10 | JANUARY 16 • 2020 

Views

The premise of much 
of the criticism of Trump’
s 
decision on Soleimani rests 
on a false assumption. Those 
who lament the president’
s 
trashing of conventional 
wisdom act as if he has upset 
a tradition that safeguarded 
American interests and lives. 
But it did nothing of the kind.
What happened in Syria 
as Iran and its ally, President 
Bashar Assad, lay waste to 
that country was the direct 
consequence of American 
appeasement. The same is 
true of Iran’
s ability to essen-
tially take over Lebanon 
through its Hezbollah hench-
men. And in recent weeks, 
Tehran’
s efforts to do the 
same in Iraq involved direct 
attacks on Americans, cul-
minating in the assault on 
the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, 
bringing up troubling 
memories of both the 2012 
Benghazi debacle and the 
seizure of American hostages 
during the takeover of the 
U.S. embassy in Tehran in 
1979.
The argument against 
Trump’
s foreign policy is that 
his actions are ill-considered, 
disregarding the advice of 
both experts and allies, and 
endangering the peace of the 
region and the world. Obama 
administration alumni, in 
particular, are saying that 
Trump is squandering chanc-
es for peace that the nuclear 
pact created.
No matter; the opposite 
is true. Killing Soleimani 
won’
t start a war; Iran has 
been waging a hot war 
against America and its 
allies for years. Like Trump’
s 
much-needed action in 
pulling out of a dangerous 
nuclear deal and reimposing 

sanctions on Iran — and even 
adding some new ones — the 
Soleimani operation makes it 
clear to Iran’
s leaders, perhaps 
for the first time, that the 
costs of their provocations 
are now going to be borne by 
them, and not only their foes 
or the helpless population 
that groans under their des-
potic rule.
Playing by the rules — 
rules that served the interests 
of a rogue regime — is what 
endangered American lives 
and interests by making Iran 
stronger and feeling less con-
strained about employing its 
brutal and bloody tactics.
It is to be hoped that Iran’
s 
remaining leaders are chas-
tened, as well as angered by 
what has happened to their 
indispensable man of terror. 
Perhaps they will compre-
hend that the tables are 
turned, and it’
s now time for 
them to start backing down, 
lest they find themselves 
embroiled in a conflict in 
which they will have far more 
to lose than the United States.
Whether or not that 
hap-
pens, it’
s also time for the 
chattering classes to stop 
pretending that Trump is 
the problem. It was high 
time that someone had the 
nerve to break the wheel that 
perpetuated Iran’
s power 
and violence. Whatever hap-
pens next, a world in which 
the world’
s leading state 
sponsor of terror is afraid 
of the United States can’
t 
be much worse than one in 
which the ayatollahs have 
nothing but contempt for 
the Washington’
s resolve to 
defend American interests. 

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of 
JNS—Jewish News Syndicate.

COMMENTARY continued from page 8

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