Iran, Venezuela, and Ukraine are very different countries, but most Iranians, Venezuelans and Ukrainians want the same thing: to not be ruled by tyrants.
They look to America for support – which means they look to President Trump. Where else and to whom else would they look?
To the U.N.? Sadly, that's now a club for dictators headed by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a senescent socialist sycophant.
What about the "international community"? Oh sure. Its capital is in Shangri-La, right? To qualify as a community means members share values, interests, and goals.
Millions of Iranians, Venezuelans, and Ukrainians do share a kind of fellowship. One of the attributes they have in common: patriotism.
Ukrainian patriots understand that Vladimir Putin intends nothing less than the destruction of their sovereignty, independence, freedom, culture, and language. He means to drag them back into the Russian/Soviet Empire.
Venezuelan patriots recall with anger that their nation was once among the freest and wealthiest in Latin America. Then came Hugo Chavez and his successor, Nicolas Maduro, who made common cause with the anti-American rulers in Havana, Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing. Since the mid-2000s, about one out of every four Venezuelans has fled into exile.
I've long argued that the so-called Iranian Revolution was really an Islamic Revolution. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in "Islamic Government," his 1970 collection of speeches, called for the Iran's clerical class to become its ruling class, and for the spread of Islamic law, Sharia, to every corner of the planet.
In 1980, following the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mr. Khomeini became the country's first "Supreme Leader." He was explicit about his willingness to sacrifice his nation on the altar of his theology.
"We do not worship Iran," he reportedly said. "We worship Allah. For patriotism is another name for paganism. I say let this land [Iran] burn. I say let this land go up in smoke, provided Islam emerges triumphant in the rest of the world."
Nearly a half century later, the protestors on Iran's streets have been chanting patriotic, anti-theocratic, and anti-Islamist slogans, notably: "Neither Gaza, nor Lebanon, I sacrifice my life only for Iran!"
So far, President Trump has been most successful in supporting the people of Venezuela. Since extracting Mr. Maduro, he has been making demands of the socialist regime stalwarts left in charge, warning that non-compliance could be hazardous to their health.
His plan for Venezuela has three stages. First, stabilize the situation, including the release of political prisoners (which has begun but is far from complete). Second, help Venezuela begin to recover economically. Third, facilitate a transition to a new and much improved government. He'll need to stay attentive to make progress– and keep Secretary of State Marco Rubio in charge of the mission.
President Trump's strategy for negotiating an end to Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine has not been fruitful. Last April, he suggested that the Russian dictator was playing him – pretending to be eager to end the war through diplomacy and compromise. That was a correct reading of the situation.
Mr. Putin appears untroubled by the fact that, over the last three years, roughly a quarter of a million Russian soldiers have been killed, and at least a million wounded. Over this same period, how much Ukrainian territory has he purchased for this sea of blood? An additional 1.5% compared to what he occupied in the early months of the war.
President Trump has now "greenlit" a bipartisan sanctions bill that would allow him to impose tariffs up to 500% on countries that continue to buy Mr. Putin's oil. The bill has more than 80 Senate co-sponsors, but to get the House to go along, Mr. Trump will have to twist some arms. He should do that, and much more to prevent Mr. Putin from achieving his ambitions.
As for Iran, President Trump has urged protestors to "keep protesting." He promised that "help is on the way," and said it's "time to look for new leadership in Iran."
He's imposed 25% tariffs on nations continuing to do business with Iran's rulers so long as they're slaughtering protestors – which they are, including those they've imprisoned.
There's a long list of additional steps – economic, cyber, kinetic – he can choose from that would weaken the regime, perhaps inhibit its brutality, empower the opposition, and make clear that he's not been issuing idle threats against the mass-murderers of defenseless Iranian civilians.
Ayatollah Khamenei should not be given justification to repeat what Ayatollah Khomeini said when President Jimmy Carter responded fecklessly following the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the taking of 66 Americans hostages: "The Americans can't do a damn thing against us!"
What Mr. Trump should avoid: letting his envoys get dragged into fruitless and endless palavers with the clerical regime's cunning hucksters – as did President Obama.
When Donald Trump began his second term in the White House a year ago this week, he could not have anticipated that three nations, one in South America, one in Europe, and one in the Middle East, would soon be looking to him as their liberator and savior.
While I don't fancy myself an expert Trumpologist, my best guess is that he will take on that responsibility if he's confident that doing so will serve the American national interest.
My two-sentence argument that it does: The peoples of Iran, Venezuela, and Ukraine are all fighting sworn enemies of Americans. That makes them the points of three American spears.