America never should have put boots on the ground in Iraq and elsewhere after 9/11. The Iraqis and Iranians were doing a wonderful, marvelous job — indeed, G-d’s holy work — of killing half a million of each other for eight years, at a cost of more than $1 trillion. That was approximately equal to America’s total debt (not just deficit) at that time. (Now $34 trillion.)
The fantasy of “regime change” was disastrous. Every time either George Bush spoke of Islam as a religion of peace, we cringed. They said every Iraqi’s heart pulsated with a passion to live in a Western-style democracy with Bill of Rights values. Remember the purple fingers to prove they had cast their democracy ballots? Well, maybe not exactly committed to all ten amendments in the Bill of Rights like freedom of speech, of press, and of religion. But definitely passionate about the right to bear arms (and grenades, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and guns), albeit not the right to bare arms.
But regime change in an Arab Muslim country because freedom and justice pulsates in every Arab Muslim’s breast? “We don’t want synagogues or Jews here. We also don’t want Christians or churches either, except for the ones we can forcibly convert into mosques.” Regime change, from Iraq to Afghanistan, never was going to work.
Call it “Islamophobia” if such simplicity eases your ability to make sense out of a complicated world. But a guy sets Jews on fire, throwing Molotov cocktails at them in Boulder, Colorado — and, by golly, if his name is not Mohammed. Remember Charlie Hebdo? The canceled Taylor Swift concert? Obama-era "workplace violence"? So much Islamophobia.
So American boots do not belong on the ground in foreign wars. Let the locals figure it out themselves. Yes, provide arms and moral backing for allies, cast U.N. Security Council vetoes for allies, and impose sanctions on the ridiculously named “International Court of Justice” and “International Criminal Court.” Even withdraw from U.N. agencies and terminate their funding. But keep the boots at home. That includes not only Afghanistan and Iraq but also Gaza.
Gaza is not America’s problem; it is Israel’s headache. Recognize that the Jews have their hands full with Muslim Arab cutthroats and rapists everywhere around them — Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in the south, Islamic Jihad and Al Fatah in the Arab entity to the east in Judea and Samaria. Israel seems to have a basic game plan figured out.
Israel’s problem is not that it cannot get more Western involvement but that it can’t keep the West away to leave the Jews alone to finish their job. Left-wing antisemitic governments like Keir Starmer’s and David Lammy’s U.K. Labour Party, Emanuel Macron’s in France, and Mark Carney’s Justin Trudeau sham in Canada — and the Biden-Harris-Blinken left-wing Democrat mess in America — convolute things by leveraging their antisemitism and strategic incompetence to erect obstacles for Israel, extending a brief war into a two-year TV series.
Without the Europeans’ interference and the Biden-Harris incompetence, the Israelis figured out the beepers and walkie-talkies all by themselves. Frankly, America never could have pulled that off. America just excels at throwing overwhelming numbers — men, equipment — at the other side. Israelis do not have that luxury, so the Jews have to be ever-more-clever than the USA.
Israel knows where the tunnels are, where the terror leaders are hiding. Just leave Israel alone, let the Zionists kill all the bad actors, stop condemning them for doing what America used to do when she chose to win a war, and move on. Note that the Israelis knew to leave Iran and Iraq alone when they were killing half a million of each other for eight years.
When America gets involved in other people’s wars, it botches everything. Just as Ronald Reagan correctly said that the scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help,” so it is with foreign entanglements. “I’m here with American advisors and know-how, and we’re here to help.” Oy.
Did Clinton bring peace when he pressed Israel in 1993 to give Arafat governance over a “Palestine Authority,” whatever that means? Is the Middle East more peaceful since Steve Witkoff began shuttling there, pushing naïve partial deals, allowing Hamas to play him. Was there really “Hell to pay”? Did the hostages all come home by now, six months later? Is the Russia-Ukraine situation better since Biden got involved there?
The haughty snobs of the Left always boast of being “on the right side of history.” Such an arrogant slogan, dripping with hubris, that cannot be evaluated for at least 50 years thence because “history” has not unfolded yet. Although, by now, Al Gore’s climate movie lies hidden along with Ocasio’s post that the world would end in ten years. Since World War II, we now have some recorded history:
- America allowed China to become a Communist world power and drive out the resistance to Formosa / Taiwan.
- America lost South Vietnam.
- America lost Afghanistan, handing over its most advanced military materiel to the Taliban.
- America lost Iraq from being the center of anti-Iranian militancy.
America convinces its clients to follow its guidance, but America has not won a war since 1945, unless you count Granada. America is afraid to win wars, too strong to win wars.
America fights under the post-World War II Geneva Accords that, basically, make it impossible to win wars. No more Nagasakis, Hiroshimas, or Dresdens. Now the West is “humane” at war: feeding sworn enemies amid war, making sure the food bypasses the civilian population and instead reaches the enemy soldiers so that they can maintain good nutrition to continue murdering and can sell the extra to fund their side.
In Gaza, the Peerless Leader built a pier by which to feed the Hamas Gazans. Soon, 62 American servicemen had been severely wounded, building and struggling to operate the cockamamie pier, one killed, the pier itself repeatedly washed away by the Mediterranean Sea or by G-d — actually, by both, which was One and the same — and America ultimately did as she did in Afghanistan, taking the pier apart and ditching it. It lasted 20 days and cost $230 million. The Peerless Leader now was the Pierless Leader. Fortunately for him, he probably never knew.
