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With his eight-minute speech on Iran, Trump has taken a major step towards re-establishing the United States as the indispensable nation that fights for freedom for all peoples. Trump takes up again the tradition established with the victory over Nazism and Japan and crowned when the Wall fell in 1989. But by then Europe had become soft and had lost the will to sacrifice.
Trump’s words last night stand in the tradition of Ronald Reagan: It takes only one generation for freedom to disappear. Freedom must be affirmed in every generation.
That is the task liberal democracy has not maintained.
The most humiliating symbol of this failure was Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan, the chaos and panic and the surrender of the country, after twenty years of effort, to the murderous Taliban regime. It would not surprise if the United States has given Pakistan the green light to overthrow the Taliban as well.
The Biden regime sacrificed its own soldiers and handed over the largest base, Bagram, to the enemies of the United States. It lay within striking distance of China’s nuclear missiles. It was sheer self-harm.
When Trump attacks Iran, it is therefore a reckoning with several presidents’ weak foreign policy. Bill Clinton had the opportunity to take out Osama bin Laden before 9/11, but did not dare. Bush II became entangled in Iraq. His father had an opportunity to overthrow Saddam in the first Gulf War, but did not dare. Security policy cannot consist of half measures. There must be consequence behind it. If you begin down a path, you must go the whole way. That was the capacity the United States lost, not to mention Europe, which shipped its oars and allowed the United States to pay and defend.
This half-hearted policy began with the Vietnam War, which bore similarities to Iraq: the war of small steps, without a clear objective. That is why the war ended with the flight from Saigon. It was the first great humiliation. Later came Mogadishu.
It is this half-hearted policy that Trump is breaking with.
Symbolically, the United States defeated its rival Canada in ice hockey during the Olympic Games. The team displayed the spirit for which the United States is known: the will to win. Team spirit.
It was this spirit that saved Europe in two world wars.
Now the United States is back. Europe ought to have rejoiced, but is now a reluctant partner.
The war against Iran will have an impact on other wars in which the United States is involved. Putin will find it more difficult. The bloc of countries on his side will be weakened. Even China will be weakened by an Iranian defeat. Trump said 40,000 soldiers were killed last month. The Europeans do not take this in. Trump has mentioned the casualty figures every single month as the only head of state.
We cannot take victory for granted. But the regime’s fighting morale is at rock bottom. Trump urged the Revolutionary Guard and the army to capitulate and they would be treated magnanimously. He urged the Iranians to take their fate into their own hands. This is a historic opportunity.
Kurds in Iraq filmed and laughed when they saw the Tomahawk missiles come flying. The Kurds are a group that may gain greatly from the defeat of the mullahs.
The entire Middle East may be redrawn.
Socialist-liberal regimes such as those in Scandinavia do not understand what occurs when the world’s strongest military power chooses to act in order to remove an evil regime.
– This is a noble cause, said Trump. – Lives will be lost also on our side, but it is a just cause for which you sacrifice your life.
Which other country dares to undertake such tasks?
“If you talk the talk, you must walk the walk,” the Americans say. You cannot merely have it on your lips.
Together with Israel, Trump will change not only the Middle East.
The regime forfeited its right to rule when it turned upon the people with murderous intent. Thereby it pronounced judgment upon itself.
If the people now rise up, they will give inspiration to freedom-loving people all over the world.