America First: Keep Our Boys Out of It, but Shoot Down Iranian Ballistics and Drop a MOAB or Two – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

We 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 the press, and of religion. But definitely passionate about the right to bear arms, grenades, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and guns (albeit not the right to bear arms).

Yes, of course, there are millions of peaceful Muslims, many exceptionally kind and tolerant. But overseas regime change? It is absurd to go overseas to transmogrify people who prefer dictatorships. They don’t mind their tyrants, as long as the tyrannies are reasonable. They look at our democracy, and they recoil as they see what we see.

“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, was never 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, danged, if his name is not Mohammed. Charlie Hebdo. Taylor Swift. Obama-era workplace violence. Islamophobia? (RELATED: Get Rid of Habiba Soliman)

Shiites versus Sunnis is not the same as contemporary Baptists versus Unitarians. Islamists kill each other, wage war for centuries over doctrinal disputes, and they blow up each other’s mosques, even (or especially) on their holy days. We Americans do not get that. We declare a one-day truce in Vietnam on Christmas Day, even while 50,000 are getting killed every other day for years. But the Islamists increase the violence on their holy days. Just Google “Ramadan Mosque Bombing.” There’s this and this and this and more. Maybe it even sheds light on why Sadat started a war against Jews on Yom Kippur 1973, and why “October 7” was chosen not for its Solar Calendar date but because it was Simchat Torah in Israel. We American Judeo-Christians do not understand what motivates them. We Americans treat holy days as a day off from killing. They?

So we do not belong on the ground in such wars. Let the locals figure it out themselves. Provide arms and moral backing for our allies, cast U.N. Security Council vetoes for our 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 our highly skilled, disciplined, and trained patriotic volunteer soldiers off their soil. That includes not only Afghanistan and Iraq but also Gaza. Gaza is not our problem; it is Israel’s headache. Recognize that they have their hands full with Muslim Arab cutthroats and rapists everywhere around them — Hezbollah in their north, Hamas in their south, Islamic Jihad and Al Fatah in the Arab entity to their east in Judea and Samaria. They seem to have a basic game plan figured out. (RELATED: ICC Clown Car Targets Israel. Trump Administration Strikes Back.)

Their problem is not that they cannot get more Western involvement, but that they can’t keep the West away to leave them alone and 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 here — 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, we never could have pulled that off. We just excel at throwing overwhelming numbers — men, equipment — at the other side. The Israelis do not have that luxury, so they are ever more clever than we. They know where the tunnels are, where the terror leaders are hiding. Just leave them alone, let them kill all the bad actors, stop condemning them for doing what we used to do when we chose to win a war, and move on. Not our problem. Note that the Israelis knew to leave Iran and Iraq alone when they were killing each other for eight years.

When America gets involved in other people’s wars, we botch. 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.” 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, then shuttling with Iranians, allowing them to play him? Is the Russia-Ukraine situation better since we got involved there? At least, in both cases, we have not sent boys onto the ground. Ukraine does not want them, nor does Israel. Both make it clear: “Just don’t embargo our weapons; please let our own boys fight without handcuffs.”

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 hence 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 10 years. Since World War II, we now have some recorded history: We allowed China to become a Communist world power and drive out the resistance to Formosa / Taiwan. We lost South Vietnam. Lost Afghanistan, handing over our most advanced military materiel to the Taliban. We lost Iraq as the center of anti-Iranian militancy. We convince our clients to follow our guidance, but we have not won a war since 1945, unless you count Granada. We are afraid to win wars. We are like unemployed people who advertise themselves as “Life Coaches” even though they have been divorced three times, are behind on too many credit cards, and their kids have not talked to them for years.

We fight under the post-World War II Geneva Accords that, basically, make it impossible to win wars. No more Nagasakis, Hiroshimas, or Dresdens. Now we feed our enemies amid war and make 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 food to fund their side. Our Peerless Leader built a pier in Gaza by which to feed the Hamas Gazans. Soon, we had 62 of our own servicemen severely wounded, building and struggling to operate the pier, one killed, the pier itself repeatedly washed away by the Mediterranean Sea or by G-d — or by both — and we ultimately did as we did in Afghanistan, taking the pier apart and ditching it. It lasted 20 days and cost $230 million. Our Peerless Leader was now our Pierless Leader.

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 that Harris indeed is an idiot, so they ignored her warnings.

Our boys are heroes. We have the world’s best-trained, best-equipped servicemen. They are fabulous. They volunteered for America, and they are our greatest 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 we have, and they rely on their officers and commanders to be the best as well. When we pursue ridiculous strategies aimed at regime change — particularly in the Arab Muslim world — we do not know what we are doing. Boys — heroes — get damaged physically by Iranian IEDs, and we owe them better.

America’s Only Role in World Conflicts

Yet, purely American interests define one key role: shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles. Here is why:

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 has also now added a fourth layer: Iron Beam, uncanny laser beams that shoot down drones. The systems are amazing, with 90 percent success. Inevitably, the 10 percent that do get through wreak enormous damage to Israeli assets. Each time enemy projectiles penetrate, the Israelis learn from the misses, and they upgrade the systems. 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. THAADs also fail, and battle experience now protects us as Americans for the dark and horrible day when it will be North Korea, China, Russia, or the like shooting at our homeland.
2. Iran’s ballistic missiles represent an existential threat to our country, as do the offensive missile capabilities of North Korea, China, and Russia. We hit Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki with devastating accuracy 80 years ago, and today’s technologies allow North Korea, China, and Russia to hit us with their most advanced ballistic missiles now. That is precisely why President Trump increasingly has been advocating covering American airspace with an “Iron Dome” of our own. Iran’s slogan is unequivocal: “Death to America. Death to Israel.” We are next. It is in our national interest to shoot down, or try shooting down, their ballistic missiles.
3. Our effectiveness in shooting down Iranian missiles makes our defense systems more valuable to nations 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 by buying their 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. They spend billions on Israeli weapons because they see that they work, are battle-tested, and are stocked with the latest advances in ballistic missile attack defense.

We benefit by establishing clear proof that our THAAD and related defense products are qualitatively better than those of our competitors from France, Germany, and elsewhere. That proof is demonstrated on the battlefield, not in a lab. Fortunately, unlike Israel, our real-time learning comes in someone else’s field — theirs, not in Montana or Iowa.

There are very few, if any, justifications for sending our boys overseas to fight other people’s wars 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 Middle East shooting arcade and participate in shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles.

READ MORE from Dov Fischer:

Such a Joke: LA ‘Riots’ and the Brutal Zionist Kidnaping of Greta Thunberg and Her Hummus for Hamas

Mr. Trump Ambushes the South African Genocide Apologist

Bill Belichick, Crossing the Jordon, and My Morning Croissant

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