Trump can and should force Iran's unconditional surrender
Since the Mullahs seized power in Tehran in 1979, the U.S. has been playing for a tie in Iran. Now, it is time for President Trump to play for a win.
For forty-six years, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his predecessors have been waging a war against the U.S. and our allies in the Middle East. “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” have not been just slogans but decades-long causes.
Iran’s war against Washington has at times been overt, as when the regime sanctioned Iranian students storming the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979. For 444 days, fifty-two Americans were held hostage. In the process, Iran also destroyed the second half of President Jimmy Carter’s only term in the Oval Office.
At other times, the war has been indirect. On October 23, 1983, 241 U.S. servicemen were killed and another 100 wounded in the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. Although responsibility for the bombing was claimed by the shadowy Islamic Jihad Organization, it is widely understood that Hezbollah was behind the attack, and that it had been planned and funded by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The origins of Iran’s proxy war against the U.S. and later Israel were born on that day. Other attacks would follow, including the June 1996 attack by Hezbollah Al-Hejaz — an Iranian-backed Shia terrorist group — on Khobar Towers in 1996 that killed 19 United States airmen.
In October 2000, a suicide bomber hit the USS Cole using a small boat carrying C4 explosives, killing 17 sailors. In 2015, a U.S. court found that Iran was part of the al-Qaeda attack.
Subsequently, Tehran’s so-called “Axis of Resistance” would repeatedly attack U.S. interests or allies. While Iran........
© The Hill
