One Nation

One of the most dangerous yet unresolved challenges facing U.S. Presidents for the last forty-six years has been what to do about the growing threat of the extremist Islamic state of Iran ,and in particular its obsession with building a nuclear weapons arsenal. Since 1979, the policy of the United States regarding that country can best be described as indecisive, ineffective and inept, and the blame can be equally shared by Democrats and Republicans alike in the White House and in Congress. This past Sunday morning at a little past 2 a.m., a decisive, effective and highly competent change in policy was directed by the White House and delivered by the Air Force and Navy of the United States. This action has finally changed the calculus of a problem that has bedeviled seven of the last eight “occupants of the oval office”. The Iranian regime that supports more state-sponsored terrorism than any other country in the world has now been given a clearer understanding of the swift and overwhelming response that awaits them for any future acts that threaten the United States or its allies. The mission of this past weekend involved the significant destruction of three nuclear storage, production and enrich-ment sites dedicated to the long-pursued Iranian dream of finally possessing the ultimate threat of nuclear weapons to bolster their crusade of Islamic terrorism around the world. Since 1979, over 650 members of the U.S. military have paid the ultimate price as a result of Iranian terrorism across the globe, but in a little more than 20 minutes over target, Air Force B2 bomb-ers obliterated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s dream of a nuclear weapon under his control along with the chants of “death to America, death to Israel”. The military planning and global execu-tion of this strike was pinpoint, allowing complete surprise and exact targeting using muni-tions and aircraft available only to our country. The results, while still being assessed, appear to have been devastating, if not total. In addition to the elimination of the Iranian nuclear threat, it is clear that this action has the potential to reorder relationships in the Middle East and refine alliances among Gulf nations. Unknown, is how the Iranian people will choose to react following this strike to a weakened but still oppressive autocratic government. Iran’s his-tory since 1979 has been a ruthless story of Islamic extremism and persecution with multiple episodes of brutally crushed civil uprising. Another resulting shift could be the reevaluation of U.S. influence in the Middle East as it affects other world powers like China, Russia and India. At any rate, the effects of this strike, both positive and otherwise, will be felt near and far. Hopefully, political judgements at home will be deferred at least until more information pro-vides a clearer picture of the future. However, one thing we can be sure of at this point is that the timidity of former administrations in dealing with Iran ever since 1979 when our embassy there was overtaken and American hostages held for 444 days has ended. For the present, as members of one nation, and regardless of political leaning, we can all take pride in the exem-plary performance of those men and women of our military who were involved in this remark-able operation. And let us also remember, as Senator Arthur Vandenburg said following the end of World War II, “we are one nation, and politics stops at the water’s edge.”