The critical follow-on function for a devastating strike like the one Donald Trump just launched against the goat-molesting seventh-century semi-humans ruling Iran is battle damage assessment. BDA is a crucial function – you need to understand how much pain you inflicted and calculate whether you need to inflict some more. But you don’t just do it on the enemy; you have to do it on yourself, too. It’s vital that we, as America First conservatives, conduct our own BDA on what this strike did to our movement.
As it has become clear, America First is not a monolith. There are various factions within the America First coalition, including some ravenous hawks who have yearned for 46 years to see this righteous retribution delivered to those drooling barbarian fanatics – on this issue, I’m a hawk – as well as those who, at various levels of rationality, run from skeptical to actively opposed to busting the mullahs’ bunkers. In the run-up to the bomb run, we heard dire warnings that Trump launching this attack would shatter our coalition, crumbling the unity that brought disparate factions together into a united front to defeat the grotesquely evil establishment that had infected our great nation. The question is whether Donald Trump’s decision to send in the B-2 Spirits will break the spirit of the America First force he has built.
My take: That’s not going to happen.
We keep hearing from people who insist that they weren’t voting to bomb Iran when they voted for Donald Trump, but I was totally voting to bomb Iran when I voted for Donald Trump. I knew that Donald Trump wasn’t going to be a pathetic pushover like Barack Obama, the soft new fish of world politics who sold himself for cigarettes and security on the cell block. I was a high school freshman when these creeps first dared to put their stinking paws on Americans after invading our embassy. America never avenged that or the deaths at Desert One. In the decades that followed, Iran’s legacy of terrorism, torture, and murder has run the tally to well over 1,000 dead Americans. That atrocities from Beirut to Khobar Towers to the explosively formed projectiles in Iraq have gone unavenged until now – and it is only partially avenged as it stands – is a disgrace. Third World potentates should shiver in cold horror at the thought of our unmerciful vengeance should they ever presume to harass an American.
This isn’t “Iraq 2: Electric Boogaloo.” When people complain that Donald Trump promised us no new wars – you can see that the memo for that went out to the Democrats, and when you agree with the Official Democrat Talking Points™, you need to check yourself before you wreck yourself – they are missing the point. This is not a new war. We’ve been at war with these fanatical creeps for half a century, and it’s long overdue that we finally struck back.
But, of course, the people who think like me are only a part of the America First coalition – the polling suggests we are a very big part. Still, a significant part of the American First coalition, including friends of mine who I greatly respect, disagree, and deserve a hearing when they feel strongly about something. They think differently about this issue. And you know what? They’re not crazy to do so.
As a soldier, you always want to understand what the other side thinks. Part of the reason we prevailed this weekend was that we followed that and other teachings of Sun Tzu instead of the teachings of Ibram X. Kendi. As a lawyer, I always had to understand the other guy’s arguments to win in court. Moreover, since literally everybody you talk to as a lawyer disagrees with you, you also learn not to take it personally. This isn’t personal; we can disagree, the decision gets made, then we move forward together – and we must.
The fact is, most of those on the right who were against the strike had quite reasonable arguments in support of their position. They were not crazy. They were not evil. Sure, there are the weirdos and dummies out there pretending to be part of our movement who spew out things like “I won’t die for Israel” and blame the Jews for their inability to attain and sustain turgidity – we have idiots in our party just like the Democrats have idiots in theirs although, in the Democrats’ case, the idiots are the party instead of the exception.
Let’s consider the case made by those who disagree with me about crushing these vermin:
1. The United States has a long track record of total failure in the Middle East, with promises of short and painless victories that turned into endless bloodbaths that slaughtered and maimed the best of the American people.
2. America has real problems at home, and we ought to focus our efforts here.
3. We can’t trust the intelligence.
4. This is Israel’s fight, not ours.
5. Lindsey Graham, Mike Pence, and Adam Kinzinger think it was a good idea.
6. This will shatter the American First coalition.
Again, none of these arguments are crazy. These are good points, offered in good faith, that require fair consideration. You can rationally conclude that we should not have attacked Iran without being a nut, a fool, or an antisemite. Many of my close friends have. But I think they are wrong to do so.
