The People of Iran Need Our Help
We can support Iranians without sending troops, shooting missiles, and spending dollars.
Right now, thousands of miles from our shores, the people of Iran are showing the world what real courage looks like. It is a courage built out of desperation. A courage created after decades of incompetent leadership and incalculable violence. A courage that is shown in every young Iranian who is taking to the streets of Tehran and risking their lives in the process. It is time for the United States to support this courage, protect these protesters, and right the decades of wrong we have inflicted upon this great and historic people.
If you’re an avid reader of my work, you may be surprised to read the above paragraph. If there is one theme I have written on more extensively, it is the need for a restrained American foreign policy. I still believe, more than ever, that our country is in dire shape, and that no amount of detained dictators can change that. No one is more aware of our disastrous foreign policy in the Middle East in particular than myself. I have even written specifically about how the United States cannot, and should not, fight a war against Iran to protect Israel. It is not our fight, and it is not our job.
I think that can all be true, while also believing that what is happening in Iran is fundamentally different than sending NATO planes into Libya or American troops into Baghdad. Right now, as I type this, Iranian security forces are maiming and massacring Iranian men and women without care or caution. Over ten thousand Iranians are estimated to have been arrested and hundreds, at least, killed. Those that will be jailed can expect to face the full array of torture, violence, and abuse that the Iranian regime has mastered over their rule. It is just the latest betrayal that a withering Ali Khamenei has committed for his decaying state—and if the people of Iran succeed, it will be his last.
There is, I believe, a way for America to operate on the world stage with a rational morality. I don’t want to live in a world where stronger countries can bully weaker ones into submission. The issue is that, for decades, Americans have been lectured about “democracy” and “liberation” and been left with disaster after disaster. It has led to a line of conspiratorial thinking emanating from both the fringes of the left and the right that subscribes to a sort of “noble savage” view of global politics. For the right, this is expressed in the same boring racism and xenophobia by sixteen-year-olds who like to LARP as a Crusader Knight online. For the left, it’s shown through an uncanny ability to blame America for every problem on Earth. Because, as we all know, a young Iranian can’t possibly be unhappy with their government without being ordered by their masters in Washington.
I believe in a very basic idea: that every citizen of every country has the same autonomy as any other. Iranians are risking, and losing, their lives to fight for a better future. If we can help them in that fight without risking American lives or sinking American resources, we must do it.
Firstly, and most importantly, President Trump should make clear that the United States will not invade, will not send troops, and will not engage in any military action against Iran. The Iranian regime is already blaming foreign interference for the deaths of protesters, and military action will only serve to unite the regime as it did following the Twelve-Day War. The President must also ensure that Israel follows American direction and does not strike Iran with the expectation of American assistance or defense. This is absolutely critical both for the security of our service members and to avoid the risk of regime change by American force.
Rhetorical support can only go so far, though. The internet blackout imposed by Iranian authorities has made it nearly impossible for the outside world to witness the atrocities being committed. President Trump is right to work with Elon Musk in bringing Starlink internet to the country. Internet access is only one part of ensuring Iranians can share, spread, and organize as they wish. The President should, in addition, direct the Treasury Department to issue guidance to American tech companies to temporarily zero-rate the hosting costs for high-bandwidth VPN servers for Iranians. Tehran must understand that attempts to silence the Iranian people into submission are fruitless.
By opening the lines of communication between the outside world and Iran, American intelligence agencies will have a clearer idea of the provinces where killings are reported. This information is critical for the President to fully exercise the MAHSA Act, passed by Congress in April of 2024, in sanctioning the IRGC leadership. Legal action against the assets, and sanctioning against the family members abroad, of these criminals will put pressure on the chain of command. These actions are made most effective when the threat of U.S. military intervention is taken off the table—a fate that would mean, at best, civic exile and at worst, criminal action.
No action can be taken for the Iranian people without remembering the exigency of these protests in the first place. Young Iranians, distraught over a failing economy and worthless Rial, have taken to the streets out of desperation. If we want to see an Iranian government that respects the will of the Iranian people, we must allow for the Iranian diaspora to support those inside the country. To do this, the Treasury Department should immediately issue a general license, an authorization that allows for otherwise prohibited transactions on sanctioned states, to allow for the transfer of personal remittances into Iran. Perpetual protesting is not a sustainable course of action for any party, and if general strikes occur across the country, there will need to be financial assistance to ensure workers do not have to choose between starvation and submission. This can all be accomplished without a dollar spent by Washington.
These are the types of actions that I envision when I write of an American First foreign policy. It is everything that its little brother, the America First movement, promises to be but fails to deliver on. It believes, above all, that American lives are the most precious responsibility of American leaders. It sees through the brittle brutality of the America First movement and believes in defending those we can, when we can. It is an understanding of the world as it is—that America cannot be everywhere and do everything.
But the world as it is today does not have to be the world as it could be tomorrow. From Tehran to the Twin Cities, there are men and women, young and old, risking their lives to stand up against despotism. Sons and daughters of the nation who, whether they wave flags of stars and stripes or of lions and suns, share a common fight. A fight against weak old men who have lived long and horrible lives. Let us ensure this is a fight in which we prevail undeniably victorious and unambiguously prosperous.