The last thing that America needs at this time is to get involved in another protracted war in the Middle East, whether it is against Iran or any other nation anywhere in the world. We’ve seen how costly these ill advised campaigns can be to the U.S. Today Afghanistan stands as a prime example of becoming bogged down in a conflict with no apparent exit strategy.  This conflict continues to bleed the nation of it’s treasure, and it’s most precious resources, in the lives of the men and women who end up paying the unltimate price in these  endless wars. 

President Trump has been very clear about his desire to keep America out of any more protracted wars that continue to maintain the status quo, while at the same time recognizing the importance of projecting a posture of strength to America’s enemies around the world. This desire to keep the nation out of war, and the promise to bring an end to America’s involvement in conflicts that we have needlessly been entangled in is one of the reasons that Trump was elected. 

Fulfilling this desire in a complex world where nations with competing interests seeking to establish or reestablish themselves as power players, and influencers can be a precarious balancing act. On the one hand the United States must make it clear through its actions that the country is not pursuing a policy of intimidation and aggression, or regime change with any other nation. On the other hand America must also be clear, and perhaps even more so, that it will always put, and have measures in place to defend itself and its allies from those who wish to do them harm. No one should ever mistake the U.S. desire to avoid conflict as a sign that America will shrink in the face of threats or challenges to its security. 

President Trump’s decision to strike at the Iranian regime by targeting and taking out the country’s top  General is meant to send a strong, unambiguous message that America will respond forcefully, defending itself in the face of threats or when attacked. As can be expected, the news media and their allies in the Democrat Party are giving the predictable response to Trump’s decision to take out Iran’s top General, Qassem Soleimani, in a precision, surgical strike. 

To listen to the media and Democrats respond to Trump’s decision, one would think that Trump attacked a NATO ally or that he perhaps invaded Canada. The hatred of President Trump is so intense that his critics are unable to look beyond it even for a millisecond.  They cannot do it even in moments like these that demand a careful, thoughtful, measured assessment of the facts, and the response to them. Listening to the leftist media and Democrats everywhere scold President Trump for taking out Soleimani, one could be forgiven for thinking that Soleimani was a mentor to Mother Teresa, or that he was the reincarnation of Mahatma Ghandi, and not the murderous thug that the entire world knew him to be. 

No one disputes that Soleimani was the main figure behind what has been rightly termed Iran’s decades long proxy war against the United states. His blood trail can be traced in terrorist attacks all around the world, from the desert sands of the Middle East, to the idyllic shores of beautiful Argentina. He was the big cahouna behind most of these attacks. Iran is the number one state sponsor of terrorism in the world. No none disputes this! 

Soleimani has been on the U.S. terror watch list for over a decade. His reign of terror has been brutal. Just over a week ago his forces killed an American contractor, wounded American troops, and also wounded Iraqi personnel in a rocket attack that targeted a military base in Nothern Iraq. Last week  supporters of a militia force linked to Soleimani staged a bold attack on the American Embassy in Iraq in another provacative act of aggression toward the United States. This may be a good time to remind people that an attack on an American Embassy anywhere in the world is an attack on sovereign American territory.

Do not forget that this man was also the mastermind behind the high tech IED attacks that killed several hundred U.S. Militay service members during the Iraq war. In the last year they even shot down a U.S. Military drone in international airspace over the strait of Hormuz where Iran has been accosting international shipping vessels using the passageway for commercial purposes. 

What is the United States to do in the face of all of this? 

Trump hating pundits across the media are saying that Trump’s actions are an unnecessary escalatory move. They say that because they reason Iran will no doubt retaliate with more acts of terrorism. No one is saying though what America’s response to Iran’s decades long aggression toward the United States should be. The argument seems to be that America should not defend itself for fear of more aggression by its enemy. 

Some are even saying that America needs to bring home all of it’s troops from that part of the world, and surely then, the United States will no longer have to worry about all of these attacks. The peope who take this position ignore the fact that Iran’s aggression is based on an ideology aimed at spreading their brand of Islam all across the globe, and they see it as their duty to do this by any means they deem necessary. 

There may be legitimat arguments for America to relook it’s foreign policy, especially when it it comes to that part of the world, but it is perhaps understating the obvious to call it naive thinking that appeasement or a simple withdrawal of U.S. troops will bring an end to the problems with Iran or other terrorist organizations for that matter. There is no simple solution to many of these problems that plague our world. Since the beginning of time nations have been in conflict with one another, and the answers to solving the problems that exist between them have often been complicated. Quite simply put, the answers are seldom as “black and white” as people make them out to be.

Once again the Democrat Party and the media have shown that they have no desire to rid themselves of Trump derangement syndrome, even as the disease continues to cloud their thinking, and voraciously eat away at the few remaining brain cells they have left.