Wiederholen Sie nicht Obamas Fehler im Iran

Writing at the opinion page of *The Wall Street Journal*, Hoover Middle East and the Islamic World Working Group contributor Reuel Marc Gerecht and coauthor Ray Takeyh urge the Trump administration to remember the fateful history of former President Barack Obama’s declaration that “the use of chemical weapons by Bashar al-Assad in Syria in 2013 would be a ‘red line’ [warranting US intervention].” As the authors note, the Assad regime crossed that line without any US military response. Turning to Iran, Gerecht and Takeyh say that “the importance of an American strike at this moment shouldn’t be underestimated.” While acknowledging potential risks of any American intervention, the authors conclude that the collapse of Iran’s repressive government “would be momentous and beneficial.” 

One of my annoyances with the Trump Admin and Iran right now is that it has taken so long to get a strike plan put together: despite Trumps threats, many thousands have already been killed and the country has been under a near total internet blackout for nearly a week, and that’s on top of nearly 3 weeks of these protests

My worry is that the regime has now had more time to crack down forcefully enough that they may have dissuaded further protest and have had more time to prepare for US strikes, thus limiting the impact of strikes had they occurred earlier

Compared to the current admin I don’t think Obama even made a mistake during his 2 terms.

Well, administration definitely do not want to get themselves one more war in Middle East. So they are using that huge leverage they got in operation in Venezuela (by demonstrating „we really can byte“) to pressure Iranian gov. Without really hitting. That right way to go so far if they would be able to get some grip on it. Other side – if you start hitting and other side would not back up – you need to do more, it is also dangerous path.