This was hard to write, but it was necessary to reflect on in light of the current escalation (and now negotiations) with Tehran. In part because what is happening in the US was directed at protesters labeled as domestic terrorists. The thing is, Tehran spent the past few months telling us that the thousands it killed and brutalized were domestic terrorists. The US sounds like it borrowed the script.
Political legitimacy is what allows the United States to act abroad with something other than brute coercion, what makes coalitions form willingly, what makes protesters in Tehran look west, what makes American pressure feel like more than an empty threat. When that legitimacy is visibly shaken, deterrence weakens. American power becomes easier to dismiss, harder to sustain, and harder to take seriously.
Minneapolis was reported abroad in precisely those terms. The Kremlin, the IRGC, and the Houthis have all told the US not to preach abroad when it has problems at home.
American leadership is important, not just for us, but for the world.
For all his bluster towards the Ayatollah regime, it's possible that Trump secretly admires its tactics and wants to be America's Khamenei with ICE/CBP serving as his own IRGC. Both sides of the same coin, in other words.
This was hard to write, but it was necessary to reflect on in light of the current escalation (and now negotiations) with Tehran. In part because what is happening in the US was directed at protesters labeled as domestic terrorists. The thing is, Tehran spent the past few months telling us that the thousands it killed and brutalized were domestic terrorists. The US sounds like it borrowed the script.
Political legitimacy is what allows the United States to act abroad with something other than brute coercion, what makes coalitions form willingly, what makes protesters in Tehran look west, what makes American pressure feel like more than an empty threat. When that legitimacy is visibly shaken, deterrence weakens. American power becomes easier to dismiss, harder to sustain, and harder to take seriously.
Minneapolis was reported abroad in precisely those terms. The Kremlin, the IRGC, and the Houthis have all told the US not to preach abroad when it has problems at home.
American leadership is important, not just for us, but for the world.
For all his bluster towards the Ayatollah regime, it's possible that Trump secretly admires its tactics and wants to be America's Khamenei with ICE/CBP serving as his own IRGC. Both sides of the same coin, in other words.