Don't Let The Hysterics Fool You...This Is "Business As Usual" For Iran

How many times have we heard some maniacal 12th-Imam-worshipping Iranian official threaten destruction of America? That has been their rhetoric since 1979, and the only change has been in volume. We knocked off their premier terrorist enabler and butcher, so they ramp up the captive crowds for a few days of protests and the burning of American and Israeli flags. But their actions will not change, because they have been at war with us for 40 years; we just haven't admitted it until recently.

And what has changed?

Iran threatens the WHITE HOUSE: Tehran ups the ante by promising a 'crushing and powerful retaliation on American soil' and US military sites and calls Donald Trump a 'terrorist in a suit' for warning he will attack 52 Iranian targets

'Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago), some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD. The USA wants no more threats!' Trump tweeted on Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, after spending the day at his nearby golf course.

'Iran is talking very boldly about targeting certain USA assets as revenge for our ridding the world of their terrorist leader who had just killed an American, & badly wounded many others, not to mention all of the people he had killed over his lifetime, including recently hundreds of Iranian protesters,' Trump said.

'He was already attacking our Embassy, and preparing for additional hits in other locations. Iran has been nothing but problems for many years,' he continued.

Trump's threat referenced the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-1981, in which 52 US diplomats and citizens were held hostage by student revolutionaries in Iran.

His threat to target sites important to 'Iranian culture' drew many accusations from critics that he was threatening to commit 'war crimes'.

This is not escalation. This is not a neo-con's wet dream, and it certainly isn't a warmongering maniac trying to start a war, as the Democrats are claiming. This is a forceful response to a terrorist state's behavior. Is it Churchillian? Well...no. But turning a blind eye, or even worse a State Department sanctioned diplomatic eye to Iranian aggression has gotten us a lot of dead Americans over the last 40 years, so why not try something different?

Iran can bloviate all it wants, but the reality is that their military is incapable of inflicting significant damage to ours, absent stupidity or ridiculous rule of engagement. And because of the sanctions that President Trump has placed on Iran, their war-making capacity is diminished. Why, it's as if there is a plan!

So what will Iran do? Obviously, their most potent weapon is terrorism, and their connections to a myriad of terror cells and organizations is exactly why killing Soleimani was a good idea. Sure, he will be replaced, but so what? Whoever comes next will be much less visible, and that means less effective.

So ignore the public rantings of the Iranians. It is what they do that matters, and with sanctions and swift and violent responses to their provocations, they won't be able to do as much.

Perhaps the regime has become sufficiently brittle that internal forces can finally achieve what Obama prevented just a few years ago...driving out the ruling class of Mullahs so that the Iranian people can have more of a say in their rule. Will that mean a new age in the Middle East? Of course not. But will it be worse? probably not. Remember, Iran was rapidly entering the modern age when the Shah fell. It wasn't a Jeffersonian democracy, but it also wasn't an Islamic hellhole like today.

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&topic=world_news"> posted by CBD at 12:15 PM

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