Will President Donald Trump finish the job in 72 hours of shock and awe?
Iran’s war against the West, primarily against the United States and Israel but also against every country aligned with either the “big Satan” or “the little Satan,” began almost as soon as the shah of Iran was toppled by its first “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, and has never been discontinued by his successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who took over for the first Shia revolutionary imam when Khomeini died in 1989.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been in its war against us and our allies for 46 years. When Khamenei launched his expeditionary Quds Force against our troops in Iraq, killing hundreds of them and wounding thousands, he knew what he was doing.
When Khamenei deployed forward-operating divisions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria to prop up the now-defeated brutal Syrian dictator Bashir Assad, Khamenei knew what he was doing.
When Khamenei built his proxy armies in Lebanon (Hezbollah), in Gaza, in Judea, and Samaria (Hamas), and in Yemen (the Houthis), he knew what he was doing.
Iran’s two biggest errors in this long war were to challenge President Ronald Reagan in the tanker war of 1988 which led to Operation Praying Mantis and the rapid destruction of most of Iran’s then “Navy,” and in either greenlighting or failing to control Hamas’s savagery which erupted on Oct. 7 which brought about 17 months of open war with Israel, a war which has seen Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lead the Israel Defense Forces close to near complete victory in every theater of that conflict — Gaza, southern Lebanon, and Syria — since the massacre of 1,200, wounding of 5,000 and hostage-taking of 250 people.
Khamenei measured whomever was running the Biden Regency correctly, and knew that after a show of support for Israel by the infirm and failing former president in Israel, a dreaded “bear hug” from the leftist appeasers atop the Biden Regency would cripple Israel again and again in its war — in its initial prosecution of the war, then through a long and unnecessary pause of IDF forces outside of Rafah, then in Lebanon for more than a year. Khamenei counted on a slow-down of the transfer of weapons from the U.S. to Israel and pressure from the Regents not to strike back at Iran after its two missile fusillades at Israel.
The Houthis were also unleashed by Iran, crippling worldwide commerce and pinning down U.S. Navy critical assets in an absurdly expensive series of ineffective responses to weekly if not daily assaults on our warships and sailors.
Khamenei did not, however, count on the return of Donald Trump and with 45-47, great clarity about the region and America’s role there. The U.S. under Trump quickly reestablished its close ties with Israel, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and the forces in Lebanon and Syria that hate the Iranian boot including Maronite Christians and Sunnis in Lebanon, the Druze and Kurds in Syria. Trump also immediately unleashed a punishing attack on the Houthis when they threatened the U.S. after the Biden Regents had left the building. Trump has also made it clear to Khamenei: Destroy the nuclear program and allow us to prove that it is gone or we will destroy it.
Israel has now resumed the war against Hamas after the terrorists there first tried to play Israel and then the United States and made it clear more hostages were not going to be released. Trump has telegraphed to Iran that it’s time to stand down from nukes.
It will not require ground troops for American planes along with the Israeli Air Force and any ally sick of the half-century of fanatics in Tehran to cripple the nuclear facilities and the missile program. Trump doesn’t play fog and mist games. Neither does Israel. The president would prefer a peaceful resolution and nuclear disarmament but he’s not going to fall for a sham of a deal like President Barack Obama’s “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION WARNS IRAN OVER PROXIES’ CONTINUED BEHAVIOR
Trump’s back. Israel is 90% done remaking the Middle East and will have Sunni allies to help rebuild the ruins of Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria — all those ruins created by the mullahs. Time is short. Trump doesn’t waste it.
Iran has two allies: the People’s Republic of China and Russia. But Trump knows how power works —that bringing the curtain down quickly on the Iranian nuclear program will send the necessary messages to both. The think tankers and professors have left. The mark in the Oval Office is gone. Russia should settle in Ukraine. Xi should not lurch at Taiwan. Let’s all get back to business.
Hugh Hewitt is a longtime conservative commentator and author. He is the host of the Hugh Hewitt Show on Salem Radio, which airs every weekday from 3-6 p.m.