There are some smart people, and a great many dumb people, who think a “war with Iran” would be a disaster and something we could not win. This is idiotic, no matter who says it, how they say it, or how they try to explain it. I don’t know why they say such things – the smart people, at least, as dumb people say dumb things because they’re dumb, it’s right there in their name. But the idea that we would lose is just as dumb as the idea that we should not confront them, because there will never be a better time than right now to do either.
I can’t ascribe a reason why these people, not just in America but around the world, seem to be the hype-men – think Jerome to Morris Day – for the Mullahs of Iran, but my suspicion runs the gambit from being dupes and useful idiots to being childish contrarians or on someone’s payroll. Some, I’m sure, do it out of what they view as principle, too, but what those principles are will forever remain a mystery.
Then there is just good, old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Occam’s Razor suggests this is the most common reason, even if it doesn’t manifest itself in obvious ways.
Why conflate the US being able to defeat Iran with Israel? Because they are linked.
Israel was always going to be the tip of the spear against the terrorist state of Iran. They’re right there, a close ally, and the recipient of most of Iran’s military aggression, both directly and through proxies. Because of that, they always have to be “held back” from returning fire or wiping out the regime.
It’s always been an odd policy to hold back Israel from destroying the evil men using Iran as a front for their actions. Obama did it. He’d rather have a “legacy” of an awful Iran deal than Biden did it because he wanted to restore that bad deal, and Trump did it in the first administration because he had bad advisors who were more in line with the left than the interests of the United States.
“We would lose” is something these people regularly say, but they never say how. We do have the strongest military the world has ever seen. While that isn’t always a guarantee of victory, it sure helps. We also maintain our military’s equipment, unlike some other countries who end up breaking down in mud in the mountains.
Most importantly, however, is the idea that Iran has a strong military, which is just that, an idea. Having the “4th or 5th largest military in the world” does not give you an accurate picture of the state of things. It’s the difference between having a billion dollars vs having a million – a million seconds is 11 days, a billion seconds is 33 years – which is close to the difference between the size and capabilities of the US military and Iran’s.
Also, they fought Iraq to a draw for over a decade, and we cut through the Iraqi military like a hot knife through butter. I’m not talking about the aftermath, I’m just talking about the military.
We could walk all over Iran’s military. Would the aftermath be a mess? Maybe. But only if we tried to impose our will on them rather than do our business, end their theocratic government and get out, leaving them to figure out what comes next.
I’m not advocating that, but the idea that we couldn’t win is idiotic. The idea that we shouldn’t even consider the possibility is asinine.
Iran is funding terrorists around the world, they fund the murder of Americans and the attacks on American troops. There has to be a serious price for that, but thanks to Democrats and this insane idea among some on the “right,” they haven’t paid much of one.
Teddy Roosevelt famously said, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” We have the biggest stick, and I’m not talking about nuclear. But if it is clear that only under the most extreme circumstances would we ever consider using that stick, we are just a mumbling weirdo with a cane.
Iran is now much further away from a nuclear weapon than they were last week. That is a good thing for the world. If their government falls, if the people rise and remove their oppressors in this moment of opportunity, the world will be an even better. If we can do anything to facilitate any of it, all the better. If that upsets some people “on our side,” maybe they weren’t as on our side as we thought.
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, DC, and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.