Never thought this day would come but Trita Parsi has stepped down as NIAC’s Supreme Leader. That’s decent of him. Iranians are not known to give up power voluntarily.

But what a wasted opportunity NIAC has been. As the largest and most successful grass-root Iranian-American organization it could have achieved so much more than just being against war. It could not even be an effective voice for peace because most people see it as a mouthpiece, if not an agent, for the Islamic Republic.

NIAC has never truly, sincerely addressed the fact that Iranians are suffering not because of American bullying but primarily because of a regime that will go down in history as one of the most brutal the WORLD has ever seen.

Trita and his band could have been against war, intervention and senseless sanctions AND defended freedom and human rights in Iran. But its condemnation of terrible abuses in Iran has always seemed half-hearted. An afterthought. Secondary to the threat of war.

America is Goliath alright. But the Islamic Republic is no David.

Today war is a real possibility and NIAC will be busier than ever in the coming months, years. As always its focus will be on what the U.S. is doing wrong. We won’t hear about the wrongs of the thugs in Tehran. Their extremism. Their expansionism. Their stupidity and rabid cruelty.

Can’t both sides be wrong? Why is it always America’s fault? Couldn’t NIAC gain some credibility by FAIRLY assessing ALL sides? Couldn’t it acknowledge that it represents hundreds of thousands of Iranians who have been driven from their homeland by vicious madmen? Couldn’t it appreciate the freedoms in America and DEMAND the same for people back home?

Parsi may have shed the age-old Iranian thirst for eternal power but like most of us he’s still a little dictator. He neither understands nor cares for freedom as a fundamental principle. Freedom of expression in particular. That became embarrassingly clear when he went to court to silence a nobody talking trash about him.

Maybe that’s the problem. When you don’t honestly give two shits about basic rights and all other good things that make society civil and tolerable, why fight for them in Iran? You fought against war. Good. Mission accomplished? Ask those in Evin Prison. Ask those in unmarked mass graves. Ask women. Ask Bahais. Jews. Every minority. Every broken, hopeless Iranian.

Parsi sold NIAC’s soul to a bunch of perpetual perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Good luck in your next career.