?

Former Secretary of State John Kerry has fielded dozens of private meetings and phone calls in recent months in an effort to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, as President Trump appears poised to withdraw from the pact.

The Boston Globe reported on Friday that Kerry, who helped broker the 2015 nuclear agreement, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the United Nations in New York last month to discuss ways to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — the formal name for the Iran deal.

He has also met and spoken with a handful of European officials. Last month, he met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to the Globe, and spoke by phone with Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top foreign affairs official. Kerry also reportedly met with French President Emmanuel Macron, both in New York and in Paris.
— The Hill, 5/4/18

This is not an isolated incident when it comes to Kerry’s “shadow diplomacy” disruption.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry recently urged Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resist President Donald Trump, telling the PA leader to ‘stay strong’ and ‘play for time’ – while suggesting he may make a second bid for the White House.
— Arutz Sheva, 1/24/18

In keeping it simple, Iran is a formal enemy of the United States and it can be argued that John Kerry has no business engaging in any kind of diplomatic discussions with any nation, especially without the expressed permission and logistical guidance of the State Department.

State Sponsors of Terrorism
Designation under the above-referenced authorities also implicates other sanctions laws that penalize persons and countries engaging in certain trade with state sponsors. Currently there are four countries designated under these authorities: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Iran, Sudan, and Syria.
— U.S. Department of State

President Trump has publicly stated his opposition to the mysterious “Iran nuclear deal” with cash payment and his historically justified mistrust of the Iranian regime. The way it went down still stinks.

The Obama administration is acknowledging its transfer of $1.7 billion to Iran earlier this year was made entirely in cash, using non-U.S. currency, as Republican critics of the transaction continued to denounce the payments. Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also introduced a bill that prohibits cash payments to Iran and demands transparency on future settlements.

“Sending the world’s leading state sponsor of terror pallets of untraceable cash isn’t just terrible policy,” Royce said. “It’s incredibly reckless, and it only puts bigger targets on the backs of Americans. … This cash bonanza has emboldened Iran’s radical regime, and undermined America’s national security.”
— Los Angeles Times, 9/7/16

While the average American is required to return an employee manual upon leaving a place of employment, it’s not clear how many in the Obama administration still have theirs, which can be extremely problematic for obvious political reasons and Kerry’s unauthorized meetings with an enemy regime could be highly illegal; not like that’s a deterrent.

Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
— 18 U.S. Code § 953 – Private correspondence with foreign governments

This appears to be yet another prime example of Democrats who still refuse to accept the results of the 2016 presidential election and the political “elections have consequences” ramifications that came with it. While the left still considers the “Iran nuclear deal” a monumental success (simply because it was signed off by Obama), they have no business meddling against the ongoing negotiations of the Trump Administration, IF such negotiations are going on at this time or not.

Kerry has been on an aggressive yet stealthy mission to preserve the agreement, using his deep list of contacts to try to apply pressure on the Trump administration from the outside. President Trump has a May 12 deadline to decide whether to continue abiding by deal’s terms.
— Boston Globe, 5/4/18

The unsanctioned John Kerry intervention is obviously not in line with the Trump State Department and for any other American, this would be an easily prosecutable offense.

BTW — In case you’re wondering what Kerry’s doing for an official day job, he’s on the “Advisory Council” at an L Street, DC nonprofit called “Diplomacy Works” alongside other Obama fan favorites like Wendy R. Sherman, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs and Director of EMILY’S list; Michèle Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Puneet Talwar, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Special Assistant to President Obama and Senior Director for Iran, Iraq, and the Gulf States at the White House National Security Council; Colin H. Kahl, Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East at the Pentagon; Robert Malley, Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region, Senior Director on the National Security Council Staff, Special Assistant to the President for Arab-Israeli Affairs (Clinton administration); Jon Finer, Chief of Staff and Director of Policy Planning for Secretary of State John Kerry; and Jen Psaki, White House Director of Communications, Spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, White House Deputy Communications Director, White House Deputy Press Secretary.

