War in Iran — President Trump’s Gamble

In this space last week I predicted that the war that America and Israel had just unleashed on Iran would be extraordinarily one-sided, that all Iran’s dire threats of unendurable retribution would evaporate and that the correlation of forces between the two sides was so overwhelmingly in favor of America and Israel that Iran would not be able to sustain it and remain credibly in the war for more than a few weeks.All of this is coming to pass. Officially, President Trump is predicting a war of five weeks’ duration, but it is doubtful that any Iranian regime can maintain an organized defense that long. The military capabilities of Iran have been severely depleted, and the quantity and accuracy of Iranian missile attacks on Israel and upon American bases and ships in the Middle East have declined so drastically that it is obvious that Iran’s entire military capability, acquired at immense expense on the back of the suffering people of Iran, has been almost completely extirpated.Foreign policy now ranks relatively low among the issues that concern Americans. Most, more or less understandably, are chiefly concerned with their economic condition. Those who tend to support the president recognize the great achievement that the overthrow and elimination of the Islamic Republic government of Iran would be and the importance of the opportunity for a post-terrorism world with a composed Middle East that should then emerge. Most of the press is framing these Iranian events in the worst possible light, not to mention the Democrats. The president is clearly gambling, safely it now appears, that this war will end quickly and decisively creating a radical positive change in world relations and a balance of power altered appreciatively in favor of the West, over the rabid pantomime horse of Russia and China. Many of his critics in their psychotic paroxysms of Trump-hate, are almost palpably disappointed in the triumph of American and allied arms.Assuming some defanged Iranian administration emerges to produce a house-trained foreign policy and a reasonable standard of liberality in domestic matters, at least by hair-shirted Persian standards, the improved political climate in the Middle East should be a powerful administration argument in the November midterm elections.Even so, the press are actively undermining and dismissing the positive outcomes of Trump policies. When the president’s victory is no longer possible to minimize, he should clearly explain how these actions will improve the security and prosperity of the United States. The message should be on all networks, delivered from a teleprompter in the best traditions from Roosevelt to Reagan, and must connect foreign policy achievements directly to the everyday interests of the American people. Too many Americans do not understand the historic significance of this conflict, nor the related developments in Venezuela and possibly soon in Cuba.

War in Iran — President Trump’s Gamble

War in Iran — President Trump’s Gamble

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