In yesterday’s article about Iran, a word kept showing up: handle. The War Powers Resolution is a handle. Tribal loyalty is a handle. But I used the term without properly explaining it, and it deserves its own treatment because understanding what a Handle is, and how it differs from a Principle, might be the single most important thing you can learn about politics.
In Tehran, Iran, two women breathlessly climb to the top of a nearby building to watch, celebrate and cheer as they see smoke rising from the residence of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s self-styled “Supreme Leader” who we now know died in that blast. Meanwhile in other parts of Iran, bare-headed women, who have shed their legally mandated hijabs, light cigarette (also something outlawed by the now tumbling regime) with photos of Khamenei as a further sign of defiance. All across Iran, Iranians dance in the street as bombs continue to fall. Meanwhile 6,000 some odd miles away, American politicians frown and fret over the method in which the Iranian people, and the world has been freed from the number 1 source of terrorism across the globe.