Monday, January 29, 2024

Is the US a Paper Tiger?

 The Houthi Rebels - Iran's proxies in Yemen (MDAA)
If there was ever an ‘I told you so’ moment, this is it. We are now reaping the fruits of one of the most disastrous deals in the history of the world: The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) better known as the Iran nuclear deal.

What was so terrible about that 2015 deal is not so much that it paved the way for Iran to build a nuclear weapon in just 10 short years after its implementation as  Prime Minister Netanyahu had warned us.  But the far worse consequences from which Israel, the US, and Palestinians are now suffering. That deal basically green-lighted the spread of terrorism by Iran by way of their proxies throughout the region. Which they have been doing with complete impunity since long before that deal was even contemplated. 

I believe it is an undisputed fact that it is mostly Iran that has supplied Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen with tens of thousands of rockets and/or missiles. Which all three have used to attack either Israel, the US or  maritime shipping in the Red Sea. Iran has also set up bases in Iraq, Syria… and who know where else. 

There is no doubt that Iran gave Hamas the means by which they carried out one of the most heinous and barbaric attacks on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. (Aided and abetted by UNRWAthe U.N. humanitarian agency that helps Palestinian refugees. Some of whom actually participated in the October 7th attack. Thankfully the US and some of our allies have suspended aid to UNRWA) 

A defensive existential retaliation against Hamas by Israel has also resulted in devastation to Palestinians in Gaza. Which has sparked Houthi terrorists to attack US interests in that area over 160 times. The latest attack was in Jordan where a drone sent by Iranian proxies exploded over a US army base killing 3 US troops and seriously wounding over 30 more. The US has promised to retaliate.

It’s just too bad that it had to come to this. Had Iran been squeezed by their original sanctions and perhaps even adding additional ones, I’m not so sure we’d be in this predicament. Iran might just have been brought to its knees. Instead we and our allies ended sanctions and allowed them to flourish. Even after Trump tore up that deal and restored sanctions our allies continued to honor that deal while Iran decided to ignore it. This has resulted in our current circumstances .And they know we aren’t really going to do all that much about it.

Can anyone spell ‘paper tiger’?  

Iran is laughing at us and our vaunted superpower status. Iran’s fire and brimstone bloody threats if they are attacked has the US running scared. Iran has worked its magic upon the current administration. We keep saying we do not want to expand the conflict and that we do not want a war with Iran.

We might as well be Bolivia for all of our super power status. What good is it if we keep getting attacked and respond with mosquito bites?!

To be absolutely clear, I am not looking to declare war against Iran. Armchair hawks are a dime a dozen. As long as they don’t have to do any fighting themselves, its easy to say the US should go to war. I am not interested in a single America losing his life in a bloody battle with an Islamic extremist regime like Iran.

On the other hand how else do you deal with a two bit regional power like Iran who scoffs at our so-called military might?

There is a fine line between an all out war and sending a message to Iran big enough that they will reconsider their current view of US impotence. The repercussions to continuing to underestimate US power and our willingness to use it must be made clear. 

What that may be I leave to our military intelligence experts. But our response to Iran must be far more substantial than it has been. By a lot! What we have done till now isn’t working.

The one thing we cannot do is capitulate to demands like a permanent cease fire in Gaza.  That would give Hamas a victory to do what they did October 7th all over again. And again. And again. As they have promised to do until Palestine is liberated from the river to the sea. Not only would the Jewish people suffer another genocide, the US would become an even greater laughing stock if they let that happen.

A lot of people would say that you can’t kill an ideology. That Islamism is here to stay. This is true. Claiming  there is no military solution that can end extremist Islamist ideology the left keeps on insisting upon a diplomatic solution. Adding that for every Islamist terrorist killed, ten will arise in his place. Which is also true.  

Them’s nice words. 

But meaningless to an ideology where the only solution as far as they are concerned is complete victory for their cause. Even if it includes genocide.

Thing is you can fight an ideology. Not to the point of destroying the ideology itself. But by eliminating their ability to execute their nefarious ends. To put it the way late Secretary of State Colin Powell did: the job of an army in war is to kill people and break things. And to do so with overwhelming force. 

The US has the capacity to do exactly that - should Iran test our resolve by increasing the frequency and ferocity of their attacks. Either directly or through their proxies. It behooves the Commander in Chief to consider any kind of attack approaching that as an act of war and attack Iran with everything we got (short of nuclear weapons).

Yes it would be bloody. But the alternative might be far worse if we let it pass with only minimal responses we have done so far.

If war with Iran is the unavoidable direction in which we are going than the Islamic Republic of Iran must be completely destroyed. Their fanatic Islamic leadership must be treated the same way Nazi war criminals were treated after WWII.  We destroyed Hitler’s 3rd Reich and we have an even greater capacity to destroy Khamenei’s Islamic Republic of Iran now. And replace it with a democracy that I firmly believe most Iranians seek now - but fear for their lives if they try to do anything about.

I believe the potential to restore Iran to the pre Islamist days of 1979  is real if we only have the  determination to destroy Iran if they or their proxies decide to escalate to the point of the US needing to go to war with them.

Do not misunderstand. I want to re-emphasize that in no way do I think we should declare war without that kind of provocation. But Islamist extremist regimes like Iran and their proxies must be shown that the US is NOT a paper tiger. That our power is real and that we will use it to protect ourselves, our allies, and the free world. Even if it means war! The time is now. I hope the President rises to the occasion.