Scott Gurvey's Public Offerings

It has become routine. Every two- or three-days Donald Trump does something more atrocious than before and it interrupts whatever I was doing and prompts a cycle of disgust, fear, and rage and often provokes one of these blogs, forcing me to put side something I thought was more interesting. I have come to hate the fact that he sucks all the oxygen out of the room.

But despite that, I find myself unable to get upset about Trump’s recent decision to bomb Iran‘s nuclear facilities. In fact, my initial thought was simply, why did it take so long?

Iran’s Lies

Let’s make a few things clear. Iran has been playing us for fools for years. Iran’s claims that that it is pursuing a peaceful domestic nuclear energy program are simply lies. Iran could, under terms of the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) it signed, build all the nuclear power reactors it wishes. There is no need for Iran to have a uranium enrichment facility to supply those reactors. The world is awash with fuel for these plants and many countries, including the United States, would be glad to supply it.

But Iran insists it need facilities to enrich uranium, and according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitors signitories to the NPT, Iran has approximately 900 pounds of uranium enriched to a level of 60%. Uranium used for power reactors is enriched to 3%. There is only one reason to enrich uranium to 60%, and that is to make a nuclear bomb. Bomb grade uranium requires enrichment to the 90% level. But the IAEA says the fact that Iran has produced 60% uruanium proves the capability of its processes and going from 60% to 90% might take as short a time as one month.

Iran’s Motives

There is no doubt about Iran’s motives. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, we have been treated regularly to the sight of lunatic mobs parading down the streets of Tehran yelling, “Death to the United States,” “Death to Israel.” We have also watched as Iran’s leaders parade before television cameras and repeat those insane chants. For some perverted reason they won’t even refer to the two countries by name. The United States is, “The Great Satan” while Israel is, “The Zionist Entity.” These sick people take the threat to Israel a step further, claiming they have a religious duty not only to eliminate Israel but also the Jewish people anywhere and everywhere they can be found in the world.

Iran has spent decades attacking Israel and Western interests directly and through a long list of proxies, killing innocent civilians with acts of terror. Hezbollan in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, Houthis in Yeman. These groups are often coordinated through Iran’s Quds Force, the elite unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for foreign operations.

Iran has also developed missiles of short and intermediate range, capable of hitting Israel one thousand miles away. They are working on a long range rocket capable of hitting the east coast of the United States. That is the background. Enough is enough.

On June 13 Israel launched a major attack. The initial strikes targeted Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, including facilities in Tehran, Isfahan, and other strategic locations. According to multiple reports, Israel’s opening salvo included airstrikes that killed several senior Iranian military leaders and nuclear scientists. The conflict quickly expanded, with Iran retaliating by launching missiles and drones at Israeli cities, and the U.S. later joining the fray with strikes on Iranian nuclear sites using deep penetration bombs only the United States has in its arsenal.

International Law

Gaza had been free of Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2005. It could have developed into a peaceful garden spot with a flourishing tourism industry. Instead, it attacked.

The usual gang of anti-Israel zealots reacted to this in the usual way. Silence when Islamic hordes invaded Israel from Gaza and slaughtered 1,200 Israeli citizens, most of them civilians. Screams of rage and appeals to international law when Israel retaliated. Israel is the only nation on the planet that can get attacked, respond in self-defense, and be branded the bad guy in the eyes of the world.

Since Cain killed Abel humans have been killing other humans. Maybe someday the Earth will be visited by superior beings from elsewhere in the universe with the power to order us to knock it off or else. But for now, this is the way it seems to be. Nations owe nothing to each other. And while I know there is a huge industry involved in the creation and maintenence of international legal structures, they are, in my view, not worth the paper they are printed on.

So the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, antisemitic crowd calls for international intervention and screams about war crimes. This is the same crowd that sits passively while Israel is attacked time and time again. From where I sit war crimes are manufactrured by winners as an excuse for hanging losers. And the Israelis have proven time and time again that they will never again give in to the Holocaust, the pogroms, the Inquisition, or any of the other horrors the Jewish people have been subjected to over the millenniums.

Sixteen million people out of more than eight billion. One tiny nation surrounded by 22 Arab speaking countries, most of them plotting its destruction.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says, “There is no reason for us to criticize what Israel started in Iran a week ago, nor is there any reason to criticize what America did there last weekend. It’s not without risk. But leaving things as they were wasn’t an option either.”

The Trump Effect

We can let Trump take his victory lap for sending in the long-range bombers and the bunker busting bombs. At the end of the day only the president can issue the order and that he did. He basked in the success of the mission and claimed credit, of course.

But most of the credit must go to the military. First the Israelis who destroyed the Iranian air defense and cleared the way. Then to the Americans who staged a remarkable precision bombing using B-2 Spirit stealth bombers based in Missouri. It required an astonishing 14-thousand mile 37-hour round-trip mission to drop 14 GBU-57 “bunker buster” bombs, each weighing 30,000 pounds, on the nuclear sites deep inside Iran. The men and women who executed that mission plan, which had been developed and rehearsed over many years, deserve admiration and thanks.

Yes, the damage may only set Iran back in the near term. Yes, they may try to resume their nuclear bomb program. Yes, we may have to bomb them again. Why not? We’re getting really good at it.

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