Lee Smith voices a sentiment I’ve seen a lot these past few weeks:

The fact is that no one before Trump had the courage to attack. Iran has been waging a war against Americans, U.S. interests, and allies for nearly five decades, and no other American leader would stand up against that.

The fact is that no one before Trump had the courage to attack. Iran has been waging a war against Americans, U.S. interests, and allies for nearly five decades, and no other American leader would stand up against that.

Leaving aside whether it’s courageous for any president to send other people to war — even if the war is wise and just — I think this is off. I don’t know that it would have been courageous, as opposed to foolhardy, for George W. Bush to go to war with Iran in 2006, for example, while the U.S. Armed Forces were already fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or for George H. W. Bush to wage war against Iran right after ejecting Iraq from Kuwait.

I suspect that Trump felt freer to begin this campaign against Iran because the regime had been weakened since October 7, 2023. That’s a wholly legitimate consideration for a president to take into account. But that rationale doesn’t reflect poorly on the courage of his predecessors.

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