This is one of those 'rubber meets the road' moments, or as Barack Obama infamously called it, a red line.
🚨BREAKING 🚨 President Trump with a direct threat to the Iranian regime: “If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention… pic.twitter.com/hkSzIQKjdU
— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) January 2, 2026
Obama, of course, famously issued red lines with no intent of enforcing them. He was also very coy about encouraging people to believe that they could well be worthy of an Obama red line - like the people of Iran were during the Green revolution. Those were the days in 2009 when, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 'won' what was widely seen as a rigged election, they courageously took to the rooftops and streets in ever-widening protests that nearly had the regime on its knees.
At least the regime was starting to feel that way.
Iranians looked to the United States for a clear signal that they had a friend. After tentative, formulaic 'freedom of expression' etc., mewlings from Obama, they never got one, one way or the other, and shortly it was proven that the US president was working against them the entire time in pursuit of his own interests.
The sufferings, inhumane cruelties, and vicious oppression visited on the people of Iran mattered not one whit to the Light Bringer when he needed the mullahs intact to consummate a splashy nuke deal for his legacy.
So he threw their desperate cry for freedom and willingness to die for it over in favor of the feather in his cap.
One of the great hypotheticals of Barack Obama's presidency involves the Iranian uprising that began on June 12, 2009, after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was announced the winner of contested presidential elections. What if the president had done more to help the protesters when the regime appeared to be teetering?
It's well known he was slow to react. Obama publicly downplayed the prospect of real change at first, saying the candidates whom hundreds of thousands of Iranians were risking their lives to support did not represent fundamental change. When he finally did speak out, he couldn't bring himself to say the election was stolen: "The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was."
But Obama wasn't just reluctant to show solidarity in 2009, he feared the demonstrations would sabotage his secret outreach to Iran. In his new book, "The Iran Wars," Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon uncovers new details on how far Obama went to avoid helping Iran's green movement. Behind the scenes, Obama overruled advisers who wanted to do what America had done at similar transitions from dictatorship to democracy, and signal America's support.
Obama did what he has always done - take care of Obama first.
Consequently, history would show that an obsequious and accommodating Obama was literally willing to sacrifice every last Persian in the streets of Iran and Syrians, to boot, to get his trophy deal with their savage, third-century oppressors.
...Iran though is a very different story. Obama from the beginning of his presidency tried to turn the country's ruling clerics from foes to friends. It was an obsession. And even though the president would impose severe sanctions on the country's economy at the end of his first term and beginning of his second, from the start of his presidency, Obama made it clear the U.S. did not seek regime change for Iran.
It's debatable whether the U.S. ever did support such a policy. But it's striking the lengths to which Obama went to make good on his word. As Solomon reports, Obama ended U.S. programs to document Iranian human rights abuses. He wrote personal letters to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assuring him the U.S. was not trying to overthrow him. Obama repeatedly stressed his respect for the regime in his statements marking Iran's annual Nowruz celebration.
His quest to engage the mullahs seems to have influenced Obama's decision-making on other issues too. When he walked away from his red line against Syria's use of chemical weapons in 2013, Solomon reports, both U.S. and Iranian officials had told him that nuclear negotiations would be halted if he intervened against Bashar al-Assad.
The reprisals against the Iranian people and the hunt for those associated with the Green movement were brutal and unrelenting in their lethal viciousness.
The Biden administration fed the Islamic beast whenever possible, the most memorable case being when they unfroze $16B in regime assets held in different accounts and then gave them access to International Monetary Fund monies.
The United States moved toward giving Iran access to at least $16 billion in the last few weeks, including $6 billion held in South Korea as part of a prisoner exchange deal and $10 billion held in Iraq to pay off Baghdad’s debts for its purchases of Iranian natural gas. Moreover, the Biden administration has remained silent regarding reports that the administration’s understanding with Iran would include up to an additional $7 billion in special drawing rights (SDR) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and potentially other cash as well. Washington has also failed to comment on Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s visit last week to Japan, where he reportedly requested access to $3 billion in frozen funds.
The Iranian people have watched their country falls down around their ears, watched their women beaten from the street for the crime of uncovering their hair, watched as their economy circles the drain thanks to the roaring inflation caused by the regime's pursuit of nuclear weapons and support for satellite terror organizations who act as their proxies, especially against Israel, in other countries. They have watched their taps run dry and their homes go dark as infrastructure disintegrates from neglect.
The state-sanctioned killings of dissidents haven't slowed down either. The United Nations and its Experts™ declared itself 'appalled,' almost as if it had just learned there was gambling in Rick's Casino.
UN experts appalled by unprecedented execution spree in Iran with over 1000 killed in nine months
Over 1000 people have been killed in less than nine months of 2025, UN experts said today, warning that the figures represented a dramatic escalation that violates international human rights law.
“The sheer scale of executions in Iran is staggering and represents a grave violation of the right to life,” the experts said. “With an average of more than nine hangings per day in recent weeks, Iran appears to be conducting executions at an industrial scale that defies all accepted standards of human rights protection.”
At least 1,000 executions have been documented since 1 January 2025 to date. Due to Iran’s lack of transparency, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.
People who actually know what's going on in the country say the number was well north of 2200 state murders they have names for.
Five days ago - not that the world news media would have you know - the Iranian people once again said, 'Enough.' It has been almost a week, and the scenes coming out of the country have been amazing to watch - horrifying and hopeful and so inspiring.
They are not on the rooftops, shouting angrily at the moon this time.