Yes, America’s foreign policy elite has completely screwed up everything east of Suez in the last 25 years, but history is longer than 25 years. I was there in the Gulf War 35 years ago, and we had a short, sharp, total victory. We are not condemned to eternal reruns of the failures of Iran and Afghanistan, operations that started brilliantly and only went off the rails because the Foggy Bottom geniuses wanted to impose their faculty lounge version of democracy, including such wine woman obsessions as gender weirdness, upon an unwilling foreign populace. With solid leadership of the kind we now have in the Pentagon and a proper mission that has us acting as warriors rather than cultural missionaries, our troops can achieve victory.
The American people, especially our troops and their families, have suffered unbelievably because of our garbage elite’s screw-ups. Thinking about this column, I tallied up friends and acquaintances who were hurt or killed in the wars of the last 25 years. There’s the officer wounded by an American traitor and another officer wounded by an Afghan traitor. I have two friends whose lungs are permanently wrecked. I have another whose head was nearly taken off by a 122mm rocket. And then there was the son of a former client who was killed at Abbey Gate.
Don’t ever minimize what happened to our troops or how it has properly influenced so many of our vets to be skeptical of, or even actively opposed to, any military action over there. America’s failed ruling class squandered their trust, and they are absolutely justified in applying their experience to the present. I don’t agree with them – I think this situation is readily distinguishable because Iran is (was) a very real threat and we required payback for past injuries, but their argument is well taken. We should listen respectfully and not insult or belittle them. They’ve got a point.
As far as having real problems at home, we’re always going to have problems at home. The problem at home I worry about most is having an Iranian nuclear device detonate over Los Angeles. I don’t have to believe the intelligence, which can be corrupted in both directions, to recognize the peril. The fact is, the Iranians did have a nuclear capability because they said so, and everybody agreed that they did. They also said they wanted first Israel, then the US, obliterated. I believe in taking people seriously when they tell you they’re going to kill you. It might not have happened this year or in five years, but in ten years, it would have. Apocalyptic death cults seek to cause apocalyptic death.
And that’s why I disagree about it being Israel’s fight. It’s not just Israel’s fight. It’s Western civilization’s fight, and unfortunately, most of Western civilization has decided to take the femboy option of cowardice and decline. It’s not fair that the job of defending humanity has fallen to us almost alone among Western nations, but life’s not fair. Israel’s been fighting our battle alone for far too long.
Then comes perhaps the most compelling argument against Iranian intervention. That Lindsey Graham, Mike Pence, and Adam Kinzinger are in favor of it should make anyone reconsider. Statistically, we were always going to have some number of terrible people happen to side with us. But yes, when you find that these guys agree with you, it’s time to do a recheck. But like broken clocks, these guys are going to be right once in a while.
Now, the big question – will this ruin Trump? Will this break up our fragile new coalition? No. America First is not a pacifist movement. America First is a Jacksonian movement, where we leave you alone until you mess with us, and then we kill you. Some people will disagree with Donald Trump’s actions. Every time Donald Trump does something, some faction of the coalition will disagree with it. However, we need to stick together because we agree on most things. Those who did not support intervention in Iran are not going to find friends on the Democrat side – the Democrat side opposes it because they hate America. In contrast, those in our coalition who opposed intervening in Iran did so because they think that’s best for America. They are patriots. This is a key difference.
Disputes about the America First doctrine are adjudicated by Donald Trump. Down the road, Donald Trump will inevitably leave the scene, but right now, he’s the guy we decided to trust to be the referee. He’s the guy we put our confidence in. He’s the guy that we picked as our leader. He hasn’t lied about who he is or tried to fool us. He wanted peace and worked for it, and when that didn’t work, he pulled the trigger to make peace happen despite the Iranians. Leaders lead; thank goodness America has one after four years of President Eggplant.
What we America Firsters are going to do now is move forward, supporting our troops and supporting our president. America First is going to survive this crisis – the ham-handed efforts by the Democrats to exploit it to break us up, notwithstanding – and the attack on Iran will make us stronger because normies will see Trump‘s leadership as decisive and strong. We need to have a debate about where we go from here, not a fight. Tomorrow, we’ll stand shoulder to shoulder once more to make America great again.
Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter and pre-order Kurt Schlichter’s action-packed new novel, American Apocalypse: The Second Civil War – coming July 17, 2025!
Get Kurt Schlichter and Irina Moises’s noir fantasy novel, Lost Angeles: Silver Bullets On The Sunset Strip! Also, check out Kurt’s Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels.