Changing the Response to Iran

Last weekend a terrorist group financed and aided by Iran killed three U.S. service members in a small village near the border between Jordan and Iraq. It was an unprovoked drone attack on a military base authorized by the Jordanian government. It is the culmination of a series of attacks over the last several months by Iran’s proxy militias. It make zero difference whether the attacks occurred in retaliation for the current battle between Israel and the terrorist regime known as Hamas in Gaza, or a desire by Iran to eliminate the presence of the United States in the Middle East.

It is the direct result of a feckless administration that has allowed Iran and its terrorist proxies to attack United States’ interests as well as those of other nations seeking to use the Red Sea and the Suez Canal for shipping. It is exactly on point to remind readers that former President Barack Obama’s Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has said on multiple occasions that our current President Joe Biden has been wrong on every foreign foreign policy and national security issue during the fifty years he has held public office. Others have added that current Secretary of State Anthony Blinken shares that dishonor with Mr. Biden as his principle foreign policy advisor during almost all of that time.

So it is left to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb to respond to, not just this deadly attack, but all of the other attacks by Iran and its proxies in a manner that will both punish those responsible but also deter this ongoing assumption by Iran that America, under Messrs. Biden and Blinker, are merely a paper tiger that will never fight back – at least not to win.

And that is precisely the point of this column. Beginning with the Viet Nam war, the politicians of America have engaged in one foreign and military conflict after another. And with only two exceptions* they have fought, not to win, but rather not to lose. There is a big difference. In the former the risks are high and the initial casualties are too, but, in the end, the goal is accomplished. While in the latter the risks are relatively low and the casualties – although likely equal in number – are spread out over an extended period of time, and, in the end, the problem still exists and the citizens where the fighting has occurred have turned against you because of the protracted violence and destruction. But if you do not fight to win, then (at least in the politicians’ minds) you never fail. There is Viet Nam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and that scenario is now beginning to play out in Ukraine and Gaza.

The conflicts in the Middle East present are yet another opportunity for America to sacrifice its best and brightest on a battlefield in a war that we will not fight to win – mostly because we have yet to understand the religious, ethnic and tribal hatreds that have triggered the conflicts and provide the fuel for them to continue. In the end the problem may be unsolvable but it is not uncontainable.

Mr. Biden’s aimless approach to the Middle East conflicts have made a bad situation worse. His lack of responses to direct attacks by Iran’s proxy terrorists have emboldened and encouraged greater and more frequent attacks. Now with blood on his hands he is more than likely to respond in a manner which is either too timid or too savage. He also is more likely to direct his response to those in the field rather than those providing command.

I am not a military strategist and while I am also not global strategist I am better at it that Messrs. Biden and Blinken – their fifty years of unbroken failures, misdirection and endless and unnecessary personal attacks on the major players in the Middle East – think primarily of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah a-Sisi – are proof positive of that.

So let me take a stab at common sense solutions:

• Forget “peace in the Middle East.” It ranks up their with “world peace” and exists only in the wishes of the naive. The same it true of “western style democracy” in a world dominated by tribal loyalties and lead by absolute rulers. The conflicts in the Middle East are as old as the Prophet Mohammed. William Wallace of Braveheart who dealt with tribal conflicts in the Scottish Highlands in the late 1200’s stood a better chance of finding a solution than does Mr. Biden.

• Protect America first. That is less a nationalistic paean than it is a strategic mandate for those who wish to extend America’s reach. With regard to the United States it means three things: secure the borders in absolute terms, achieve and build on energy independence and reduce or remove dependence on hostile foreign governments for goods and supplies.

• Secure the protection of Israel. Israel has proven time and time again that it is more than a match for those in the Middle East who call for Israel’s destruction. All they need from America is the military supplies to equip their already elite fighting forces.

• Tighten the economic sanctions on Iran and others in the Middle East who wish to cause harm to Americans whether in America or elsewhere to the point where their economies collapse. In doing so learn to tell the difference between those who have little use for Western mores (Saudi Arabia for instance) and those who wish to do us harm (Iran, Syria, Hamas, etc.). The tightening needs to apply to not only the nation of Iran but to the individuals who exercise the levers of power. Maxim sanctions should be applied swiftly, without notice, and without exception. They should apply not only to the Iranians but to those who provide aid and assistance to Iran’s terrorist regime.

• Iran’s political and military regime should be targeted for elimination. In September of 1972 Palestinian terrorist attacked and killed eleven Israeli athletes slated to participate in the Munich Summer Olympics. In the aftermath of that terrorist attack, Israel’s Mossad formed a unit to track down and eliminate those who participated in the massacre as well as those responsible in the planning and financing of the attack. It was done quietly and with patience. To the best of my knowledge the Israeli government has never acknowledged the plan or its execution – it didn’t have to, the body count told the story. On January 3, 2024 the current Mossad director, Zvi Zamar vowed to pursue the same commitment to all of those involved in the October 7, 2023, massacre of Israeli innocents by Hamas. America could learn from the Israeli’s that actions speak louder than words and Mr. Biden could learn that all of his empty threats are known to be just that – empty threats.

• Iran’s nuclear program should be targeted. The mainstream media has peddled the line that Iran is near nuclear capability for far too long. They have it already. If they haven’t assembled a nuclear bomb they have the parts ready to assemble. We are not talking about three months, or three weeks, we are talking about three hours. What they don’t have is a delivery system but they can buy that from North Korea. So when I say the program should be targeted, I mean that the capabilities to produce and assemble the bomb should be compromised as well as the acquisition or development of a launch vehicle and it extends to those who are assisting Iran in its development and assembly. This is a difficult task given the years Iran has been given by former President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden to harden its facilities while developing and assembling the weapons and delivery systems but it can be done – if not by finesse, then by brute force.

But none of this is going to happen. You cannot make warriors or even adept political leaders out of two appeasement monkeys with fifty years of being wrong on every foreign policy and national security issue. But if you think this is bad wait until you get a load of Kalamata Harris should she succeed the aging and cognitively challenged Mr. Biden in a second term.

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* Granada where President Ronald Reagan sent the United States military in to rescue United States medical students and displace a communist led government that was threatening its own people. And Panama where President George H.W. Bush sent the military into depose and capture Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. Mr. Bush also sent troops to drive Iraq and dictator Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. It was a limited purpose war and once Iraq retreated the war was over even though Hussein continued to rule Iraq.