By Victor Joecks
If you blinked, you just missed World War III.
President Donald Trump on June 23 announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. That came two days after Trump sent B-2 stealth bombers to drop bunker-buster bombs on the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant.
Only the United States had the capability to obliterate the deeply buried site. U.S. submarines also launched 30 Tomahawk missiles against two other Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan.
Despite some initial attempts to test its boundaries, the agreement has held up as of this writing.
According to some of the loudest voices on the Left and Right, it wasn鈥檛 supposed to end this way.
Shortly after it happened, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., declared that Trump鈥檚 decision to bomb Iran was 鈥渄isastrous.鈥
鈥淗e has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,鈥 she wrote on X. 鈥淚t is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.鈥
For months, Tucker Carlson has railed against attacking Iran.
鈥淚t鈥檚 worth pointing out that a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East,鈥 he wrote on the social media platform X in March. He continued, 鈥淎 bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war.鈥
AOC and Carlson may not agree on much, but they now have this in common. They were both spectacularly wrong. It鈥檚 worth looking at what Trump understood, which they didn鈥檛.
First, he rejected the false dichotomy of doing nothing or a regime-change war. This tactic is common in politics. It involves claiming that someone either supports your position or endorses an extremely unpopular position. In complicated policy issues, there are usually many options.
Those opposed to Trump attacking Iran rushed out this line of attack.
After the United States bombed Iran, Geraldo Rivera wrote on X that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 鈥渟uckered Trump (and the USA!) into another forever war with Iran.鈥
On June 23, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X, 鈥淥nly 6 months in and we are back into foreign wars, regime change, and World War 3.鈥
As Trump showed, there was another option. He destroyed Iran鈥檚 ability to make nuclear weapons and left the fate of the Iranian regime to the Iranian people.
Next, Trump exhibited moral clarity. There are many on the Left and some on the Right who are vocally anti-Israel. They attacked Israel as it fought Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. They attacked Israel for Operation Grim Beeper, which neutralized thousands of Hezbollah fighters. They attacked Israel for bombing Iran.
But here鈥檚 the key point Trump understands. Some violent acts are morally good. In Michigan recently, a church member spotted a would-be mass shooter and ran into him with his pickup. An armed security guard then killed the gunman. Intentionally ramming someone with a car or shooting someone else is a violent act. In this circumstance, it was morally justified.
Similarly, Israel acts violently to kill terrorists and foreign officials who plot to kill its civilians. That鈥檚 not morally equivalent to Iran and its terrorist proxies targeting Israeli civilians. Trump made that distinction.
Finally, Trump showed courage. It isn鈥檛 enough to have the world鈥檚 strongest military in theory. The country needs a leader with the internal fortitude to exercise that power. Just look at former President Joe Biden鈥檚 surrender in Afghanistan in 2021.
Since Bill Clinton, every U.S. president has said that Iran can鈥檛 be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. At the opportune moment, Trump had the guts to ensure it won鈥檛 any time soon.
Unless the Iranian people overthrow it, the Iranian regime will remain America鈥檚 enemy. But by depriving it of access to nuclear weapons, Trump has made it a much less threatening one. Bravo.
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