In “Why did Trump pull the trigger?” I observed this morning that George W. Bush chose to ignore the death and mangling of American soldiers facilitated by the Iranian regime on American soldiers serving in Iraq. The Hudson Institute’s Michael Doran subsequently drew on his own personal experience as the Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs on the National Security Council serving George W. Bush to recall:
When I went to work in the White House in 2005, I was shocked to learn just how geared the American national security establishment was toward appeasing the thugs in Tehran. If there is one consistent theme to my work since that date is this: the Islamic Republic is the major cause of our problems in the Middle East, and appeasing it will only compound our problems.
Finally we have a president who can read power differentials clearly. Trump realizes both that the wily ayatollahs have been waging an asymmetric war against us for half a century and that we don’t have to tolerate these exasperating Persian games.
Doran writes this here on X. It reinfornces one of the points I was making in my own comments.
