CARTOON: “I Ran With Hypocrisy”

From Clay Jones on his political cartoon “I Ran Wit Hypocrisy,” how we might have paid Iran a ransom to release hostages, and of course Donald Trump

In 1979, the United States government made an arms deal with Iran, and then there was a revolution and the regime friendly to the U.S. was ousted. What did the U.S. do with Iran’s money? Duh, they kept it.

Back in January, the Obama administration announced they were paying back the money. It turns out the cash was delivered the same day Iran released four Americans they were holding prisoners. Ruh-roh, Scooby Doo, that looks like a ransom payment.

It is weird timing. No, it doesn’t look good. It’s hard to defend that. And you know what? Maybe it kinda sorta is a ransom payment.

Here’s the thing: The U.S. was going to repay this money. The negotiations were separate from those for the release of the prisoners. What if Iran said, “We’re not going to release these prisoners until you pay us back?”

What if we said, “You’re not receiving this money until you release the prisoners?” Does that sound better? Wouldn’t it make you mad if we returned their money without receiving our people? Yes. It was their money. In 1953, The CIA staged a coup in Iran overthrowing their elected government, installed a puppet dictator, and reaped money from Iranian oil. Twenty-six years later in 1979, a revolution overthrew the U.S. installed government. We’re still trying to figure out why they call us Great Satan.

A lot of conservatives from the usual outraged narrative crowd say this is American taxpayer money. It’s not. They point out how the money was delivered in cash in currencies other than U.S. and Iranian. We don’t have a relationship with Iran, so it’s not like we can do a wire transfer, write a check, or do a Paypal payment. Can you imagine how much Paypal would charge in fees to deliver $400 million? They scalp me each month when I receive a payment from Costa Rica. Paypal jerks.

On top of all this, Republicans are repeating what they always do: It’s OK when a Republican does it. Don’t investigate a Republican president after a terrorist attack. Don’t criticize a Republican for incurring debt. Don’t criticize a Republican for vacations. Don’t criticize a Republican for negotiating with terrorist … wait. A Republican would never negotiate or trade arms with terrorists. Well, of course, except they did. Not just any Republican president either, but Saint Ronald Reagan.

Reagan actually delivered weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages and then diverted the money to the Contras, which was all illegal and impeachable. Keep in mind this is after Iran held 52 Americans in the U.S. embassy and after they were behind a terrorist attack in Beirut that killed 241 Marines. People still argue to this day that Iran released the embassy hostages because they were afraid of tough guy Ronald Reagan … who eventually kissed their mullah-loving asses and gave them weapons and let them kill our people for it.

Of course, the entire thing wouldn’t be complete without Donald Trump taking a stage somewhere (or Twitter) and making up some big fat lie about it. This time, it was that he watched a video that Iran released to embarrass us of the money being delivered. He repeated the lie the next day. Turns out, it was a video of the plane in Geneva with the hostages … which was not released by Iran.

Creative note and stuff: I enjoy drawing Ronald Reagan. My career started during the George H.W. Bush administration, and he was not as much fun to draw as his former boss. I totally missed the Reagan administration because I was a teenager throughout it, and the comic books I was drawing at the time were about race car hoodlums fighting zombies. Yeah, I was on the zombie train way early. Today, I take advantage of drawing Reagan any chance I can. I also miss George W. Bush (those ears) and Bill Clinton, who will be giving me a lot more opportunities soon … at least four years’ worth.

claytoonz.com/2016/08/06/i-ran-with-hypocrisy

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