OPINION:
Secretary of War-slash-Defense Pete Hegseth lashed out at European governments for their failure to stand fast with America on the war against Iran, telling the heads of state they should be “grateful” for the U.S. military, as well as the Israeli forces, for taking on an enemy that has plagued the world for decades. President Trump, he said, is “doing the work of the free world” by attacking the regime, Hegseth said.
And he’s right, of course.
The chant from Iran for 40-plus years has been “death to Israel, death to America, death to the West” — meaning, radical Islamism is not a regional threat, or a country vs. country threat, but rather a global assault on freedom, justice, equality, law and order and all the things that make up modern society, common sense governance and just basic peaceful, humane, coexistence.
Iran’s tyrannical regime has been trying its best to destroy the Jewish people and the Jewish nation, as well as Europe and America, as well as wipe out all Western influences around the globe, and it’s really only under this White House that the countermeasures have kicked into high gear. For far too long, Iran has been able to take potshots at America with barely a consequence to pay — think November 1979, when dozens of Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and only released in January 1981, when the feckless-on-foreign-policy Jimmy Carter stepped aside from his presidency, making way for no-nonsense, well-respected Ronald Reagan.
Think April 1983, when an Iran-backed terror group killed 63, including 17 Americans, by exploding a car bomb at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut. Think October 1983, when Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists drove a truck bomb onto a Marine compound in Beirut, leaving 220 Marines and 21 other service members dead.
As the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies noted, there was June 1996, when 19 Americans and 500 or so others were killed during an Iran-backed bombing of the U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia; there was October 2003, when three U.S. diplomatic personnel were killed by an Iran-backed bombing in Gaza; there was January 2020, when 100 U.S. troops suffered serious brain injuries during an Iranian attack on an airbase in Iraq; there was January 2024, when three U.S. soldiers were killed and 40 other soldiers injured by an Iran-backed attack at a U.S. military base in Jordan.
There’s a long, long list of Iran’s attacks against American citizens — against American soldiers. There’s a long, long list of Iran’s funding of even more attacks against U.S. interests, to include allies.
If Iran were to lay down arms, stop funding terror and terror groups, and cease its pursuit of nuclear weaponry, peace would prevail in much of the world. Even now, the regime is busily executing anyone who dares to protest its tyrannical ways, though.
“Iran Executes 3 Men, Including a Star Teenage Wrestler,” The New York Times wrote.
“Australia says three more members of Iran’s women’s national football [soccer] team, who had sought asylum there, have decided to return to Iran … [because] they feared repercussions at home [against their families],” DW News reported.
Protest the regime — get publicly hanged.
Defect and speak critically against the regime — get your family threatened, possibly killed.
Iran’s ruling class is a galaxy away from freedom.
And even the silent ones — the governments that are keeping quiet and refusing to speak boldly about the war — know that America and Israel are doing the world a favor by going after the regime.
Democrats, meanwhile, are doing the world a disservice with their talking points.
“There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel. To equate the threat to Israel as the equivalent of an imminent threat to the United States — then we’re in uncharted territory. There needs to be proof of an imminent threat to an American interest. I still don’t think that standard has been met,” said Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Committee on Intelligence.
His views are shared by others in the Democrat Party — though some of these same voices on the left who stand opposed to Trump’s attacks on Iran were far more supportive of destroying the regime when different faces were in the White House.
Here’s the problem with the Democrats’ view, though: the definition of “imminent threat” is a bit open to interpretation. It can mean whatever Democrats and their friends in the media want it to mean, and under Trump, they want it to mean whatever makes Trump look bad.
Democrats can’t have it both ways. They can’t support President Barack Obama’s executively ordered attacks on Libya, and President Bill Clinton’s executively ordered attacks over Kosovo, as justified and protective of America’s national security interests, but condemn Trump.
Wars aren’t always waged openly, with declarations and stated exit points and signed peace treaties that marked decisive ends to battle. Sometimes, they’re waged as wars of subterfuge; sometimes, as cyberattacks that upend entire financial and energy sectors; sometimes, through media and public messaging and propaganda strategies; sometimes, through border insurgencies and cultural assimilations; sometimes through targeted terror attacks. Only foolish leaders refuse to recognize these differences.
Democrats, in their foolishness, are serving more the interests of America’s enemies, than of American citizens, American allies and the American and Western way.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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