It goes without saying the pro-war crew — with cheerleaders like John Bolton and Lindsey Graham — is still ecstatic over the latest round of strikes against the faltering Iranian regime. Those who took Trump at his word about no new foreign wars are understandably nervous right now.
But no matter how much Congress screeches about the War Powers Act, the current administration might best heed the advice of the late Fred (“Mr.”) Rogers: “Take your time and do it right.”
America’s war on Iran didn’t start this past weekend, and contrary to appearances, we didn’t draw first blood. Ever since 1979, Washington has been wincing and winging about the Islamic Republic. Every U.S. president since then, even Ronald Reagan, is guilty to different degrees of accommodating the mullahs.
Today, the world will be a better place if — along with its many enemies in the region — America finishes it off once and for all.
Earlier this year, the U.S. military pulled off an extraordinary feat by descending like a surgical lightning bolt on Caracas and arresting Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro who is now in custody in New York City pending trial on narco-terrorism and other charges. The problem there was we left his vice-president in power even though there is a democratically-elected alternative (who nonetheless rather graciously gave Trump her well-earned Nobel peace prize).
Ok, there is something to be said for modest and limited aims, especially when you campaigned against foreign entanglements. But Iran is different.
Rewind to a point much more recent than the Iranian revolution nearly a half century ago: October 6, 2023. Israel and the Gulf Cooperation Council states, notably Saudi Arabia, were about to cinch a historic new alignment. Desperate to avert that scenario, Tehran’s proxy, Hamas, committed a horrific act of terror in southern Israel throwing the whole process wildly off course.
Ever since 1979, Iran has been that big, weird kid on the bus no one likes but everyone is afraid to take on directly. Unlike the weird kid who actually does relatively little harm until he goes postal in the school cafeteria, the Tehran regime has been spilling American blood since its inception. There exists no scenario in which the world is a better place with the mullahs continuing on in power.
Don’t take my word for it, just ask any of the families of the 43,000 Iranian protestors who have been slaughtered in recent months for daring to demand a change. Sad, but not our problem? Fair. There are plenty of nasty regimes in the world that mistreat their people. But the Islamic Republic is unique in the sense that their rallying cry from day one has been Death to America.
If Iran’s various neighbors cooperate in keeping the large and diverse country from descending into warring factions through basic security guarantees, the Iranian people themselves will chart their own future. An alumnus of the Iraq experiment in nation-building, I wouldn’t pretend to say what that should look like.
Just don’t cut a deal with the butchers.
Also unlike the big, weird kid on the bus, Iran has a small handful of friends who share little more than being brutal tyrants and (the and is important here), a persistent need to screw with their neighbors. Venezuela was one. Russia is another. If Vladimir Putin is starting to doubt the world as he knows it, that’s not a bad thing.
But public opinion is a thing. A Washington Post poll on Monday showed just over half of Americans disapproving of the strikes. There has after all been little effort to explain why they were a good idea. But even more interestingly, a TIPP poll conducted before the strike showed more than a third of Democrats opposing exerting diplomatic pressure in Iran – that was weirder, though perhaps understandable in the twisted prism of TDS.
Every American life that has been lost in what has so far been a 72-hour operation is sacred. The best way to honor them, and the hundreds of servicemen and women the Tehran regime has killed in previous decades, is to finish the job.
Set a clear and achievable goal and then step back and let the Iranian people do the rest. Regime change is, my own experience has suggested, a tricky business. But helping others get rid of bad guys is, in limited doses, worthwhile. The chance to do so here has been a long time coming.
