Cal Thomas - Do we know our enemy?
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
The press tends to treat talks with Iran as a morality play where diplomacy is always the adult choice and skepticism is the tantrum. So when Trump cancels a delegation because Tehran cannot be bothered to show, it gets framed as impulsive. A more basic reading is that he refused to lend American legitimacy to a staged photo-op.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
President Trump canceled a delegation of U.S. negotiators about to head to Islamabad for continued negotiations with Iran because it appeared no one from the Iranian regime planned to show up. It’s past time to consider whether the American side
Original source:
Read at Crescent-newsHow We See It
New Republican Times Editorial Board
The press tends to treat talks with Iran as a morality play where diplomacy is always the adult choice and skepticism is the tantrum. So when Trump cancels a delegation because Tehran cannot be bothered to show, it gets framed as impulsive. A more basic reading is that he refused to lend American legitimacy to a staged photo-op.
What that framing misses is that negotiations are not virtue signaling. They are leverage. If the regime will not even send a seat-filler, that is not a scheduling glitch. It is contempt, and it tests whether Washington will keep paying the costs of process.
The point is public trust and national security, not ego. Rule of law matters when Iran funds proxies and targets Americans. Diplomacy without consequences invites more bad faith. Institutional seriousness means we show up prepared, but only when the other side does too.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.