“Anything that associates the U.S. with the protesters hurts the protesters,” said Rosemary Kelanic of Defense Priorities, arguing that overt American involvement would make it easier for Tehran to portray demonstrations as foreign-backed and justify a harsher crackdown.
Concerns that the pause damaged U.S. credibility, she added, are overstated.
“Trump has shown several times quite recently his willingness to use U.S. military force in quite spectacular ways.”
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