OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017
Founded in 1873
KARI BORGEN, Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Trump’s denigration
of FBI is self-serving
T
he FBI is so universally familiar to Americans that it’s
unnecessary to spell out its name. Its initials are synon-
ymous with a kind of stolid professionalism. Like our
northern neighbor where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
famously “always gets their man,” the FBI isn’t glamorous,
but is who you want on your side if there’s a criminal to
apprehend.
It isn’t without fault. In the post-9/11 era, its anti-ter-
ror focus has sometimes been overzealous, generating com-
plaints from minority communities and civil libertarians. But
long gone are the days of J. Edgar Hoover, its legendary found-
ing director, who infamously played fast and loose in pursu-
ing personal vendettas and agendas. At least since it became
known that FBI Associate Director Mark Felt served as the
Washington Post’s secret source in pending the corrupt Nixon
administration, a large majority of Americans sees the FBI as
an honest and neutral bulwark against wrongdoers of all kinds,
in or out of government.
This makes it all the more astounding to hear a U.S. presi-
dent denigrate the FBI. Claiming the agency’s stature is in “tat-
ters,” President Trump is lashing out at an American institution
with a far better reputation than he enjoys himself.
Trump’s reaction to the FBI’s legally sanctioned investiga-
tion of Russian involvement in the last election may be under-
standable from someone who regards himself as a tough street
fighter. But running down the FBI at the time when it has hun-
dreds of investigations going, some of them dangerous, is not
smart for the nation’s chief executive officer, who oversees the
FBI and ought to have its agents’ welfare and safety in mind.
The Republican Party of days gone by was a proud defender
of law and order. It is sad to see the GOP’s leader and his
enablers turn against our most potent police agency, which
has been effective at combating organized crime and blocking
attacks by foreign terrorists.
It is a standard ploy to attack government during political
campaigns, but quite another to sabotage it after being elected.
Meanwhile, the rest of us need government to function. And
we sure as hell need the FBI to continue doing its job well.
Thankfully, there is no evidence for what Trump is suggest-
ing. Robert Mueller, the retired FBI director now directing the
independent investigation of election interference, promptly
relieved one agent of his duty because of a pro-Clinton email.
This is a sign that the agency has a self-correcting mechanism.
It still treasures objectivity, fairness and truthfulness. Trump,
of course, has no use for any of these values.
Trump is simply trying to derail an investigation that is now
penetrating his operation. We must make certain the FBI stays
on the job.
Important referendum
coming up on Measure 101
I
n 2017, it seems like we never get a break from politics. And
there will be no rest for the weary once we turn the calendar
to 2018.
The political season will get off to a fast start next year, with
Oregon voters having an important referendum in January, fol-
lowed by important primaries in May and a critical election
awaiting again in November.
So what’s this January thing again?
It’s Measure 101, a referendum on health insurance premium
taxes that were approved by the state Legislature during the pre-
vious session. Opponents of the taxes gathered signatures to put
pieces of that package before voters.
The whole process has been controversial since the begin-
ning. Some argue the referendum process is a bad way to set
complicated tax policy. Others say the ballot language itself is
biased, arguing the semantics of “tax” against “assessment.”
And they argued some more over the date that the actual tax
vote will place (It’s January 23).
All this … and we haven’t even gotten to the meat of the
issue, which has both sides taking principled and impassioned
stands on how critical their victory is.
Opponents say the tax allows legislators a “back door” to
suck health care into the general fund, which will eventually
lead to worse health budgets and outcomes.
Proponents of the tax say this is the least-harmful way to take
a step toward guaranteeing health care for more Oregonians,
perhaps as many as 300,000.
We’re digging deep into the issue over the next month, so
look for editorials on the subject before ballots go out.
But we want to make voters aware of this issue right now, so
they can look critically at their ballot guide when it arrives.
Take this seriously. You are likely to hear exaggerations from
both sides, but there is no debating the fact that this is an import-
ant issue that will be decided by relatively few informed voters.
Do your best to make sure you are one.
Obsession with Iran is driving
the Mideast and U.S. crazy
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
New York Times News Service
I
f there is a common denominator
explaining so many recent events
in the Middle East — actions by
Saudi Arabia, the
U.S., Syria, Israel
and Yemen — it
can be expressed
in one word: Iran.
Everyone has Iran’s
growing power and
influence in the
region on the mind — including Iran
— and that obsession is making a lot
of people crazy.
For instance, the Trump admin-
istration, like Barack Obama’s,
actually wants to get away from the
Middle East — as much as possible
— but while leaving as little Iranian
influence behind as possible.
Saudi Arabia, under Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman,
known as MBS, wants to get ahead
in the Middle East and reform his
economy for the 21st century —
while curtailing as much Iranian
influence in the region as possible.
