From the start, carpers galore, particularly on America’s Left, began asking re the war in (and with) Iran: why? Plenty of Monday morning quarterbacks in circulation, even when Operation Midnight Hammer struck those dangerous nuke facilities so adroitly.
In my view, I think we need to cool down, especially on how Operation Epic Fury (followed by “Economic Fury,” etc.) brought unforeseen consequences, given that in war, things often go very differently than predicted. Think, for example, of how most generals didn’t anticipate the long trench stalemate of WWI, killing millions; the unexpectedly quick fall of Holland, Belgium, and France to Nazi forces in 1940; America’s prolonged Vietnam quagmire; and in Russian planning rooms, how a plucky Ukraine could hold on for years against Putin’s marauding forces.
Some won’t like hearing this, but I feel Pres. Trump’s had the right instincts from the beginning. Under his leadership, and that of Israel’s Netanyahu, their armies, navies, and air forces have had great impact on the repulsive, sadistic Iranian regime, most crucially, its nuclear capabilities, and other armaments.
What Trump didn’t see coming (and again, look for perspective at military surprises over time) was the mullahs’ use of the Strait of Hormuz as an effective form of blackmail. (In France, by the way, it’s called the Détroit d’Hormuz, and that ain’t because the Tigers or Lions play there!)
To this point in a brief piece, I’ve tried to nuance a bit, and also introduce a little levity (I guess I should have added the Red Wings and Pistons). Because you know what? We all need to lighten up on this war that, yes, has been costly; but a “teachable” one, too, and anything like the lengthy ‘Nam disaster, and many others throughout history.
Conjoined to Iran, progressives keep bleating as well about the American economy, especially the issue of “affordability.” It’s almost as if they’re praying for gas and grocery prices to shoot up and stay there. Which to me is not only snide, but reality-challenged.
Since “Midnight Hammer,” and through the naval blockade, has our amazing standard of living (like no other) really gone downward in any significant way? Look what you can choose from at our fine supermarkets that really don’t have large profit margins at all. Ah me: “apples like ammunition,” as one novelist put it (contrasting this American food cornucopia to imposed starvation of the Holocaust).
Yes, when dads and sons in camps like Auschwitz would tear each other apart over a hunk of bread. Do Mamdani or AOC acolytes know quite how spoiled they are in this regard?
More generally than just the Iran and economic issues: do types who’ve long foamed at the mouth re Trump’s temerity (i.e., to go for the presidency) find their lives greatly changed under his watch? I mean from what they were under Biden or Obama? In almost all cases I’d say not. Try on a REAL Hitler or Mao, and would your routines and expectations be altered!
What a paltry, short-selling MO this is: i.e., making the Iran war and “affordability” into figurative battering rams with which to hammer the president in such surly (and even unpatriotic) fashion. The same playbook that’s obtained right from Jan. ‘17? You know it.
On the positive side, which these tenured carpers won’t recognize, that dastardly and lethal Iranian regime HAS been significantly hurt. U.S. armed forces have demonstrated remarkable organizational and other kinds of skills in their operations, and should be saluted, and fully appreciated!
On the economic front, American companies, farm concerns and so on have also done magnificently, given not only the Iran problem (far from the worst, it says here); but more, gargantuan rip-offs and competition, especially from China, a dictatorship which still pilfers our “intellectual property,” subsidizes its industries like mad, and pays hired hands hugely less than any minimum wage in the U.S.
Take THAT, Gavin! Meanwhile, on a regional level, I do mourn the loss of Schwebels’ breads in Tops or Wegmans stores, bread I used to love. Yes, the recent demise of an American company that had lasted 120 years, and is now gone! Along with a slew of others, and in many cases, well before anyone was thinking about … the Strait of Hormuz, not to mention the price of beans!