Two US presidents on two Iranian crackdowns (only CNN could spin things this way)

CNN ^ | 01/01/2018 | Stephen Collinson

[Drew68]

(CNN)When protests erupted in Iran in 2009, then-President Barack Obama reacted cautiously, concerned that a forceful intervention could make America -- reviled as the "Great Satan" by Iranian revolutionaries -- a rallying cause for the clerical regime.

Eight years on, with demonstrations and violence breaking out again in Iranian cities, the US position is reversed, with President Donald Trump and his team almost gleefully leaping at the chance to line up alongside Iranian protesters.

In one of his first tweets of the new year, Trump was openly rooting for regime change.

"Iran is failing at every level despite the terrible deal made with them by the Obama Administration. The great Iranian people have been repressed for many years. They are hungry for food & for freedom. Along with human rights, the wealth of Iran is being looted. TIME FOR CHANGE!"

The sharp change of tack reflects the gulf in the intellectual and temperamental approach of the last two presidents and illuminates a dispute between rival schools of foreign policy thought about how the US should act and wield power in the world. It is consistent with the hard line Trump has taken toward Iran, muscling up alongside US allies Israel and Saudi Arabia to try to check the country's regional influence while continually casting doubt on the Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran.

Trump's position also represents a return to an elusive hope that has often characterized Washington's approach to Tehran since the revolution in 1979 -- that a political awakening will sweep the revolutionary regime away -- combined with a belief that tough US talk can be a catalyst for change.

And it is in tune with Trump's habit of repudiating the approaches of his predecessor.

[Drew68]

I am simply awestruck at CNN's ability to spin the protests in such a fashion. Obama's "nuanced approach" was turning a blind eye as the Mullahs murdered dozens and arrested thousands. They were then rewarded with pallets of cash.

I guess it is an improvement. Yesterday CNN was calling these "pro-government rallies... to commemorate mass demonstrations held in 2009 to challenge the pro-reform protests."

Iran's Supreme Leader faces rare display of public anger

[bray]

Their Messiah could do no wrong.

[hardspunned]

We need a CNN contortionist meme.

[Williams]

So now Russia is the big villain, and its ally the terrorist dictatorship of Iran, is a hero to the media. Funny how Obama’s supposed desire to avoid a crackdown led to an absolute crackdown while Obama did nothing.

[BenLurkin]

It wasn't "cautious" It was callous

[Williams]

NYT etc are all playing the same game. If you go back to the Indochina war and the cold war, you have good templates for how unrelentingly evil the media is on foreign policy.

[McGruff]

If CNN stopped smoking pot they would be a little more rational.

[Slyfox]

[gunnyg]

“Their Messiah could do no wrong.”
**************************************

Somebody once referred to it as...The Prince of Fools!

Matter of fact it was a news article, somewhere in Europe.... Got a lotta coverage...and then.........

That article, among others, now seems to have “disappeared”
online.....

Hmm.........

Just Plain Dick @ Planet WTF!
*********************************

[Religion and Politics]

And it is in tune with Trump's habit of repudiating the approaches of his predecessor.

Trump is largely a pragmatist. He isn't going to continue a policy that hasn't and doesn't work at all, nor will he follow policy that seems to be in someone else's interest beside our own. Whether it be Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, N. Korea, China, Isis, etc.; Trump has a vast array of policy examples which haven't worked and unlike previous Presidents, has not called upon the thinktankocracy to inform him on what he ought to be doing.

[CincyRichieRich]

What do you expect from a Reggie loving Muslim eunuch?

[N. Theknow]

The sharp change of tack reflects the absence of Valerie Jarrett running foreign policy with regard to her native Iran.

Fixed it...

[Vaduz]

Obama:
1.Educated royal idiot
2.Mama’s boy
3.Master of disaster
4.Clueless
5.Confused
5.Poster child of stupidity
6.MSM GOD

[MarvinStinson]

CNN Politics hires AFP's Stephen Collinson

By HADAS GOLD 09/25/2014 11:24 AM EDT

CNN's digital politics team has hired Stephen Collinson, the White House correspondent for Agence France-Presse, to serve as a senior enterprise reporter.

Collinson will work on "deeply reported pieces" about the 2016 campaign, Rachel Smolkin, the executive editor for CNN digital politics, announced Thursday. "He is a beautiful writer who brings tremendous experience covering politics, the White House and international affairs — and he’s a terrific addition to our fast-growing group," she said.

https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2014/09/cnn-politics-hires-afps-stephen-collinson-196104

[Texas Eagle]

Good. I hope President Trump’s statement causes mass aneurisms at CNN. Is that wrong?

[kabar]

[MarvinStinson]

CNN's Stephen Collinson

[silverleaf]

What a pant load crafted with the help of some shills
Foggy Bottom has never turned from its post -1979 “ elusive hope” of cultivating “ Iranian moderates”
Its just been a 40 year stream of who is or might be an “ Iranian moderate” and how to “ cultivate” them
Seems pretty clear obama-clinton-kerry believed in slow leaking on sanctions ( effectively green lighting continuing nuclearization), failing to decisively punish state support for terror attacks on US targets ( not gonna go there) and for US combat deaths from Iranian ied’s and finally outright payment of perhaps $100 billion or more by pallets of airlifted cash

I'm going to guess the real Iranian moderates are the millennials out in the streets risking imprisonment, torture and death

I'm hoping they are not going to be betrayed by some Deep State strategy to encourage chaos not for “ freedom and democracy” but to draw Hezbollah and IRGC attention back home from the eastern front in Lebanon and Syria, and from the war with Saudi over Yemen, into shoring up regime control

[Dr. Pritchett]

BO left those poor protesters swinging in the breeze while they were expecting some help against their tyrannical dictatorship. Many were subsequently murdered. On the bright side, they should have learned what a idiot BO was, and his dimwitted foreign policy team.

[Robert357]

First CNN is no defined as “anti-Trump” in all that they report. What Obama did during the protests was beyond shameful, but that never stopped him on other shameful actions toward Iran and their state supported terrorism.

The real question not be asked is what are the Saudi’s going to do. Saudi Arabia and Iran are in and have been in a proxy religious war for control of the Middle East. The cost of that war has ripped apart the the fabric of life in both countries.

Iran in particular was nearly economically destroyed by international sanctions and the people see the USA again imposing sanction.