Presidential historians traditionally look for signal and defining moments in a presidential administration as a method by which to rank and place that president in history. President Trump has just had one.
What happened?
In a secret operation that can only be described as outstanding, President Trump ordered Operation Midnight Hammer in which the U.S. Central Command conducted precision strikes in the middle of the night against three Iranian nuclear facilities in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran’s nuclear program. Transporting these enormous “bunker buster” bombs that were dropped was a large B-2 bomber strike package.
By all accounts, the result has been that the U.S. has, indeed, either completely obliterated or severely degraded the Iranian nuclear program.
President Trump explained his decision stating that “for decades we have watched Iranian leaders and their supporters chant ‘death to Israel’ and ‘death to America.’ We have watched the Iranian government, funding its proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis, deploy terrorism across the world.” Now, with the Israeli attack already well underway, the U.S. not only aided Israel, one of its closest allies in the world, but also eliminated the same nuclear threat to our own country.
We should also recall that there is proof that Iran has tried to assassinate President Trump—that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has intelligence that Iran ‘wants to kill’ Trump and was behind both assassination attempts on him.
Also, let me respectfully urge that this precise, tactical strike in Iran emphatically does not constitute embroiling the U.S. in another foreign war. From what I’ve read, this only means that, in addition to the military equipment and intelligence with which we already provide Israel, we are assisting Israel with the use of these devastating bunker-buster bombs, reaching those deep places underground where Iranian scientists are working to enrich uranium with the goal of creating nuclear warheads. Israel doesn’t possess a bomb with the capacity to reach that far down, and these Iranian nuclear facilities must be destroyed.
President Trump now stands as a colossus on the world stage. However, while he has re-asserted American military and foreign policy dominance with this strike in Iran, he also remains open to a negotiated end to this conflict.
As we watch this Iranian conflict unfold, I can’t help but recall the Afghanistan debacle under President Biden. The arbitrary and capricious U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan stunned and angered many of our allies. Remember, our allies over the last 20 years had made enormous investments, blood and resources, in the stabilization and peaceful coexistence of that country to prevent the very thing from happening that did happen—Afghanistan transitioning back to being a terrorist haven which threatens the entire civilized world, as well as the mass exodus of fleeing Afghans seeking emergency naturalization and settlement in the countries of our allies.
As the Afghanistan debacle unfolded, with our government leaving billions of dollars of American military equipment behind to the Taliban, and as those huge American planes were taking off from that airport, loaded with people who were literally falling off of the airplanes as they took off, I remember thinking we are watching Afghanistan again devolve dangerously into a terrorist magnet ruled by the Taliban, and we are witnessing once again the timeless and immutable principle of history and nations that strength deters bad actors while weakness begets war.
I also recall that such an epic disaster in Afghanistan underscores the essential lesson of history that the only way to ensure peace is through strength. As President Reagan said, “we know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when they are weak. It is then that tyrants are tempted.”
President Trump has seized this moment. In so doing he has not only left a powerfully positive and indelible mark on his presidency, but he has also likely redirected the course of the world. There is no force as great as that of unharnessed nuclear power and to allow a nuclear weapon to be developed and possessed by such a radical group of religious zealots as those that comprise the Iranian government—a weapon it would also, no doubt, share with other terrorist groups—is simply too grave a risk to the world.
Our prayers are with you, Mr. President. Please continue to decisively and permanently end this nuclear threat now.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.