We’re Losing the War and We’re Paying for It

When the No Deal Deal was made with Iran, I said it was easy to understand:  the Iranians would promise to be good, and we would pay for it.  In the event, I was only half right.  We are indeed paying for it, but the Iranians haven’t even pretended to be good.  In fact, they are attacking us.in Yemen, as Steve Bryen and retired Admiral Norman Saunders argue convincingly here:

It is, for Iran, a double or triple proxy war. It is a war against Sunni infidels epitomized by the Arab Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia. The Houthis are Sh'ia, not Sunni, and so are the Iranians. It is a war to take control of Yemen and with it control over the entrance to both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. And it is a war against the all-around infidel, the United States and its allies.

From the Iranian point of view, and certainly that of the Revolutionary Guard, it is the United States that is blocking Iran from controlling the Persian Gulf and Red Sea commerce. In regard to Yemen and the coastline and Bab el-Mandab straits, the U.S. has been absolutely clear that the U.S. Navy mission is to keep them open for international shipping.

Thus the two or possibly three subsequent events, the firing of anti-ship missiles aimed at the USS Mason and USS Ponce, represents a qualitative escalation in the competition between the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the U.S. Navy. The Houthis were quick to say that while they took credit for the Swift attack they did not attack the U.S. warships.

In keeping with Obama’s strategic alliance with Iran, US Government spokesthings have carefully avoided any suggestion that Tehran is lobbing missiles at our Navy, blaming their proxies, the Houthis.  And our “response” –attacking some obsolete radar systems—reminds me of Bill Clinton’s bombing of an Afghan Aspirin factory in the middle of the night, pretending it was a brave attack on al Qaeda.

And still nobody resigns in protest against Obama’s strategic alliance with the Iranian regime.

Quite the contrary, in fact.  We're working for our enemies.  American soldiers are risking their lives to advance Iranian military advances.

It’s amazing and appalling that our Air Force is bombing targets in Mosul at the behest of the Quds Force commander, General Qassem Soleimani.  If there were a geopolitically savvy leader of the opposition in Washington, we’d be hearing a lot more about these things, but the best we’ve got right now is my co-author, General Michael T. Flynn, and for the moment Trump’s got him in tow.  Perhaps after the election Flynn will find an effective role.

Of the urgent tasks the next president will have to face, none is more important than unleashing a devastating political attack against Radical Islam, with Iran the biggest target.  The number two in Iran’s Defense Forces just reminded us of the regime’s mission regarding the United States:

The presence of America in the region is a cancerous malign tumor that can only be treated by removing the filthy tumor and the ejection of America from the region,” Jazayeri added. “In Iran, nobody will permit America to tie its failure to live up to its commitments to defense issues and the interests of the resistance.”

This reminder that the Islamic Republic is at war with us comes during a three-day drill by Iranian air forces, in which Tehran used American military technology.  Just in case Khamenei was short of cash, Obama made it easier for the supreme leader to get still more American money.

We need leaders who want to win the war against Iran and her allies, ranging from Russia and North Korea to China, Cuba and Syria.  This has to include outspoken condemnation of the tyrannical regimes, and support for countries threatened by them.  We need to do more for reasonable Islamic governments like Egypt and Indonesia, as we must relentlessly condemn the brutal repression of the citizens of enemy countries.

At the moment we’re losing, and we’re even paying for it.

Nothing good on the horizon, alas.

Michael Ledeen is the Freedom Scholar at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @michaelledeen.