At almost 82, I still walk six miles a day without fail. And sometimes now, when I'm walking in my city, New York, I imagine ICE agents arriving here in the hundreds or even thousands as they have in other cities across this country to cause distinctly Trumpian chaos.
And no one should be surprised. As Amnesty International has recently reported, in the second Trump era, my country is entering an "authoritarian" moment (and, of course, it's distinctly optimistic on my part to even use that word "moment"). The Trump administration, as Amnesty put it, is causing a "devastating erosion of human rights" while "increasing the risk for journalists and people who speak out or dissent, including protestors, lawyers, students, and human rights defenders." After all, something like 2,000 ICE agents and other officers are now patrolling (which is the kind word for it) the streets of Minneapolis and significant numbers of them are in all too many other cities as well. In Maine, for instance, ICE had just launched Operation Catch of the Day (as if the people its agents were arresting were so many fish).
In a sense, if you think about it, we're all in Greenland now. Or, as TomDispatch regular Juan Cole makes clear today, thanks to Donald J. Trump, we're also increasingly in an all-American version of Iran or some other grimly autocratic country on this deeply disturbed planet of ours. Tom
Why Trump's Denunciations of the Iranian Killings Ring Fatally Hollow
How the Ghost of Renee Nicole Good Haunts His Response to Iran's Protests
By Juan Cole
The pro-democracy protesters in Iran deserved so much better. They deserved the support of a democratic United States that could sincerely urge the rule of law and habeas corpus (allowing people to legally challenge their detentions) be respected, not to speak of freedom of speech, the press, and assembly in accordance with the constitution. Unfortunately, President Donald J. Trump has forfeited any claim to respect for such rights or a principled foreign policy and so has proved strikingly ineffective in aiding those protesters.
The arbitrary arrests and killings committed by agents of Trump's authoritarian-style rule differ only in number, not in kind, from the detainments and killings of protesters carried out by the basij (or pro-regime street militias) in Iran. In fact, they rendered his protests and bluster about Iran the height of hypocrisy. Above all, the killing of Renee Nicole Good in her car in Minneapolis by a Trumpian ICE agent haunted his response, providing the all-too-grim Iranian regime with an easy rebuttal to American claims of moral superiority.
Rioters and Terrorists
Trump's threats of intervention in Iran came after the latest round of demonstrations and strikes there this winter. In late December, bazaar merchants in Iran decried the collapse of the nation's currency, the rial. For many years, it had been under severe pressure thanks to Trump's "maximum pressure" sanctions, renewed European sanctions over Iran's nuclear enrichment program, and incompetent government financial policies. In December, the rial fell to 1.4 million to the dollar -- and no, that is not a misprint -- having lost 40% of its value over the course of the previous year. Inflation was already running at 42%, harming those on fixed incomes, while the rial's decline particularly hurt the ability of Iranians to afford imported goods.
Such currency instability contributed to economic stagnation, as many merchants went on strike and halted commercial transactions altogether, given the heavy losses they were suffering. For the rest of December and early January, those striking traders were joined by professionals, workers, and students nationwide, some of whom wanted not just a better economy, but a less authoritarian government. The government responded, of course, with grimly repressive tactics, but the size of the crowds only grew, even in the capital, Tehran, while some of the protesters began demanding an end to the Islamic Republic.
A turning point came on January 8th, when security force thugs began shooting down demonstrators en masse and stacking up bodies. Until then, the demonstrations had been largely peaceful (though instances of vandalism had been reported), but the government began alleging that more than 100 police had been killed. Human Rights Watch reported that "verified footage shows some protesters engaging in acts of violence." That some dissidents had turned to violence, however, can't in any way justify the scale of the slaughter by security forces that followed.
By mid-January, human rights organizations were estimating that thousands of demonstrators had been mown down by the Iranian police and military. Even Iran's clerical leader, Ali Khamenei, confirmed that thousands were dead, though ludicrously enough, he blamed Donald Trump for instigating their acts. On January 9th, perhaps as a cover for its police and military sniping into crowds, the government cut the country's internet off, while denouncing all protesters as "rioters" and "terrorists."
Antifa-Led Hellfire
And here's the truly sad thing: while such unhinged rhetorical excesses were once the province of dictatorships and other authoritarian regimes like those in Iran and North Korea, the White House is now competing with Tehran and Pyongyang on a remarkably even playing field. The Trump White House, for instance, excused the dispatch of the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, last year on the grounds of a "Radical left reign of terror," "antifa-led hellfire," and "lunatics" committing widespread mayhem in that city, even deploying "explosives." Of course, Trump's image of Portland as an apocalyptic, anarchist free-fire zone bore no relation to reality, but it did bear an eerie relation to the language of the authoritarian regimes in Iran and North Korea.
That means Trump's America now stands on increasingly shaky ground when it accuses other regimes of atrocities. Similarly, Washington's full-throated backing of Israel's genocidal actions against Palestinians in Gaza raised questions about its alleged support for populations in the global South demanding freedom. Nor could Trump's naked power grab in Venezuela, explicitly carried out for the sake of stealing that country's petroleum, have been reassuring to the inhabitants of a petrostate like Iran.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
Post Article Comment and Rate This Article
