This night is a historic night for the entire Middle East. Thank you to President Trump. Thank you to the US. A nuclear Iran is a threat to the entire world. Tonight, a nuclear arms race in the Middle East was averted.
Yair Lapid (Israeli opposition leader)
In 2011, a future president wrote a book called Time To Get Tough, warning Americans that the world would face unspeakable havoc if Iran ever became a nuclear power: “Iran’s nuclear program must be stopped by any and all means necessary. Period. We cannot allow this radical regime to acquire a nuclear weapon that they will either use or hand off to terrorists.” That future President was Donald Trump.
Like any American patriot, his conclusion was 100% correct. After the November 1979 attack on the US embassy in Tehran, where 66 Americans were held hostage until January 1981, only a fool (or Barack Obama) would trust Iran. After its mullahs chanted “Death to America” and its military launched over 300 missiles at American military bases, only a fool (or Joe Biden) would trust Iran.
If it wasn’t “Death to America” emblazoned on the sides of Iran’s test missiles, maybe it was the IAEA’s report that the Islamist regime was “stockpiling enriched uranium” in spite of its public denials of a nuclear weapons program that convinced Donald Trump – after 60 days of negotiations – Iran was stalling for time to nuclear-arm itself. Only a weak leader would remain indecisive.
Saturday night, the President decided to ensure a nuclear Iran never happened; firing thirty Tomahawk missiles from submarines and dropping a dozen bunker-busting bombs from B2 bombers to “obliterate” the Islamist regime’s main nuclear weapons facilities at Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. Afterward, he addressed his fellow Americans on Truth Social:
“A payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great American Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this.”
My heart was with those brave pilots, flying into hostile air space with nothing but instruments to get them safely home. Sadly, Sen. Tim Kaine’s (D-VA) heart was with the Resistance: “So, what made Trump recklessly decide to rush and bomb today? Horrible judgment. I will push for all senators to vote on whether they are for this third idiotic Middle East war.” Maybe Tim should have digested the President’s ten o’clock televised address:
“For 40 years, Iran has been saying ‘Death to America, Death to Israel.’ They have been killing our people, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We lost over 1,000 people, and hundreds of thousands throughout the Middle East and around the world have died as a direct result of the hate.”
And for those insisting the President needed a declaration of war from Congress, welcome to Iran’s asymmetric war that included one proxy, Hamas, killing 45 US citizens on October 7, 2023, and taking another 12 into captivity, and another proxy, the Houthis, firing on US warships and military bases. Every slighted member of Congress should consider Trump’s offer to Iran:
“Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be far greater and a lot easier. There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight days. Remember, there are many targets left. Tonight’s was the most difficult of them all by far, and perhaps the most lethal.”
With that card played, let’s recall two profiles in presidential courage; Truman’s decision to use the first atomic bomb to end World War II, and Kennedy’s naval blockade of Soviet ships to prevent World War III. We know what became of those decisions. No so for President Trump, which is what required the courage of his convictions that Kamala Harris would not have brought to the job.
I agree with Mr. Lapid (quote above). I think Mr. Trump nipped a Middle East nuclear arms race in the bud.