Let’s Beat Iran—Not Just at Soccer

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Column: The nuke-pursuing mullahs richly deserve an actual defeat

Getty Images Matthew Continetti • December 2, 2022 5:00 am

President Biden could not contain his excitement. It was November 29 and he had just learned that the U.S. men’s national soccer team was headed to the next round of the World Cup after winning a match against Iran by a single point. Eager to spread news of America’s victory, Biden returned to the stage at the Michigan venue where he had just delivered remarks on the economy.  Chants of “USA” broke out in the crowd. The president joined in the celebration. “That’s a big game, man!” he said.

Indeed, it was. I was among the estimated 12 million people who watched the game on television that afternoon. I cheered when the 24-year-old midfielder Christian Pulisic kicked the winning goal though it meant he’d be injured. My stomach was in knots during the second half as the Americans, without Pulisic, fended off a sustained Iranian offensive. I was happy to see good sportsmanship among the athletes on both teams and welcomed the comments that Iran’s team captain, Ehsan Hajsafi, made a few days earlier in support of the anti-government protests roiling his country.

But let’s be serious. A soccer game is no substitute for grand strategy. And right now, Biden’s Iran policy is a shambles. The Islamic theocrats who rule Iran are responding to internal revolt with savage repression and external terror. They murder their own people, even children, while providing Russia with the means to commit atrocities against Ukrainian civilians. They continue to pursue nuclear weapons while ramping up their efforts to kidnap and assassinate regime critics, including former high-ranking officials of the U.S. government. They violate Iraq’s sovereignty with attacks on America’s Kurdish allies and fund the Houthi rebels terrorizing commercial traffic in Yemen. Iran is the very definition of a rogue state: reckless, violent, incendiary, and cruising for a bruising.

Biden and his officials, to their credit, have said that they stand with the Iranian people against the oppressive regime. Biden has levied sanctions on Iranian government officials and organizations associated with the brutal crackdown on demonstrators. It’s a start. Otherwise, Biden has wasted time.

He spent more than a year in a pointless diplomatic waltz in Vienna over the Iranian nuclear program—negotiations that the administration now admits have broken