Thinking about Michael Ledeen on Memorial Day

And Iranian freedom

Should we have invaded Saddam’s Iraq? Most, in those days, said yes, including me to be honest. We had high hopes that “shock and awe” could turn Iraq into Denmark.

Evidently, we were wrong. Very wrong.

A man named Michael Ledeen-of whom more anon—believed we had the wrong target. He thought the real problem was the Islamic Republic of Iran that had fought a long and inconclusive war with Iraq.

Donald Trump too thought we were wrong on Iraq, most of the time anyway.

He’s a peace through strength guy, he tells us repeatedly, though he seems a bit schizophrenic about it. He was more than wiling to put paid to ISIS during his first administration and in the last couple of weeks, pretty much unbeknownst to the public and hardly reported, US Africa Command has conducted several air strikes against ISIS-Somalia and against Al Shabaab terrorists in the same country.

Not much longer ago, and much more widely reported, the subject matter being what its is, Trump told the Israelis, don’t worry about the Houthis that had been raining missiles, or attempting to, on the Jewish state for some time. We’ll take care of them. Netanyahu said, sure. Why wouldn’t he? And for a while the U. S. did, but then, without telling the Israelis, made some kind of peace deal with the Yemenite Islamists for not attacking ships while continuing to allow them to attack Israel. I’m not sure what the sense of this is, but it pales next to the real issue,. the country that is providing the Houthis with those missiles.

Of course I mean the Islamic Republic of Iran. It seems almost incredible on Memorial Day 2025 we are still worrying about the mullahs close to fifty years since they were kidnaping our people back in 1979. I thought we were supposed to be a superpower and they a third world nation.

POTUS has involved himself in this struggle in a curious way. After pulling out of the useless Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA) during his first administration and winning much applause for that, in his second term he has turned around and seems almost to be reconstituting the same agreement with small variations.

Is this true? It’s hard to say. Trump’s utterances vary. Part of that is a negotiating technique. But that technique can leave his supporters at sea as much as his adversaries. Sometimes he appears to be laying down the law to the Ayatollah. Other times he seems about to be giving away the store—that is allowing them to continue to enrich uranium at some level with which, it couldn’t be more obvious, the mullah’s primary goal is to make nuclear weapons. (The secondary goal is, in so doing, to show the power that keeps their populace at bay.)

And sometimes you wonder if Trump and his negotiator Steve Witkoff realize the obvious. Iran’s deepest intention is not to reach a conclusion but to prolong negotiations as much as possible. They play the long game. They know Trump is gone in something over three years. A better replacement could be in the offing.

The mullahs aren’t going anywhere unless the revolution many of us have prayed for is achieved. Even the Europeans are getting frustrated with the pace of the negotiations according to this report.

Nevertheless, in the coming weeks, it seems a form of conclusion will be reached on both the Iran and Gaza negotiations. It is difficult to know what decisions will be reached on both.

I am reassured, however, by Trump’s use as an adviser on Israel/Jewish affairs of Miami businessman Yehuda Kaploun whose understanding of the situation is deep.

In recent reporting from Al Hadath (a Saudi news channel), “Iran was given a short deadline to make a decision regarding negotiations.” Take that how you will.

My own involvement with the Iran freedom movement goes back some years. At one point, around 2007-8, I was driving out every week to the bowels of the San Fernando Valley to broadcast in English via satellite the news of the week on Radio Free Iran. It was a fascinating experience, although I had no idea who, if anyone, was listening.

At another point, Sheryl and I worked on a screenplay—”Keys to Paradise”—that dealt with life in the Islamic Republic that Sheryl wrote about here. During the research we met several torture victims of the regime, what you might call a bracing experience.

This all happened via an old friend and colleague from the early days of Pajamas (now PJ) Media, Michael Ledeen. Michael, an extraordinary friend of the Iranian people (as opposed to the mullahs and their allies), passed away from multiple strokes on May 17.

Michael was a lifetime freedom fighter and a warm and loving person. I salute him and his wonderful wife Barbara on this Memorial Day.

Journalist Eli Lake who knew him as well as I did—I recall the three of us having lunch together—wrote this stirring obituary for the NY Sun. Eli writes:

“In our many meetings, lunches, and dinners, he carried himself like a professor. He made sure to recommend books I hadn’t read and then would help me better understand them a few weeks later. He was also a great source, connecting me to his friends in Europe, to the Bush administration, and later to the dissidents he knew in Iran. As a young journalist trying to understand how Washington worked, I treasured Michael as a guide to navigating the Washington swamp.”

I treasured Michael too. He was also my guide to the Washington swamp. He could almost make it palatable with his infectious and forgiving humor. He knew many interesting people that he introduced me to. One time, at a party at his house, I was having a pleasant casual conversation with a slightly plump and very pleasant black man about our mutual enjoyment of camping. It was several minutes before I realized who he was when his wife called out to him, “Clarence.” (Yes, he was that Clarence.)

More than anything Michael wanted to visit a free Iran, to go there and celebrate that freedom. He was known for signing his many articles on the subject, and others too, with “Faster, please.” Unfortunately, he never got his wish on that score, but if Iran ever frees itself from the mullahs, and at some point it will, it will owe a debt to Michael Ledeen.

ONE MORE THING I THINK MICHAEL WOULD HAVE LIKED:

According to the WSJ: “President Trump on Monday said he was considering taking billions in grant money away from Harvard University and redistributing it to trade schools across the U.S., the latest salvo in his administration’s campaign against the Ivy League institution.”