Trump deserves the benefit of the doubt on Iran

OPINION:

The same digital prostitutes who claimed to be “MAGA” and “America First,” and tried to gatekeep the coalition at the expense of the coalition’s health, are now assailing President Trump on social media for removing the now-dead Iranian regime.

Although they have borrowed heavily from Crusader imagery to telegraph their toughness, in reality, they clearly prefer President Obama’s approach: supplication coupled with dropping pallets of cash from the sky over Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s fortress.

This past week, a handful of commentators have declared that Mr. Trump is too stupid to make these calls and, as such, he is clearly being forced to strike Iran because of (drumroll) … the Jews!

Iran’s beef with the United States kicked off in 1979 when it seized our embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage for more than a year. This was followed by the 1983 murder of 241 service members in the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut. Earlier that year, Iran killed 17 Americans in the U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut.

The next year, Iran kidnapped a CIA station chief in Beirut and tortured him to death. They tortured and murdered two other Americans later that year and then tortured and murdered a U.S. Navy diver in 1985.

Fast-forward to the Khobar Towers bombing that killed 19 U.S. service members. Then fast-forward to Oct. 7, 2023, when 46 Americans were murdered by Iran’s proxy, Hamas.

Every year, sometimes every couple of years, Iran murders Americans, nearly countless numbers, yes, because of their Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi proxies. Iran-backed militias were behind more than 600 troop deaths in Iraq, bringing the total of Americans murdered by Iran to over 1,000.

This doesn’t include the two times Iran tried to assassinate Mr. Trump, once before the 2024 election.

None of these had anything to do with Israel, save for Oct. 7, and only because Americans were killed in Israel.

Thanks to President Carter’s disastrous intervention, Iran has waged asymmetrical warfare against the United States since 1979. Iran doesn’t get to have nukes. The U.S. can say this because we are the No. 1 superpower in the world, and the world should get on its knees and thank God that we love liberty.

When you’re the No. 1 superpower in the world, you get to determine that a bunch of backwoods mullahs — who murdered a 1,000 Americans and regularly imprisoned women for not cowering under coverings — are not civilized enough to possess nuclear capability. Iran made that choice.

Since World War II, we have defended others around the world while ivory-towered Eurotrash called us the “world’s police.” We allowed an indulgent Europe to treat NATO like a state welfare fund. We gave the performative Victorian freak show that is the United Nations prime real estate in Manhattan, so countries such as Pakistan and China can pretend they have any business as members of the “Human Rights Council.”

We’ve thrown our hard-earned taxpayer dollars at various tyrannical, Third World hellholes like Mardi Gras celebrants toss beads on Bourbon Street.

Regardless of your approval of the following, we were there in the Persian Gulf for Kuwait, we gave aid and training to Ukraine, and we provide security guarantees via our presence in the Baltics and elsewhere. In the words of James Brown, we “paid the cost to be the boss.”

The only people more (or maybe less) disappointed than China in these Middle Eastern turn of events are the digital grifters who worry that their luxe, government-funded Qatari trips will dry up if we’re in a state of war. (Hopefully, Tucker Carlson’s new digs in Qatar remained unscathed.)

That’s just it: We haven’t declared a “war.” The wannabe Crusader influencers, who couldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight, can’t tell the difference between a deterrent strike and actual war. The lawmakers preening for the cameras on Capitol Hill can’t explain why, if they so oppose strikes on Iran, they never once rose from sitting on their fat keisters to modify the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force to exclude entities that assisted in the commission of 9/11 or harbored those who did.

I’ve disagreed with Mr. Trump on aspects of his policy plenty of times, but one area where he outshines his predecessors is his commitment to avoiding war. It’s one of his most consistent legacies. There is no mission creep with him. His approach is enemy deception, quick entry, a nimble but overwhelming strike and quick extraction.

Mr. Trump unleashes our fighting forces to do what they do best: break [redacted] and kill things. He has proved that he deserves the benefit of the doubt here.

Mr. Trump followed the War Powers Act protocol by notifying Congress. His administration argues that he is responding to aggression, not inciting it. Looking at the history. It’s difficult to argue that he is wrong here.

Perhaps instead of insulting Mr. Trump on the issue, the mullah-loving clout chasers could explain how Iran’s history, and Ayatollah Khamenei’s threat to sink all our ships in the area, didn’t constitute intended aggression. They won’t, because they already have surrendered to their newly developed Chrislam-infused strain of Trump derangement syndrome.

• Dana Loesch is the host of the No. 1 nationally syndicated weekday talk program, “Dana Show,” a bestselling author and a Second Amendment advocate. She lives in Dallas.