When dealing with extremists, there is no one with whom to reason.
I feel like I’m in a cheap zombie movie. We had an alarm at 3 o’clock Monday morning. From the horrific noise on our phones to our standing in the cold air outside of our makeshift parking lot/bomb shelter required 6 minutes. The Iranians sent one missile, which was intercepted. While everyone was truly relieved by nobody being harmed or additional buildings being turned to ash, there was some minor fury. “To get out of bed for one missile!” The family went back to sleep but I couldn’t find the tired button. Now, everybody is yawning and sleep walking around the house.
I cannot fully describe the joy here in Israel over the precision US bombing raid in Iran. Another American fellow came to synagogue at 5:30 Sunday morning, half an hour after the president’s address. “I’m going to have to rename all of my children. Donald. Donnie. Don. DonDon...”There was a debate whether to say certain prayers that are only said on very happy days like Chaunkah. I know that there are many fools who think that the US dropped 14 massive bunker busters and fired off 30 Tomahawk missiles in order to do Israel a favor. The truth is that Iran wants Israel and all of the liberal West gone, and they have no fallback negotiating position. The US just set back the likelihood of a suitcase nuclear bomb in an American city by many years.
Before the attack, I had hoped that should an attack occur, President Trump would name it, “Likebacker III”. Linebacker II involved a lot of B-52s and other platforms over the skies of North Vietnam. And while the US lost planes and aircrews, the bombing campaign brought the North Vietnamese back to Paris to sign the documents ending the war. In normal places, even communist countries, there is a concept of cause and effect. When you deal with zealots—religious or otherwise—there is one position only. And this is something that the US leadership needs to take into account. “Midnight Hammer” is pretty good; in Iran it’s known as Morning Hangover.
As I previously wrote, Iranian regime change is for the Iranian people. I know that there are many Iranians inside and outside Iran who hate the mullahs and their dictatorship. That said, I don’t know if they have the ability to overthrow all of the organs of state and set up an alternative government. That is their fight, and while one might cheer and provide some AK-47s on the side, nobody can change the regime for them. That is not the job of the US or Israel. The US insisted that Iran not have a nuclear bomb that it could use against it, while Israel is determined to destroy the rockets and rocket-making infrastructure that is such a problem for the Jewish state. One missile fell on a town near Tel Aviv: 1% of the town’s population (1,500 people) was made homeless while 20 buildings were condemned and will have to be knocked down and rebuilt. One missile. If Israel concludes that Iran’s nuclear capabilities have been severely pushed back and that missiles will be hard to produce, then it will stop the war and prepare for the next round. Dropping a nuclear bomb would obviate the need for a next round, but it’s bad manners, so it’s back to intelligence gathering and clandestine work against the regime.
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Iran, even after all of the destruction and economic losses, will not say that it has given up on enrichment. Ghaddafi was far more pragmatic when he exchanged his nuclear program for getting his oil back on the market. The mullahs and their police state see it as a religious obligation to destroy anything in the way of their version of Islam. There is no one with whom to negotiate, and no leader will come forth to agree to an end of enrichment in exchange for a Coke bottling plant and a couple of McDonald’s franchises. These people will remain lunatics until the weight of their unpopular government and the unhappiness of the people cause internal collapse of the police state and a new Iran to emerge. In the short term after the war, there will be many arrests and executions. This will be a sad state of affairs but will further anger the people against the already unpopular leadership.
In the US, we have a new class of lefties who hate the US, Israel, and Jews. They don’t care if they hold an “intifada revolution” banner, a Mexican flag, a Hezbollah headband, or an Islamic Iranian poster. To them it all says the same thing: the US is evil, as are Israel and the Jews. Any sign or action that shows hatred of the country that has given them everything or the country that is trying to save its citizenry from an Islamic apocalypse is considered to be part of the “resistance”. I am sure that there is Soros and/or Qatari money sloshing around for many of these protests and actions. If the people who were protesting were genuinely poor and downtrodden, then the protests would make sense. But pampered college students and bored boomers make up the vanguard of the nutty protests. Even the pro-Iran protesters are a bunch of old white people surrounded by real Iranians who are shaking their heads. The students finally found a cause to sink their teeth into—marching in favor of rapists and baby burners. The boomers see this as their last hoorah before they say goodbye to their teeth and end up in a nursing home, where the only protests are against the synthetic mashed potatoes. If the DoJ ever tracks the money for these anti-American protests, the game will be up. It will be back to final exams and one more trip to Costco for the hot dog/milkshake combo.
While we in the West are accustomed to negotiating and horse-trading, zealots cannot allow themselves to budge. Hitler could have saved a lot of soldiers if he had allowed his commanders to undertake strategic withdrawals. His response was better to die holding the land currently in hand. The Iranian zealots will claim their “right” to enrich uranium until they are unceremoniously kicked to the curb. That day is coming. Whether it’s in 20 days or 20 years, I don’t know. But until they are gone, they will work to find a way to dispose of the Big Satan and the Little Satan.
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