We want everything in the millisecond to which we have become accustomed. Some things, like Orson Welles’ wine, take time.
After the fact, we all are geniuses. Whether it be the Monday Morning Quarterback or the armchair military expert, we all know the right thing to do after the fact. One thing that really puzzled me back in the day was why Saddam Hussein let George H. W. Bush put together his coalition in Saudi Arabia over the course of five months. Operation Desert Shield started in August of 1990, and Operation Desert Storm sprang into action in the middle of January the following year. I watched ships and planes bring endless numbers of troops while air forces from countries throughout the world sent their best to the desert to prepare for the attack on Iraq. Just as the British and French missed an opportunity to attack western Germany while Hitler was busy in Poland, Saddam did not make much effort to interrupt the flow of men and material into the Saudi theater. When the air war started, his highly sophisticated air defenses were neutralized, and General Schwarzkopf’s ground forces did the rest.
With the above in mind, one might want to be a little patient as to any potential attack on Iran. I don’t know if there will be one, but the IDF’s chief of staff commented recently from Washington that he expects an attack between two weeks and two months forward. Kind of hedging his bets, I guess. If the president has decided to attack, he has chosen to do it right, even if it means not alleviating the suffering of the Iranian people. Military actions are remembered for their success or failure and not for the specific date they started or how long the winning side took to get its forces in order. Doing it right is what is written in history books and on tombstones. If the U.S. needs a hundred aerial tankers and 300 Tomahawks near Iran, then you wait until you have the same before you go.
One boat that appears to be in the theater is the USS Ohio. It is the longest-serving submarine in U.S. history. Originally containing 24 ICBMs, it had its Trident D5 missiles swapped out for 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. One begins to appreciate the size of the 60 ton D5 multiple-independent warhead missile when you realize that seven Tomahawks fit where one Trident used to be. And while I don’t have a bucket list, one thing I would like to see while I am still vertical is the “forest” of an Ohio or future Columbia-class submarine. The missiles there, with their nuclear warheads, contain more destructive power than all of the bombs dropped during the two world wars. I just want to stand there and contemplate the incredible power of these boats, with their nuclear propulsion and missiles. The Columbia reactor is designed to work for 42 years—the lifetime of the sub—without any need for refueling. If only my car could do the same.
Recommended
As the possibility of war with Iran remains significant, the new pro-Muslim former darlings of the Right cannot help themselves in praising Islam. There was a rabbi who told the story of a king who ordered a servant to build a road. The fellow got off to a good start, but after a few miles, he made a mistake of only a few inches. But he continued, and after weeks of work, he found that he was many miles off course. I think that one might say something similar about Tucker Carlson. He started with criticisms of Israel overreacting to the October 2023 pogrom and killing too many civilians. The U.S. was never accused of the same in Fallujah. You have a job, get it done. Additionally, by all metrics, Israel reduced civilian casualties to the lowest level ever for dense urban combat. I don’t like the SMS messages, phone calls, drone warning and the like—because the terrorists run away with the others. But Israel did these things, and the result was that of the 70,000 people killed in Gaza, at least 25,000 were Hamas terrorists. Retired Col. Richard Kemp (British) has looked deeply into the Gaza war and has commended the IDF for minimizing civilian casualties, in spite of Hamas intentionally fighting in highly dense urban areas and wanting to have the IDF kill civilians so as to spark claims of genocide. There was no genocide, and even the UN admits that there was no starvation.
But these facts are of no use for Carlson, who has only accelerated his expressed hatred of Israel. In a recent podcast, he blithely threw out that Israel had committed genocide and had killed “tens of thousands” of Gazan children. There is no evidence for either claim, and any 15-year-old holding a Kalishnikov rifle is a combatant, whether he is in Vietnam, Iraq, or Gaza. From there, Carlson went off the deep end. He brought up the Biblical “Amalek” and claimed that Israel simply enjoys murdering other peoples. Like Goebbels and Julius Streicher (publisher of the virulently antisemitic Der Sturmer), he (like Candace Owens) wishes to whip up his audience against the Jews, with Israel standing in as the representative of the Jewish people. He understands nothing of Jews or Torah and shows his ignorance on all subjects related to Israel. Israeli soldiers did not kill Palestinians for sport. There is no question that many Israeli soldiers died through efforts to minimize Palestinian casualties.
As to Amalek, it says right there in the Torah that they would attack the weak ones of the Jewish people during the latter’s sojourn in the desert. God warns that there will be Amalek in every generation. A very wise rabbi noted that Amalek is not a genetic bloodline; rather, in every generation, we find one group that is hellbent on wiping out the Jewish people. Whether it was Spain of the Inquisition, or Nazi Germany, or today’s Muslims, there is in every generation an Amalek that would rather suffer as long as they can take a shot at getting rid of the Jews. How much would Germany have benefited from Einstein and other Jewish scientists who fled Germany? How beautiful could “Palestine” be if the Arabs there simply gave up trying to kill Jews? But Amalek cannot control himself. His whole purpose is to kill Jews, even if he is worse off for the effort. Goebbels killed his family and then himself, and Streicher found the lower end of a Nuremberg noose.
Tucker Carlson is obsessed with Israel. In his recent talk with fellow Israel-hater Cenk Uygur, they mentioned Israel 222 times. Some claim that Qatari money is the driver for his Jew hatred. I believe that the intensity of his hatred and the ease with which one can show that he is wrong point to something deeper. He hates Israel for its existence, for its success, for its overcoming disaster to win. His hatred has gotten the best of him. He claims that Israel kills Palestinian children? Israel removed a cancerous growth in the head of Yahya Sinwar, who went on to direct the murder of 1,200 Israelis. The ones who actually murdered children were Sinwar’s men in southern Israel. That fact is documented, and there are Israeli families that no longer exist. Carlson is taking a dangerous route, as we know that those who curse the Jews are themselves cursed by God.
From the Nuremberg judgment on Streicher: “For his 25 years of speaking, writing and preaching hatred of the Jews, Streicher was widely known as ‘Jew-Baiter Number One.’ In his speeches and articles, week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism, and incited the German people to active persecution.”
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Townhall’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Townhall VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member