“Let us ask ourselves, ‘What kind of people do we think we are?’ And let us answer, ‘Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.'” – Ronald Reagan

FoxNews.com reports that

Estimates say that up to one million Iranians have been protesting across the country since Thursday in what one Iranian opposition group says has turned into a protest for regime change. 
 
Those protesters are being buoyed by messages from the Trump administration, says the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI),  a coalition of democratic Iranian groups and personalities.

In two tweets earlier Saturday, President Donald Trump offered up a message of hope to the protesters: “The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most…”

Trump added: “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The World is watching!”

According to reports, the protests have brought some bloodshed, with at least two people being shot and killed by Iranian Revolutionary Guards who opened fire on protesters in the city of Dorud.

In the country’s capital city of Tehran, video provided to Fox News by the NCRI showed protesters fending off tear gas from the police. Other videos show them burning posters of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Chanted slogans included many calls for independence and freedom from an Islamic Republic. They also offered pointed commentary on Iranian involvement in foreign lands: “Leave Syria, think about us,” “Death to Hezbollah,” and “Forget about Gaza and Lebanon: I’ll sacrifice my life for Iran,” protesters shouted, according to the NCRI.

In Arak on Saturday, protesters occupied the governor’s office. Arak has a population of over half a million and houses a heavy water reactor that was used by its nuclear program.

While there is no word of the administration having talks with opposition parties, Ali Safavi, an official in the Washington office of the NCRI, told Fox News that messages of support from the Trump administration are a big change from how the Obama administration handled the 2009 popular uprising.

Safavi said: “When millions of Iranians poured onto the streets in 2009, the Obama administration reached out to the Supreme Leader Khamenei, enabling him and his president to suppress the uprising. President Trump’s expression of support for the Iranian people and his condemnation of the arrests of the protests send an encouraging signal to all those who want to see Iran liberated from the yoke of the medievalist mullahs.”

According a translation given to Fox News by the NCRI, Iranian media reported that Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani was quoted as asking people “to not participate in such unlawful gatherings because they cause trouble for themselves and other citizens.”

Another news agency affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was quoted as saying the chants shouted by the protesters were “very similar to the ones chanted during the 2009 sedition.”

Maryam Rajavi, the head of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, released a statement in which she saluted the bravery of the protesters. She said, in part, “The ongoing protests in different cities against the regime reveal the explosive state of Iranian society and the people’s desire for regime change.”

Rajavi’s statement said Iranian’s have loudly rejected the mullah’s regime: “The Iranian people demand the overthrow of the ruling religious dictatorship. It is their right to topple this repressive regime. And I emphasize: regime change in Iran is within reach.”

Gentle Readers, this has been a long time coming.

Are you old enough to remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis? If not, here is a summary, courtesy of u-s-history.com:

On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of some 300 to 500 “students” who called themselves “Imam’s Disciples,” laid siege to the American Embassy in Teheran, Iran, to capture and hold hostage 66 U.S. citizens and diplomats. Although women and African-Americans were released a short time later, 51 hostages remained imprisoned for 444 days with another individual released because of illness midway through the ordeal.

…Upon the death of the shah in July [1980] (which neutralized one demand) and the Iraqi invasion of Iran in September (necessitating weapons acquisition), Iran became more amenable to reopening negotiations for the hostages’ release.

In the late stages of the presidential race with Ronald Reagan, Carter, given those new parameters, might have been able to bargain with the Iranians, which might have clinched the election for him. The 11th-hour heroics were dubbed an “October Surprise”* by the Reagan camp — something they did not want to see happen.

Allegations surfaced that William Casey, director of the Reagan campaign, and some CIA operatives, secretly met with Iranian officials in Europe to arrange for the hostages’ release, but not until after the election. If true, some observers aver, dealing with a hostile foreign government to achieve a domestic administration’s defeat would have been grounds for charges of treason.

Reagan won the election, partly because of the failure of the Carter administration to bring the hostages home. Within minutes of Reagan’s inauguration, the hostages were released.

In stark, terrifying contrast, the 44th President of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama, purposely and surreptitiously handed a Rogue State of Radical Muslim Barbarians the means of the destruction of both the United States of America and  our staunch ally, Israel, with his toothless “Nuclear Agreement”

Why did the President of these United States, Barack Hussein Obama, trust Iran, an enemy of freedom, to stand by its “Agreement” to refrain from nuking the United States of America and Israel?

He gave Iran everything they wanted: their money, nuclear capability, and acquiescence by the Government of the United States of America, literally, encouraging the world’s population of Islamic Terrorists to kidnap our own Naval Personnel, with the promise of a huge payday, while he remained president.

Happily, as I have written before, there’s a new sheriff in town.

One who is not afraid to support those yearning to be free who are currently trapped under the tyrannical rule of despots.

Foreign Leaders, who enjoyed the advantage that they had under the weak and vacillating Foreign Policy of Barack Hussein Obama, did not want the United States to regain our position as the Leader of the Free World.

And, they certainly do not like the fact that we have a President who will honor our friendship with our ally, Israel.

That is why they feared a Trump Presidency.

It was far more lucrative for them, when the United States “negotiated from a position of weakness”, when we had a vacillating dhimmi in the White House.

Now, they have to negotiate with an American President who has mastered “The Art of the Deal”.

…one who places America and her best interests, first.

And, an Iranian People freed from the rule of the Mad Mullahs is in the best interest of the United States of America.

Trump knows full well that Iran is a state sponsor of Radical Islamic Terrorism. He knows that hey are bullies who will lie to your face, as they did to our naïve Former President, when he made his “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with them concerning the development of nuclear weapons.

They had better be careful if they continue to test President Trump’s and our nation’s resolve. Plain and simple.

Just like President Reagan sent a guided missile straight into Libyan Madman Moamar Kadhafi’s bedroom, perhaps it is time for President Trump to “fire a shot across the bow” and get the attention of the Radical Islamic Mullahs who govern the Rogue Country of Iran.

After all, bullies with think twice if you stand up to them and give them something to think about.

Ask the bully in 7th grade whom I hit square between the eyes with my 2s (Tom) drumsticks.

He never bothered me again.

Before the Iranian Revolution, Iran was a nation on it’s way to modernization.

When the Iranian Revolution broke out, lead by the Radical Islamists, a wonderful family, friends of the Shah, escaped the barbarians who were laying waste to what was once a vibrant nation.

He was an engineer. She was an English Professor at the University of Tehran. They had two young children, a boy and a girl.

He decided to leave his family here and to travel back to Iran to check on his family and try to get them out.

He was never heard from again.

They are the type of people who deserve to be free from the tyranny of the Mad Mullahs of Iran.

Thank you for standing with them, Mr. President.

Also, thank you for recognizing that you simply cannot expect any sort of civilized negotiations with the Radical Islamists who rule Iran.

Treat them as barbarians who murder their own people with no remorse.

For that is indeed, who they are.

Abraham Lincoln once said,

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

For the sake of those Iranian citizens who are so desperate to free themselves from the bondage of Radical Islam, I pray that Lincoln was right.

Until He Comes,

KJ