And the Iranians want to get
wide — to expand their influence
from Tehran to the Mediterranean
— not by creating a successful and
attractive development model at
home that Arabs and other Muslims
would want to emulate, but rather
by forcing their way into Lebanon,
Yemen, Syria and Iraq through local
Shiite militias that have created states
within these states.
This is generating a lot of anxiety
in the Arab world, the U.S. and Israel
without enough people stepping back
and thinking: So pro-Iranian militias
control a bunch of bad neighbor-
hoods in Beirut, Sana, Damascus
and Baghdad. Tell me, what is
second prize? What are they really
“winning”?
Iran has a richly talented pop-
ulation, and rich Persian culture.
But instead of unleashing both and
enabling Iran’s youth to realize their
full potential — and making the
country influential that way — the
ayatollahs are suppressing those
talents at home and unleashing the
power of Shiite mercenaries on
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen,
and compelling influence that way
instead.
It’s actually rather pathetic. The
greatest thing that the U.S. and Saudi
Arabia could do is to stop working
each other into a lather over this
Iranian “threat” and to focus on
their domestic reform agendas. That
would be the best revenge on Tehran.
For starters, American, European
and Arab leaders should all be
encouraging MBS to keep going
where no Saudi leader before him
has dared to go — pursuing his
stated goal of reversing the religious
right turn that the kingdom took
in 1979, after the takeover of the
Iranian Presidency Office
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, said in a recent television
interview that Saudi Arabia’s revamped enmity toward Tehran is a
cover-up for the kingdom’s domestic and regional failures.
Grand Mosque in Mecca by Muslim
extremists. That prompted the Saudi
rulers at the time to ban fun, tighten
the control of the religious police
over society and to much more
aggressively export the most misog-
ynist, anti-pluralistic interpretation
of Islam to mosques and madrasas
across the Muslim world, tilting the
whole faith community to the right.
If MBS fulfills his vow to bring
Saudi Islam back to “moderation,”
it will surely improve the status of
Muslim women, the quality of edu-
cation in Muslim communities and
the relationship between Muslims
and other faiths across the globe. We
in the West have spent tremendous
sums “countering Muslim extrem-
ism.” We may finally have a Saudi
leader ready to do that work — from
the wellspring of Islam — and it
would over time hugely benefit
Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Everyone has
Iran’s growing
power and
influence in
the region
on the mind.
But for MBS to advance that
agenda requires a strong, economi-
cally healthy Saudi Arabia. Alas, for
now Saudi Arabia is far from that;
its trajectory in recent years has been
sharply downward. Most Saudis
today are focused on jobs and educa-
tion, not on Iran, and if MBS can fix
those needs with his reform plan it
will only propel his push to moderate
Saudi Islam.
Precisely because these inter-
twined religious and economic
reform agendas are so critical, wise
friends of MBS would also be
offering him some tough love — by
telling him that it’s great to arrest
thieving Saudi billionaires and throw
them in the Ritz-Carlton, but it has
to be done with transparency and
within a rule of law — which would
enhance his legitimacy — not in an
arbitrary way that will hurt his legit-
imacy and frighten future investors.
They also have to stress to him that
to be an effective anti-corruption
campaigner, he has to be open to
criticism himself and live modestly.
No more giant yachts.
On foreign policy, MBS’ real
friends would also tell him that
while Iran has expanded its influence
across the Arab world, the Saudis
do not have the muscles to take it on
head-on right now. The Iranians have
spent 40 years developing their influ-
ence through underground networks
and Shiite proxies.
Meanwhile, the Saudis wrote
checks to Sunni militias, who never
stayed bought. Or they bought big
weapons systems that are useless in
this age of irregular warfare — and
only lead to the kind of Saudi aerial
bombardments of Yemen that have
led to so many civilian deaths,
disease and starvation — and a costly
stalemate for Riyadh. Saudi Arabia
needs to end that war — now — and
get out of Yemen, even if it means
leaving some Iranian influence
behind.
My view on Saudi Arabia today is
very simple: Because it has so much
deferred reform to undertake —
before its oil money runs out — the
biggest question is not if MBS is too
brash, too brutal, too power-hungry
or too imperfect. It’s whether he’s
too late — that Saudi Arabia is now
un-reformable. I think not, but that
is why, with all of MBS’ flaws, we
need to help increase his chances
for success. If he can turn Jiddah
into another Dubai, where so many
Iranians now love to vacation and
bank, he will do more to increase his
influence in the region and diminish
Iran’s than anything else he could do.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 439 Cannon House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515.
Phone: 202- 225-0855. Fax 202-225-
9497. District office: 12725 SW Mil-
likan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR
97005. Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax
503-326-5066. Web: bonamici.house.
gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State
Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373,
Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1431. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/witt/
Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.
or.us District office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.