You are already inundated with coverage of the Iran actions. As usual, they are radically polarized. The following is my reactions to the reactions; no ambiguity to where I stand and why but I’ll point out a few things that seemingly have escaped notice and mention even in the wall to wall coverage. I label this as a Part 1 because no one is claiming this will resolve quickly except that I predict that it’ll be functionally over well before what anyone is claiming now. Even promises of longer duration by Trump may just be hedging against contingencies. These observations are in no particular order or sequence:
I find it disturbing that Pope Leo XIV has weighed in with a response about as substantive as a wet diaper. Perhaps admit that the Catholic church has no qualification to mingle in the affairs of state, especially ones with a long history of brutal repression, or quite frankly, to even give sober advice about human suffering at the hands of oppressive regimes. Before he mumbles about weapons and some vague hint that disagreements can just magically resolved at Sunday tea, maybe he should at least talk to the millions of global Persians celebrating and ask them why. Pope Leo XIV has lived in a comfortable little cocoon called USA his whole life. He seems like a fine chap personally, but maybe a pope from a Christian minority in the middle east would have a more mature perspective – if he made it out alive.
One news report I saw referred to 10,000 people that were rounded up by Iranian authorities about a month ago, many or all of which are probably already dead. I wondered why no mention was made of 50,000 that were rounded up a little more than a week ago, perhaps from a second wave of protests. I don’t think many of us can contemplate or fully appreciate the prospect of what it would mean to live under a regime that would take me, oneself, and 50,000 of my peers to underground dungeons where we would be systematically tortured and killed in mass together. I’ve read whispers of these kind of regimes from people who somehow escaped and lived. The sheer horror doesn’t lend itself even to routine journalism and especially to rags that sympathize with said regimes and deliberately ignore that kind of terror. When I first read of these recent round ups, I worried about the prospect of if Trump were to not make good on his threats and the profound moral consequence of that inaction. I almost wrote about it, but waited. Fortunately, promises made, promises kept.
To the entire Democrat/Libertarian/RINO establishment that is neighing their disapproval of Trump’s Iran action: You are irrelevant. The action will be substantially locked down while you’re still getting your hearings on the legislative calendar. By the time your hearings start, Trump will be ridding the world of an entirely different scourge.
I’m no expert on international or constitutional law but I know someone that is; his name is Alan Dershowitz. If you’re worried about the legality of Trump’s action, look him up. I concur and hold the same stance. If you disagree, let me know your credentials.
Some MAGA people are fuming that Trump has changed, that he’s now a nation builder or interventionist or regime changer. Watch how fast he sets up the Iranian people to secure their own future, (just like the situation in Venezuela). Maybe this faction of MAGA should go sit with the Democrat/Libertarian/RINO establishment for awhile and see if they still fit in.
When it comes to regime change you would probably need to be over 65 years old to truly understand and appreciate who were the real regime changers. Most are not old enough to remember Jimmy Carter’s complicity in handing over Iran to a theocratic cabal that did some regime changes of their own. Democrats have groveled to the Muhammad clerics then and ever since. When Obama came along, he was their outright advocate, despising instead, Israel. Biden dutifully followed.
So the Iranians want to close the Strait of Hormuz. I think we’re capable of seizing the surrounding real estate. We’ve already sunk a big chunk of their navy in less than 48 hours. I think we could finish that job as well.
To those that are already wringing their hands over the loss of American lives, weigh that against the lives that have already been lost to the mullahs over the past 47 years, and the ones they were planning on taking next. The goal of the United States military is not to lose zero lives. It is to secure freedom and a secure peaceful future first and foremost for our own citizens and for as many other nations as possible that share our values. Some things are worth fighting and dying for. And especially to all those that never shed a single tear when Trump’s predecessors put the US armed forces in harm’s way, stuff it.
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