Reuters/Majid Asgaripour/WANA 2, Shutterstock/noamgalai, Getty Images/Iranian Leader’s Press Office
The never Trumper finds it hard praying Trump gets the political win on Iran. But one must. Trump failing would be a reciprocal attack on United States volunteers serving in the region or civilians anywhere in the world, resulting in our counterattacks and a terrible war. Trump failing is Iran’s nuclear weapons capacity in the hands of an angrier regime, or the mullahs being replaced by someone just as bad. Instead, we want a pallid or nonexistent Iranian response and a negotiated end to the war, putting Iran’s nuclear threat back in the test tube for a generation.
Maybe Trump did what he thought was right. Maybe he was upset by criticism that he chickens out. If it ends here, we should happily retire the four-letter acronym. I never used it anyway, thinking it disrespectful to a national cuisine. If Midnight Hammer’s 125-aircraft armada, the deployment of decoy B-2s, and Trump’s “back to you in two weeks” misdirection end up making him look like orange Eisenhower, too bad. I’d rather have that than more grieving families.
So pray for Iranian restraint most of all. We also grieve all the lives lost in Israel and Iran. Most Iranians have nothing against the U.S. The hatred is frozen in the regime’s DNA like jurassic embryos. Remembering the hostage crisis in 1979-81, many in the U.S. are prone to the same prejudice. We pray that decent leadership in Washington and Tehran will set the stage for renewed friendship between our peoples. It would be a beautiful thing to see.
As for whether we had to bomb now to protect Israel, that depends on whom you listen to. Testifying in March that the mullahs hadn’t made a definitive decision to build nukes has earned DNI Tulsi Gabbard anti-war cred and a rebuke from Trump. The problem is that Democrats called her a toady for Russia and Syria. I’m supposed to listen to her now? By the same token, while it was fun seeing Tucker Carlson show that Ted Cruz didn’t know anything about the country he was keen to attack, it doesn’t mean you want to listen to Tucker Carlson. Dude’s definitely tootin’ for Putin, Iran’s ally. Asked about Gabbard’s testimony, Trump said he knew Iran was on the verge of getting the bomb. That assurance probably came from Israel, which first placed its order for a U.S. strike two or three presidents ago. Jed Bartlet even threatened to do it in “The West Wing.”
You and I may never know how advanced their weapons program was. All we know is that Trump didn’t experience the squeamishness that kept other presidents from going the whole enchilada. He alone bears the consequences, pro or con. Besides stability in the region and security for Israel, a chastened Iran would enable the U.S. and Arab nations to pressure Israel to return to the two-state solution for Palestinians. But if it goes the other way, God help the people of the region and us. And there won’t be any question about whose fault it was. Should that happen, he will be beyond redemption, and no one would even have to mention Jan. 6. History would say that there was a feckless president who canceled President Obama’s deal with Iran and, when he couldn’t get the Iranians to trust us again, launched a catastrophic war that broke the heart of the whole world.