Two traps for Trump to avoid on Iran

OPINION:

So much of life is about creating an effective balance. We need to do it in our daily lives, or we can suffer emotionally, physically, professionally and financially, or some combination.

The same is true of presidents, particularly during second terms, which are fraught with political peril. That peril can have long-lasting effects on the party in power’s legacy and future.

For President Trump, the balance is critical to winning the midterms and solidifying his legacy. The first trap to avoid is overselling the war with Iran.

Over the past week, we have heard that military action was necessary because Iran was going to strike first, that intelligence presented a unique opportunity to decapitate the leadership at once, that negotiations weren’t going to be fruitful, that Iran had some measure of enough enriched uranium to make a bomb (or 11 bombs), because Israel was going to strike first, and that this would be an opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow the Islamic terrorist regime.

Is it about regime change? Is it about nukes? That has been just the past few days.

One or all of those things could be true simultaneously, but it is critical for the president and his administration to focus their rationale. This will become increasingly important as the military campaign continues and media scrutiny intensifies, along with the impact on global markets and the inevitable increase in American casualties.

Remember, if you’re explaining, then you’re losing.

I have long contended that President George W. Bush’s administration focused far too much on the weapons of mass destruction rationale for the Iraq War and not enough on how Iraq fit into the larger global war on Islamic terror narrative that resonated well with the American people.

Today, Mr. Trump’s team should avoid getting wrapped around the axle of the debate over how much enriched uranium the Iranians had or how close to having a nuclear bomb they were. It’s an unprovable and therefore a losing argument.

The better option is to stay focused on the regime’s record as the largest state sponsor of terrorism, its killing of American forces, human rights violations, relentless pursuit of the destruction of Israel and clear cooperation with China and Russia against U.S. interests. That’s all the rationale you need.

The proxy groups, the 47 years of carnage, the women being raped and executed for showing their hair, the American troops killed, and their targeting of civilians in nations around the world are enough for most.

Americans are smart enough to appreciate that eliminating a force bent on that persistent level of destruction, which is also a chief ally of the dictators in China and Russia, is a worthy target for elimination by the West.

Mr. Trump has decapitated the murderous Islamic regime that is the third leg of the stool for the authoritarian bloc. Its fall will give the U.S. more leverage against China and may also provide an opening to end the war in Ukraine.

That’s a good foreign record, and most rational Americans will appreciate it, but here’s the second trap Mr. Trump and his team must continue to avoid: They must balance their foreign policy achievements with a bold domestic agenda.

Contrary to what Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson and others would have you believe, Americans don’t mind helping the world. Part of the American DNA is an appreciation of that old axiom, “Of those whom much is given, much is required.” It is the price we pay for being the leader of the free world.

When America doesn’t lead on the world stage (or “leads from behind” as was President Obama’s policy), the world gets more dangerous for everyone, including Americans.

However, Americans are still keenly aware that their own personal economies and ability to achieve their goals cannot be left to languish at the expense of military or foreign policy agendas — however important those may be.

One of the reasons Mr. Bush left office with such low approval ratings was that his second term was consumed by the Iraq conflict and its aftermath. The daily drumbeat of bad news from the war and an ineffective strategy to counter both the narrative and the situation on the ground paralyzed the administration. The second Bush term had virtually no domestic policy agenda.

For Mr. Trump, the answers here are clear. Don’t get consumed by the war in Iran. Instead, continue to drive the domestic agenda to identify and prosecute fraud, urge passage of the ban on stock trading in Congress and the SAVE Act or some measure of it.

He should continue to talk about the affordability agenda and his efforts to lower health care costs, aid local municipalities in tackling crime and devolve power away from Washington.

Those are all winning issues. Forging that balance will help ensure he wins on the world stage and here at home, avoiding the traps his predecessors fell into by tipping the scales too far toward foreign policy.

• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax and served as an adviser to the coalition government in Iraq during the Bush administration. He is the author of “Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq,” about wartime communications.