No duty is harder or potentially more consequential than for a President to send young men and women into harm’s way. Every President, at least since Roosevelt, has done so, with vastly different degrees of support from the American people and Congress. For many decades, identifying the enemy wasn’t too difficult. Americans were patriotic and rightfully assumed that what the leader of our nation said was true and necessary, a belief no longer shared as readily. Also, there was an unwritten rule that Party politics stopped at the water’s edge, and we rallied around the flag in support of our President and our military. Those days are gone with the wind in much the same way as Tara never rose again.
Today, everything is a political/optics calculation. From small things like the timing of a photo op to bigger things like the sequencing of executive orders, all are chosen to maximize favorable headlines and minimize scrutiny. If Donald Trump is indeed the King his detractors scream he is, he’s surely not doing a very good job at it; his stagecraft and statecraft have not saved him from political negation and judicial decisions, preventing him from delivering on promises he made to the American people.
Critics Compare U.S. Withdrawals Decades Apart:-
Americans are still reacting to one of the worst retreats in our nation’s history in Afghanistan, only marginally better than throwing in the towel in Vietnam. No wonder the American people are gun-shy, and some of the best leaders we have had in generations are unable to communicate through the interminable static the necessity of ending Iran’s ambitions once and for all, so no future president ever has to deal with the existential threat Iran presents.
Let’s reiterate why leaving a hereditary Muslim theocracy in place is a danger not only for the United States, but also threatens the peace and stability of the entire world:
Iran’s theocratic leadership pursues an ideological agenda that exports revolutionary influence, backs armed proxies across the Middle East, and advances a nuclear and missile capability—combining to create a persistent regional and global security threat. U.S. and allied policy treats Tehran’s proxy networks, enrichment activities, and asymmetric attacks on shipping and partners as central security concerns that undermine peace and stability everywhere.
This conclusion requires a response while the threat is still manageable. At some point, whether a nuclear threshold is passed (possibly surreptitiously) or in conjunction with Iran or one of its proxies having the means to deliver a nuclear package or other weapon of mass destruction, America loses containment, and all bets are off. This translates into a moderate to high likelihood of an uncontained war (regional or global) with one or more global adversaries. Leaving our once reliable friends to pick sides depending on the circumstances of the moment. We are seeing this play out in real time as Europe seems to be sitting this one out.
Pretty dire, I think you would agree, and why it may be even more important than you think to contain Iran, now, while we still can, and Israel is not destroyed or so damaged that we are again drawn into a war, not of our choosing.
The logical course is to reset the table in our favor, which we are doing now. However, there is a problem. Let’s call it the enemy within. It was shocking to me to see on Saturday, the 14th, Iranian actors in Columbus Square denigrating our country while parading a picture of the former Ayatollah while shouting Death to America! Why aren’t they arrested on the spot? Fomenting calls for the violent overthrow of our country is a violation of USC Chapter 115 of Title 18 — especially advocating the overthrow of the Government (18 USC §2385), seditious conspiracy (18 USC §2384), or rebellion/insurrection (18 USC §2383). While such behavior was obvious and would not be tolerated in the past, recent decisions have nuanced it and imposed an almost impossible burden to meet—recent interpretations of the First Amendment constrain these statutes: speech is punishable only if it is directed to and likely to produce imminent lawless action. I guess since no one was wearing a suicide vest, it’s okay, right? And, since it’s New York City, we don’t seem to give a damn about whether these are paid agents or even here illegally.
America Debates the Cost of Conflict:-
Marines are on the move to the Middle East as I write this. It’s not a question of whether we have the capacity to win this war; it’s a question of whether we have the will. And, for the American people, it seems to all boil down to the price of a gallon of gas when they next fill up. Clueless Americans, getting their news from TikTok (if they get any news at all), are exactly like the denizens of Animal Farm with only the barest cognitive ability to understand what is going on, so someone smarter boils it down (much like TikTok) to a soundbite. In the case of Animal Farm (Two Legs, Bad, Four Legs Good), in American parlance…Gas up, war bad. How do we defeat venal messaging like that?
Here’s what I suggest: think of it as a kind of silver bullet:
Except for the Left Coast, America is energy independent. World pricing is setting U.S. oil and gas prices, which in turn are setting pump prices. The President can issue an Executive Order that, for a period of time, U.S. marketers should charge only the price of oil or gas that existed the day before the war commenced. I’m a free trader at heart. Supply and demand are not the reason prices are climbing; speculators are driving the runup strictly to profit from fear, completely detached from actual supply and demand—in essence, a manipulated market.
I hate price fixing. However, if it means millions of Americans will stay the course and help our President and his razor-thin margin of supporters stay strong, it is the lesser of two evils. It also sends a signal to Iran that they have lost the public relations war and time is on our side, not theirs.
God Bless America!
Allan J. Feifer—Patriot
Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com. Read additional great writers here.
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