148 Lashes

The Left tends to do something interesting when conflict occurs across the globe. If the primary aggressor is one of Left's favorites—defined as a group or country that is viewed (often incorrectly) as "oppressed"—they are given a pass for their actions on a wide range of human rights abuses, their warlike language that advocates destruction/death to their enemies, their internal oppression of their own people, and their kinetic aggression against their enemies (e.g., rocket launches against civilian population centers). That has been the case with Islamist terror groups like Hamas (a.k.a. the "palestinians") or Hezballah, and more recently, with Iran.

Iran is the world's largest sponsor of Islamic terror and violence. Through their many proxies, they have fomented violence throughout the Middle East, continually threaten their neighbors, and even threaten U.S. forces in the region. Yet when the United States responds by moving assets into the region to counter their threats, the Left accuses the current administration with war-like posturing and predicts all-out war in the Middle East. Leftist Democrats go so far as suggesting that Donald Trump is doing the bidding of the Saudis, the Israelis, the Qataris, conveniently forgetting that despite the Obama administration's pathetic attempt to mollify the mad mullahs, Iran continues on its path to become the North Korea of the M.E.

Yet it seems that leftist media sources and far too many Democrats somehow believe that Iran is the victim in all of this. That would be the same Iran whose leadership does things like this:

After two trials described by Amnesty International as “grossly unfair,” Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has been sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes.

Sotoudeh, who has dedicated her life to defending Iranian women prosecuted for removing their hijabs in public, has been in the crosshairs of Iran’s theocratic government for years. In 2010, she was convicted of conspiring to harm state security and served half of a six-year sentence. Then, in June of last year, she was rearrested on an array of dubious charges. Tried in secret, details of her ordeal have often come via her husband, Reza Khandan, who wrote of her new, much harsher sentence on his Facebook page on Monday.

Sotoudeh was ultimately charged with seven crimes and given the maximum sentence for all of them. Five additional years were added from a 2016 case in which she was convicted in absentia. The total 38-year sentence was severe even by Iranian standards — a country often accused of human rights abuses, particularly involving women. Observers say it may signal a newly hardline approach to political dissent. Last week, a radical cleric linked to mass executions in the 1980s was appointed head of the Islamic Republic’s judiciary.

Critics from around the world decried the outcome of Sotoudeh’s case. Amnesty International said it was harshest sentence documented against a human rights defender in Iran in recent memory. Hadi Ghaemi, the executive director of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, told CBS News it exposed “the insecurity the regime has to any peaceful challenge.”

Not to mention the same Iran that almost 40 years ago essentially declared war on the U.S. by invading our embassy in Tehran and taking 52 people prisoner for 444 days—a clear violation of international law. A weak and feckless U.S. President (Jimmy Carter) did nothing at the time, leading the mullahs to believe that the tiger had no teeth.

Today, Iran is NOT a victim, nor does its leadership deserve any respect whatsoever. It can easily pull back and in doing so, reduce the tension that it and only it, has created. But if Iran does not do this, if it's foolish enough to pull hard on the tiger's tail, it just might reap an overwhelming response—one that in my opinion, is almost 40 years past due.