President Trump deserved enormous praise for being the one president of this past generation who had the bravery to unleash American military might against Iran to prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon. This is so essential because the Iranians were getting very close, and if they do get a nuke, they will likely use it — and the prime target will be New York City.
Our weak leaders of the past, including Presidents Obama and Biden, thought they could appease the crazy mullahs and bring them to peace by gifting them cart loads of money while still allowing them to build centrifuges to accumulate enriched uranium. The deal Obama brokered was a catastrophe, which was set to expire after 10 years. Guess what. We passed that date last year, which means Iran would’ve been free to do what they want with their nuclear dust.
Ignoring the issue and just crossing our fingers in the hope that Iran wouldn’t use the bomb they’d eventually develop was enormous political malpractice.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio wisely noted, if you think the world is in trouble now with Iran playing games in the Strait of Hormuz, imagine how helpless we would be if they had a nuclear weapon, which in turn would prohibit us from utilizing our advantages in conventional arms to cripple their military abilities.
If we tried to act after they were nuclearized, their response would be the detonation of a nuclear weapon on Israel and/or by sending a nuke by barge and detonating it in New York Harbor.
Moreover, every other major nation in that area would feel the need to go nuclear as well, and American credibility would be irretrievably crushed.
So it was encouraging to see a president who understood this and was willing to take the short-term political hits to safeguard the American people. Of course, taking such a bold move will have its consequences, including difficulties in the upcoming midterms and higher gas prices and inflation because of market uncertainties.
It takes a true leader to get beyond that and zero in on the long-term welfare and safety of the American people. Trump was emphatic early on that the short-term political fallout would not deter him from taking further military action. And there was good reason to believe him — early on.
But now months have passed with no further breaking of the stalemate. It looks at this point that the president is being played.
The Iranians are masters of teasing their opponents with potential deals, only to pull back on them at the last minute. Such tactics would work with Obama and Biden, but we never thought that Trump would fall for them. But it looks like he did.
Trump had the Iranians on the ropes. His foot was on their neck. Their leadership was in disarray and their economy in collapse. They were just a few days away from the evisceration of their power plants, bridges, and entire infrastructure.
But then Trump took his foot off their neck, similar to what Obama did when he came into office and easing sanctions on the mullahs. Trump hasn’t gone that far, but it is bewildering why he is letting this weakened power call the shots.
There are only three possible explanations. The first is that Trump is concerned about oil prices and the midterms. Another is that he fears losing a solid part of his base led by JD Vance, who tends to be isolationist by nature. Or perhaps it could be that Trump has been given some internal intelligence which raised concerns that we might be getting dangerously low on our munitions after having used so many to defend Israel and Ukraine, and to start an offensive against Iran.
After a spectacular start, Trump has given the Iranians a three-month reprieve to move their nuclear dust, re-arm their conventional stock, and to consolidate the power of their replacement leaders.
Obama gave America and the world such a bad deal with Iran because he was overly desperate for any deal to help cement his legacy. What’s surprising is that Trump, who wrote The Art of The Deal, and always preaches to walk away from a bad deal, is also seeming to be so desperate for a deal that he’s allowing the Iranians to rebuild, while holding the Israelis off from delivering the final death blow to Iran.
It is essential that President Trump finish the job. It is important for many reasons, but chief among them is that it is unlikely that future presidents, be they a Democrat or an isolationist such as Vance, would be willing to follow a path of military victory over Iran.
This is what the Iranians are banking on. Stall for time, get past the midterms, and wait for Trump to leave office. Trump must act now to finish the job while we have the chance. Once they get a bomb, there’s no turning back and we will rue the day we didn’t act when we had the chance.
$4.50-a-gallon gas will seem trivial, indeed.