Trump is done kicking the can down the road on Iran

Trump is ensnared in the toils of inconsistency over Iran. Should he try to make the best deal he can, or continue the fighting, on air, sea and possibly land? He tells staff he wants a “speedy end to the war,” but he tells the world that if Iran doesn’t capitulate, “we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”  

Trump should be exultant, not war-weary. The campaign has met with stunning military success. Iran‘s command and control has been decimated. Alireza Tangsiri, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval commander responsible for mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz, is the latest to be felled. Yousef Pezeshkian, son of Iran’s president, writes that if Iran can’t prevent the continued assassination of its leaders, “we will lose the war.” 

With few U.S. casualties, two-thirds of Iran’s missile, drone and naval production facilities have been destroyed or damaged, and its nuclear program has been further set back. Last Friday, Israel launched a large-scale attack against Iranian nuclear sites using radioactive material. Also hit: a key production site for plutonium in Arak. We’re well on track to finish the job. 

The major U.S. objectives are securing the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping (yes, Virginia, it is all about money), interdicting Iran’s nuclear program, limiting Iran’s missile capability to self-defense and ending support for Iranian proxies spawning global terrorism have at last crystallized. 

As Trump said in his State of the Union address, “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror,........

© The Hill