Kamala Harris famously told ABC News that Netanyahu must not send troops into the southernmost region of Gaza, Rafah, where Hamas leaders like Yahya Sinwar were hiding, because she personally had “studied the maps; there’s nowhere for those folks to go” and determined Israel would have to kill tens of thousands and still would fail. Fortunately, the Israelis discerned Harris indeed has the intellectual substance of a bagel hole, so they ignored her warnings.
Let’s be clear: American soldiers are brave heroes. They are among the world’s best trained, best equipped servicemen. They are fabulous. They volunteer to fight for America — no draft — and they are the greatest of patriots. They train to fight to protect the homeland. It is not for them to question assignments in Iraq or Afghanistan. They are the best of America, and they rely on their officers and commanders to be the best as well. When Bushes and others pursue foolish strategies aimed at regime change — particularly among Arab Muslims — they do not know what they are doing. Boys — heroes — get damaged physically by Iranian IEDs, and America owes her own boys better.
Yet, purely American interests define one key role: shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles.
Here is why aggressive defending against Iranian aerial attacks is in America’s own interest:
Israel and America both have developed remarkable anti-missile air defenses. Israel has four prongs. “Iron Dome” shoots down short-range rockets. “David’s Sling” shoots down mid-range. And Arrow II and Arrow III shoot down long-range ballistic missiles. Israel also now has added a fourth layer: Iron Beam, uncanny laser beams that shoot down drones. The systems are amazing with 90 percent success. Inevitably, the ten percent that do get through kill Israelis and wreak enormous damage to Israeli assets.
Each time enemy projectiles penetrate, the damage is catastrophic. But the Israeli defense establishment learns from the misses and fails, and they upgrade the systems. Today’s air defense is aeons better than it was when Iron Dome first came out. Israel’s systems are battle-tested so their very costly “fails” ultimately drive upgrades. They also boast field-experienced experts wielding those defenses.
1. America, too, has Patriot missiles and a THAAD defense that is similar and exceptional. The Iranian barrages of ballistic missiles aimed at Israel offer an opportunity for American defense contractors to learn from actual battle circumstances and, more importantly, what needs to be upgraded, how to prevent and remedy their own fails. THAADs also fail, and battle experience from Kuwait and elsewhere now protects Americans for the dark and horrible day when it will be North Korea, China, Russia, or the like shooting nuclear-warheaded Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at the American homeland.
2. Iran’s ballistic missiles represent an existential threat to the United States, too, as do the offensive missile capabilities of North Korea, China, and Russia. If America could hit Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Natanz, and Fordow with devastating accuracy, then North Korea, China, and Russia can hit America with their most advanced ballistic missiles now. That is precisely why President Trump increasingly has been advocating covering American airspace with an Israel-style “Iron Dome” of his own. Iran’s slogan is unequivocal: “Death to America. Death to Israel.” America is next, even if not for dropping the 14 MOP missiles into Fordow and beyond.. It is in America’s urgent national interest to shoot down, or try shooting down, Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at Israel. They are partly doing Israel a favor, and Israel in truth does America a favor by doing the dirty work and exposing its own land as the laboratory.
3. America’s effectiveness in shooting down Iranian missiles makes its defense systems more valuable to nation’s purchasing on the open market. That is why Israel profits measurably by selling their defense products. Countries that hate Israel swallow hard and enrich Israel nevertheless by buying Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow III, and Iron Beam products. It’s the same reason they buy life-saving Israeli medical equipment, anti-hacking and other security products, and sophisticated computer products. Stephen Hawkings had to buy Israeli-made equipment so that he could call for death to Israel before going back into some big black hole reserved for antisemites.
Countries spend billions on Israeli weapons because they see they work, are battle-tested, and are stocked with the latest advances in ballistic missile attack defense. The Vichy French think they can set back Israeli arms sales by spreading a mechitzah (partition) blocking off the Israeli products at a Paris arms show? So Jews are smart. Israel already got the five French gunboats. This time, Israel simply moved the exhibition of their latest weapons from the Eiffel Tower to Tehran, Isfahan, Natanz, Fordow, and the Holy City of Qom. Expect the orders to start coming in.
America, too, benefits by demonstrating that THAAD and related Patriot defense products are qualitatively better than those of competitors from France, Germany, and elsewhere. That proof is maximally demonstrated on the battlefield, not in a Paris show. Fortunately for America, the real-time learning comes on someone else’s field — Israel’s — not in Montana or Iowa.
There are very few, if any, justifications for sending American boys overseas to fight other people’s wars on the ground and to achieve “regime change,” particularly among Muslim Arab countries that have never implemented a real “Bill of Rights”-quality democracy. But there are enormous justifications for America to join the Mideast shooting arcade and participate in shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles.
It is important for Israel’s leaders to grasp this, Israel is not a beggar state. Israel offers America opportunities that are win-win. And Israel just saved America $4 trillion, the cost to America of World War II in present value of money.
Adapted by the writer for Arutz Sheva from a version of this article that first appeared here in The American Spectator.
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