Anne Applebaum

I thought it was a really moving and well done op-ed, actually.

Exactly.

It's kind of performative cruelty, isn't it?

It's, you know, we're going to take these Iranian women who've obviously left the country because they would be persecuted for political or religious reasons.

You know, we can't send them back to Iran.

And so we're going to send them to an equally dangerous country where they have no means of making a living and where, who knows, they might be kidnapped or taken by Iranians who do do that sort of thing and taken home.

Right.

And we would bar from our country a World Cup referee who's qualified to be refereeing matches.

And here's the strange part for me was that I didn't see FIFA, you know, the organization that runs the World Cup.

You see barely any objections.

Right.

I mean, there was no real commentary, no condemnation.

Oh, the United States has the right to do what it wants.

I mean, it's just a form of bribery and sucking up.

Maybe it's about avoiding corruption charges, notoriously corrupt organization.

Maybe it's about

Maybe they have other reasons for it.

Maybe they want to get through the World Cup without something terrible happening.

Or why didn't they have the referee do the games in Canada and Mexico?

I was mystified by that story, actually.