Deadly protests against the Ayatollah regime in Iran have entered their fifth day. At least eight people have been killed, and students have now joined the demonstrations.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 2, 2026
The unrest began with shopkeepers closing hundreds of stores across Tehran and other major cities. As… pic.twitter.com/tyqUKjRC3y
...The unrest began with shopkeepers closing hundreds of stores across Tehran and other major cities. As students joined, the protests shifted from purely economic grievances to political demands, with slogans such as “Death to the dictator.” Several of the country’s most prestigious universities in Tehran and Isfahan have been closed.
Clashes continue at Tehran University, where students are confronting security forces at the main campus gates. The government, led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has responded with water cannons, tear gas, and lethal force.
According to human rights group Hengaw, at least eight people have died. Three, including a 15-year-old, were killed on the evening of January 1 in Azna when security forces opened fire on protesters. Another 17 were injured.
The protests began on December 28, when shopkeepers in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Mashhad took to the streets after the national currency collapsed to a record low of about 1.4 million rials per US dollar, driving food prices up roughly 60%.
The economic strain is further worsened by ongoing sanctions and Iran’s prolonged conflict with Israel.
Small, breathtaking acts of defiance that could still cost you your life are taking place.
— MystVibe (@Myst_Vibe) January 2, 2026
Resistance is everywhere and overwhelming the bad actors. From funerals, when the basijis (an internal division of the Iranian Republican Guard IRGC) appear to enforce behaviors...
This event was extremely important.
— 𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) January 2, 2026
The regime in Iran tried to force a grieving family into falsely labeling Amirhesam Khodayari-Fard as one of theirs at his own funeral
Everyone refused and fought the basijis until they fled.
Iranians are FURIOUS.
pic.twitter.com/3thVwj8YFe
...marching night...
History is being made in Iran. pic.twitter.com/gIl2K0CtvF
— Melissa Francis (@MelissaAFrancis) January 1, 2026
...and day.
Day 4 of protests in Iran.
— Sina (@SinaMihandoost) December 31, 2025
The people are chanting for the return of the King.
No chants against the West.
No chants against Israel.
Iran was hijacked by terrorists in 1979, and the people want their country back. Is the media only interested when protests attack Israel? pic.twitter.com/YkAhxUuUXm
As a panicked regime steps up its campaign of terror, intimidation, and death dealing.
While the world is celebrating the New Year, the regime in Iran is arresting student girls from their dormitories and dragging them to unknown dungeons.
— 𝐍𝐢𝐨𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠 ♛ ✡︎ (@NiohBerg) January 1, 2026
This happened in Beheshti University.
Savages. pic.twitter.com/m10i2fZsUi
As many as 60 cities are said to have active, ongoing protests.
🔴 BREAKING — IRAN
— Shayan X (@ShayanX0) January 1, 2026
The Iranian people in Qom, once considered the stronghold of Shiite clerics, just joined the nationwide anti-Islamist-regime, pro-Shah uprising. Protesters are chanting against the regime and in support of Iran's exiled Shah, Reza Shah Pahlavi II [@PahlaviReza] pic.twitter.com/fpqyDvdru0
🚨BREAKING — IRAN
— Shayan X (@ShayanX0) January 1, 2026
Clashes erupt in Arak as Iranian anti-regime, pro-Shah, pro-@PahlaviReza protesters throw Molotov cocktails at the Islamist regime’s forces. The protesters are pushing to gain momentum as the nationwide pro-Shah, pro-Monarchy uprising spreads rapidly across Iran pic.twitter.com/kOVVMhMeKt
The Western news silence, except for outlets like Fox, has been complete, as has the mute stance of the European Union and its members.
The western liberal silence on Iran is very easy to explain: the hope for a free Iran for the sake of Iranians is outweighed by the fear that a free Iran would be good for the US/Israeli pole of Middle Eastern geopolitics. The oppression of Iranians is an acceptable price.
— John McGuirk (@john_mcguirk) January 1, 2026
Nary a peep.
Only the United States and Israel have stepped forward to encourage the protestors fight for freedom and warn the mullahs of unspecified dire consequences should they resort to the deadly brutality they are so universally reviled for.
The United States signaled its support early, when one stunning photograph instantly reminiscent of Tiananmen Square burst onto X.
A single, lone protester sits in the middle of a Tehran street - holding at bay a rampaging pack of black-clad basijis on their motorbike mounts.
Iran vs the Islamic Occupiers in one photo.
— Goldie Ghamari | گلسا قمری (@gghamari) December 30, 2025
This is our Tianaman Square moment. pic.twitter.com/wnooLLKfgl
And then Ambassador Mike Waltz stunned everyone when he reXweeted it.
WE STAND WITH IRANIANS IN THE STREETS OF TEHRAN AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The people of Iran want freedom. They have suffered at the hands of the Ayatollahs for too long.
— Ambassador Mike Waltz (@USAmbUN) December 29, 2025
We stand with Iranians in the streets of Tehran and across the country as they protest a radical regime that has brought them nothing but economic downturn and war.…
Something not heard from the United States in decades of cruel and abusive oppression.
Then, President Trump, with his Truth Social at 3 a.m. this morning, timed for morning prayers in Iran.
This unrest and attempt at a popular uprising has happened before. Every hope of change and success must be tempered with the cold, hard reality that it has never yet come to fruition because of the ruthless methods and determination of the Iranian mullahs and officials to keep their death grip on power in the country.
The lion and sun may only fly for a short time as those in power marshal forces for a crackdown, the ferocious, merciless likes of which the Iranian people will have never seen.
BREAKING: Iranians are flying the Lion and Sun flag in Iran. pic.twitter.com/njRI3z8LRG
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) January 2, 2026
Two wild cards may forestall that:
- The mullahs have to believe that IRGC forces ultimately decide to remain loyal in the face of a national uprising.
- They're also going to have to place a bet on what the American president means when he says, 'We're ready to go.'
That last one is the one I'd worry about.
Yeah.
Definitely that last one.
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