Gator Gar@gatorgar
I don’t blame people for being apprehensive about another war in the middle east. The American people have been badly burned decade after decade every time this happens.
Here’s why I’m NOT worried about it. At least not yet:
Never have we seen any results like this in this time frame. We literally took out the entire leadership of the Islamic regime twice in the first few days, including the Supreme Leader, and his replacement is in a coma.
There’s another element to this I think a lot of people are overlooking, which is China. Cutting off Chinese influence in the region does nothing but benefit us, if we succeed. I believe we’re beginning to see that happen with the Strait of Hormuz.
The scale of this “war” is still microscopic compared to any other comparable military operation in history. I see no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water at least until the scale eclipses the Gulf War.
And lastly, the elephant in the room. One of the biggest issues for the American people has become support for Israel, due to the amount of foreign aid we provide them with. $3 billion might be a drop in the bucket compared to the national debt, but people are tired of footing the bill for other countries while costs rise at home. Sure, we send another $3 billion between Egypt and Jordan, which no one ever mentions or seems to care about, but regardless, sending money to Israel has become a major issue on its own. The people most concerned with that (and conveniently not concerned with us sending the same amount of money to two other non-Jewish countries right next door to them) don’t ever seem to address why we do it. And the reason is because Iran, the biggest sponsor of terror on Earth, and all of its proxies have declared the US their enemy, with every intent to attack us and our bases. If we wanted to discourage that without Israel’s assistance, it would cost us $15 million per day, $5 billion per year ($2 billion more than we send to Israel) to tie up our entire fleet in the region.
So what’s the point if we’re already spending $15 million per day to keep our fleet there right now? Because if we cut the head off the octopus, and disable Iran’s ability to support the terror proxies who’s primary goal is the destruction of America and the west, then that military pressure will no longer be needed. In other words, this is the only path I see towards EVER reducing the amount of aid we send Israel (and other countries in the region) each year… which is what everyone wants, myself included.
Unless this conflict spirals out of control and we end up stuck there for years, or the radical Islamists somehow retain control of their government without a military, the benefits of this operation massively outweigh the downsides. The people most critical of it could conceivably end up actually getting what they want most out of it.
Now if things start to go south, and it looks like another Iraq war by this time next month, I’ll become much more critical. It’s a risk I’m willing to support at this juncture though, and I’m disappointed but not surprised by how many people had such a negative knee jerk reaction to it. The American people are done with the middle east. So here’s hoping we can make it so the middle east is done with us.
