Morning Note

The ongoing Iran protests served as this weekend’s biggest story, fueling widespread neocon lust over the possibility of the U.S. reacting by invading the Muslim nation. Perhaps this, bloodthirsty globalists like Lindsey Graham hope, could finally prompt a regime change war.

Rand Paul has a different perspective. The Republican senator on Sunday urged President Trump to show caution in aiding Iranian protesters, suggesting that attacking their homeland could yield unintended consequences by rallying Iranians around their flag, not America’s. 

“When you bomb a country, then people tend to rally around their own flag; they tend to see [that] this is a foreign country coming in and bombing us, and so I don’t think it always has that effect,” Paul warned on ABC’s This Week. “I don’t know that bombing Iran will have the effect that is intended.”

The senator’s statement is not an endorsement of the Ayatollah or his regime’s reported killing of hundreds of demonstrators, but rather a sober-minded acknowledgement of human nature. Watching a hostile foreign power lay siege to your country doesn’t usually cause citizens to embrace their attacker. It draws them to their embattled leader. Recall George Bush’s sky-high post-9/11 approval rating for proof. 

Would Paul like for Iran to gain freedom? Sure. But he doesn’t see the U.S. inserting itself into “every freedom movement around the world” as America First or in accordance with our national interests. He is correct. 

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