Oh my, what has Trump done now? We were doing so well over the past 47 years whistling our way past the graveyard with Iran. We saw pictures of thousands of Drones and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles stored deep underground near centrifuges, along with 900 pounds of Uranium already enriched to 60%, which, according to the Iranians, was enough for them to make ten nuclear warheads. But that was all just bluster, wasn’t it?
Some of us were convinced that with a few more pallets of cash and more hollow agreements, that actually permitted Iran to have a nuclear weapon within ten years of the agreement, we could procrastinate until the religious fanatics abandoned their centuries old desire to eliminate America and dominate the entire Middle East.
Iran’s arsenal had grown so formidable that some so-called experts were saying it could not be eliminated and that appeasement negotiation with the Fanatics, from a position of weakness, was the only alternative. With a gross lack of courage, the Western World had been ignoring the Iranian threat for many years, to make it easy on themselves.
The Iranian threat was not going to go away; it was just going to get worse. With all the evidence of Iran’s malicious intentions, their huge arsenal and their own declarations of death to America and to Israel, while they confirmed that they had enough enriched uranium to make 10 nuclear warheads, Donald Trump decided to act. Had he not acted, and Iran went on to annihilate Israel and some of the Arab countries, he would have been accused of not acting when he had the opportunity. A case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Historians will conclude that Donald Trump took advantage of a unique, time sensitive weak spot in Iran’s defensive posture that allowed us to get the upper hand quickly. Had we waited longer, had we not used the element of surprise, had we first conferred with the Europeans or with congress, we would have lost that window of opportunity, and we would have suffered many American casualties.
The Europeans think that Trump has opened Pandora’s Box, and that it is his fault that now the oil tankers no longer move freely through the Straits of Hormuz. Although the Europeans were keenly aware of Iran’s nuclear warfare intentions and massive buildup of ballistic missiles, like the Obama Administration, the European leadership strategy was to just hope that Iran would not attack its neighbors in the Middle East and parts of Western Europe, while they were still in office.
Wow! That must have been the greatest miscalculation of all time.
Almost immediately after the war started, Iran struck five Arab States with drones and missiles. Obviously, those targets were in their sights long before the war started so their ultimate intentions are clear. And that was after we had destroyed a large part of their arsenal with our initial strikes. Imagine what Iran could have done if we had not acted first.
We now know the range of those Iranian missiles was double what they were admitting, capable of reaching western Europe, and the Iranian production of drones and missiles was so prolific that they were even selling those to Russia.
For some, it seems that “Imminent Threat” only applies to a potential strike on the US homeland, the continental United States, and that striking our allies and American installations outside the US 150 times, does not count as aggression against America.
Can you imagine a situation where Iran, a fanatical regime that slaughters its own people by the thousands, and has warned the US that they are coming for us when the conditions permit, could have total and permanent control of the Staits of Hormuz and the destiny of 25% of the world’s oil, backed up by thousands of ballistic missiles? That was the Pandora’s Box that Donald Trump had to open, and to do otherwise was to “Whistle Past the Graveyard”
Let’s remind ourselves: “Freedom is not Free”. The average monthly increase in out-of-pocket cost for Americans at the gas pump, due to the crisis in the Straits of Hurmuz, is between $50.00 and $100.00. That’s a small price to pay, for as long as it takes, to liberate the western world from the Iranian threat. But, we have Americans who are so self-centered they complain about a 25% increase in their bill at the pump.
Surveys show that 58% of Americans are opposed to the war in Iran. Did they not see the threat or are they not concerned? Are they afraid that we might lose a few planes and a few lives to accomplish the objective? Is their opinion based on the price of gasoline? Are they even capable of making an informed decision?
Thousands of our military personnel are voluntarily in harm’s way to confront this enemy. They know the risks and, like all of us who have served in combat, all they expect from their countrymen is their unwavering support. We will lose some of those dedicated Americans, our protectors, who didn’t sign up just to take advantage of the GI Bill.
We are really spoiled, aren’t we? Maybe those of us living comfortably at home could temporarily absorb a couple of hundred a month in additional expense at the pump and stop complaining. The World War II generation would be ashamed of us.