A nonprofit whose sole mission is to push back on anyone messing with Obama’s Iran deal.

Diplomacy Works provides information and analysis that empowers policymakers and stakeholders to make the case for upholding the JCPOA as a model of effective foreign policy with diplomacy as the tool of first resort reinforced by our unparalleled military capabilities – a policy which keeps America safe and strong at the same time.
— Diplomacy Works

But since when does the rule of law apply to well-connected, senior federal government officials….

Now while we do have a well-funded State Department to handle diplomacy, supermodels, movie stars, and other members of the pop culture intelligentsia routinely meet with some who are formally considered our “enemy”. We can add another group of foreign policy meddlers to the list.

According to the Mehr News Agency of Iran,

“An academic delegation of Columbia University professors and deans of faculties plans to visit Tehran to officially apologize to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.”

As some of you may remember, last fall President Mahmud was invited to speak at Columbia and was not met with the expected open arms. Ahmadinejad probably expected to be embraced by a bunch of America-bashing Bush haters and he’d be preaching to the choir.

“The delegation plans to express regret for the insulting remarks Columbia University President Lee Bollinger directed at Ahmadinejad on September 24 in his introductory speech, the Mehr News Agency correspondent in New York reported.”

CU President Bollinger was under the appropriate pressure to remind his students that Ahmadinejad was not your average visiting speaker. He did so, and later Mahmud kind of embarrassed himself when he insisted there were no gay people in Iran.

“Since the incident, the deans and professors from the faculties of history, anthropology, Middle Eastern studies, philosophy, and Islamic studies have criticized Bollinger’s behavior toward Ahmadinejad.”

The truth hurts.

“A member of the delegation, who requested anonymity, said the main goal of the visit is to meet the Iranian president and officially apologize to him.”

So these “teachers” plan on issuing, on what will probably end up being a public apology on behalf of the American people, an apology to someone who has called for the destruction of Israel and who is pursuing nuclear weapons for future “negotiations.” Let’s not forget, this is the same Iran that just this week made provocative actions against our naval vessels in international waters in the Strait of Hormuz. Mahmud Ahmadinejad is not a nice person and these hate-America-first professors are sending the wrong message to their students, America, and the world.

As they will be used for anti-American propaganda purposes, their safety in Iran is almost assured. But should the unexpected happen and they become hostages, I wonder who these learned professors would be begging to negotiate their release? And should we want them back…?  Update:

Columbia University Denies Iranian Media Report

This just in from Columbia University….

Columbia University has issued the following statement in responses to the alleged news report by the semi-official Iranian Mehr News agency on Jan. 8th that University professors are traveling to Tehran to apologize to President Ahmadinejad: The university has no knowledge or information about the claims currently being made in the Iranian media. We ask that a clarification be added to Mr. Parks column and that verification of the facts even during the era of Google’s news value-neutral, digital age continues to be warranted. Thank you. Tanya L. Domi Senior Public Affairs Officer for International Affairs Office of Communications and Public Affairs Adjunct, School of International and Public Affairs New York, NY 10027

While I acknowledge the stupidity of believing anything coming out of Iran, the fact that the Columbia faculty has previously shown sympathy for Iranian President Ahmadinejad after his “treatment” by CU President Bollinger (who was only putting Mahmud’s past into proper perspective) was what lead me to conclude that this is an action the CU faculty could indeed take. A “Columbia University Faculty Action Committee Statement of Concern” last November read in part,

“The president’s (Bollinger) address on the occasion of President Ahmadinejad’s visit has sullied the reputation of the University with its strident tone, and has abetted a climate in which incendiary speech prevails over open debate. The president’s introductory remarks were not only uncivil and bad pedagogy, they allied the University with the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, a position anathema to many in the University community.”

Hopefully, this clarification is satisfactory.