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Trump's backing of Iranian protesters could backfire as Tehran cracks down (no Arab Spring for you!)
LA LA Times ^ | December 31, 2017, 4:55 PM | Laura King and Alexandra Zavis - Contact Reporters

Posted on 12/31/2017 6:46:34 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

On issues from climate change to healthcare, there are few things President Trump relishes more than doing the opposite of something his predecessor did. Now an eruption of anti-government protests across Iran — the biggest in nearly a decade in the Islamic Republic — offers him another way to set himself apart from President Obama.

But it’s a path strewn with foreign policy pitfalls as well as potential opportunities.

Iran’s leaders already are casting Trump’s increasingly effusive expressions of support for the demonstrators as opportunistic meddling and are painting the demonstrators as foreign pawns, adopting a strategy that some analysts say could jeopardize the legitimacy of the nascent anti-government protests.

Trump’s volley of tweets, hailing the protests only hours after they broke out Thursday night, contrasted with Obama’s more muted initial response to the 2009 wave of unrest known as the “Green Movement” that followed the disputed reelection of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iranianspring; iranprotests; trumpiranprotests
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The only Arab uprising that Obama didn’t support...the most significant one.


21 posted on 12/31/2017 7:26:34 PM PST by Phillyred
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yea LAT, were it not for Trump, Iran totally would be chill with protestors burning down government buildings.

Remind me how the muted Obama position work out?


22 posted on 12/31/2017 7:26:52 PM PST by Bogey78O (So far so good.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

The Commie press wants to show their unwavering commitment to Leftist values no matter how wrong, irrational or unpopular they may be. Their brainwashing is absolute.


23 posted on 12/31/2017 7:29:24 PM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The media is truly a sickening lot of a-holes.


24 posted on 12/31/2017 7:29:34 PM PST by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Balding_Eagle

“President Trump can’t lose on this one”

But we could lose if we’re asked to open our hearts, wallets and communities and accept even more of these homicidal Mohamheads as political refugees.
Isn’t it about time their Brothers next door started taking some of these problems on? Why would we take them?
Oh, that’s right, I keep forgetting: there are thousands of muzzie tribes and they all hate one another. Let the Euros have them.


25 posted on 12/31/2017 7:35:16 PM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all white armed conservatives)
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To: oldasrocks

They can take things in their own hands.. Like catch some guards alone and take their weapons away from them..


26 posted on 12/31/2017 7:52:44 PM PST by Davy Crocket
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Did the LA Times ever once say that Obama’s backing the Arab Spring might backfire (as it did)?


27 posted on 12/31/2017 7:56:25 PM PST by vladimir998 (Apparently I'm still living in your head rent free. At least now it isn't empty.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I guess Trump should back the mullahs like Obama did.


28 posted on 12/31/2017 8:29:20 PM PST by kabar
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To: shanover

I’m a little confused, some of the comment folks on LA Times are mad because he said something, and if he would have said nothing and ignored it he would still get hated on, like what the hell do they want him to do.


29 posted on 12/31/2017 8:33:12 PM PST by the_individual2014
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

MSM steps in another dog turd.
The smell never goes away.


30 posted on 12/31/2017 8:33:56 PM PST by hadaclueonce ( This time I am Deplorable)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Just when you think the media can't sink any lower, they exceed expectations.
31 posted on 12/31/2017 8:47:18 PM PST by Major Matt Mason (The U.S. Senate - where American freedom goes to die.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I used to read discarded copies of the LA Times in the break room, during lunch hour, prior to Desert Storm. They warned about eight foot tall, battle hardened Iraqi soldiers, who would emerge from underground bunkers, after we ran out of aerial bombs and artillery shells and devour helpless American soldiers, and Marines. We all know how that ended, and I never read any follow up reports about their mistaken suppositions . . .


32 posted on 12/31/2017 8:47:35 PM PST by jttpwalsh
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To: Sarah Barracuda

Now that would be quite the conundrum for our filthy lyin media!
This is fascinating to witness. Tyranny vs liberty and all the sheep advocate for tyranny. Damn


33 posted on 12/31/2017 8:52:12 PM PST by AllAmericanGirl44
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

We have seen this all played out before, but with different actors in the play. All during the Cold War, the liberals were falling over themselves to attain “detente” with the Soviets. We were told that we must come to agreement. We were told we must not raise their ire. This extended to overlooking the abysmal treatment of the captive Eastern block and their own citizens.

Jimmy Carter played the drumbeat of “detente” at any cost to an alarming level. He refused to put any pressure on the Communists, but President Carter would not hesitate to employ all types of leverage ON OUR FRIENDS! When his overtures to the Shah of Iran were rejected, Carter pulled the rug out and helped to usher in the current Islamic state.

During his final year, Carter started to instruct us that we should learn to live with the Soviet Union and quit acting as if they were an adversary.

The people of the United States said ENOUGH and elected Ronald Reagan to replace Carter after one term.

The media, being the media, didn’t get the message. They mocked President Reagan when he stood at the Brandenburg Gate and demanded that Gorbachev “tear down this wall!”
______

This current struggle in Iran may fail to replace the current Islamic state. The media cynically positions themselves so that they can say “I told you so” and heap scorn and blame on President Trump. But the correct position is still to totally support the current struggle!

Should the current protests succeed, the media will neglect to give Trump credit. They never gave credit to Reagan, either. It isn’t in their DNA. And when Trump points their duplicity out in his incessant tweets, they will complain about the tweeting.


34 posted on 12/31/2017 8:52:40 PM PST by the_Watchman
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

So he should be smart like Obama and back the Islamist terror sponsor despots.


35 posted on 12/31/2017 9:10:49 PM PST by Bon mots
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To: libertylover
Imagine that. They hate Trump so much they’ll hope the Ayatollahs crush the protesters before they’ll support any of Trump’s policies.

They don't want Trump making Obama look bad. Remember, Obama turned a blind eye in 2009 when the Mullahs cracked down on protesters and then later air-mailed them pallets of cash.

36 posted on 12/31/2017 9:20:35 PM PST by Drew68
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

They would crack down whether Trump supported them or not. Trump is doing the right thing.


37 posted on 12/31/2017 10:56:31 PM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“No Persian Spring for them! :)”

Does Walmart carry that? Is it in with the other soaps? Does it offer 24-hour protection?


38 posted on 12/31/2017 11:45:26 PM PST by ought-six (Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Gee, Churchill saying derogatory things about Hitler and his Nazis could have backfired on British efforts to defeat them.

Why do I feel that the L.A. Times is just a leftist rag instead of a serious newspaper? I could be wrong but I don’t think so.


39 posted on 12/31/2017 11:47:22 PM PST by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The LA Times loves Tyranny.


40 posted on 12/31/2017 11:48:27 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Tweet softly, but carry a big stick.)
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