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ALPERN AT LARGE - One can despise, deplore, and decry Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu alike, and with many excellent reasons to feel that way, but neither of those two are placing Jews, Christians, and Western nations throughout the world in harm’s way...unless you feel that standing up to our mortal enemies is the problem instead of those enemies.
In what may well be the last gasp of the West’s greatest threat since Nazi Germany, the mullahs of Iran are firing rockets into its Arab/Muslim neighbors who have allied with the U.S. (and have signed onto the Abraham Accords).
Now it’s not just Israel and the U.S. ending the second, third, and other tiers of leadership in Iran’s current regime, it’s Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE who are now fighting against Iran—they might not be too lovey-dovey with Israel but they DARN sure know that Iran was, is, and always will be a threat in ways that Israel never was.
No one needs to like or warm up to the Orange Man in the White House, and if the United Nations wants to make an ass of itself by condemning the U.S. and Israel while putting Iranian diplomats on civil rights panels, that’s their business.
But the Trump Administration, despite or appreciate it, doesn’t want the world to like the U.S. so much as it wants the world to respect the U.S.
Is that bad? Is it horrible for so much of the Third World to dislike us?
Or is being an earnest trading partner, and valuing safety and security over genocide and economic disruption, the best way adult nations can be friends?
What killed the Nazis? Taking on too many nations, economic isolation, and not having enough access to the Caucasus oil fields in Russia.
What does the end of the Venezuelan and Iranian regimes mean to China?
China’s losing about 50% or more of its oil access. Russia and Cuba are unable to access and/or process oil, to boot.
The word “Nazi” is being thrown around too much, methinks, so that one has to wonder when the words “genocide” and “racist” and “bully” are being used appropriately.
If any of us have ever read the history books (not the re-invented ones now being pushed all over in academic malpractice settings to gullible and ignorant young students for two generations now), looking at how Israel was attacked, and then gave up so much of the land it took over (including Gaza) in wars Israel didn’t start…
…it’s hard to conclude that Israel was the bully all along but rather just wanted to be left alone…and not to be told that civilians deaths were a “new normal” to get used to.
No, the bully was Iran.
Furthermore, although lots of strange folks (many of them clearly taking on antisemitic tropes and positions, like Carlson, Owens, Fuentes, and a whole lot left-leaning Squad types) will go on and on about trying to distract from the Epstein files and letting Israel force us into wars we don’t want…
…the U.S. isn’t quite the bully, either.
We tried backing off from a huge military after the Cold War, but all of a sudden Putin and Xi and a bunch of muscle-flexing newbies wanted not to be our partners but our adversaries.
Including Iran, the ultimate bully, and the true modern-day Nazi-like regime, after the fall of the Shah in the 1970’s.
North Korea getting the bomb didn’t make the world any safer, no matter how many “enlightened” Americans and Westerners thought “we had it coming to us”…
…and an Iran (which was far more likely to use nuclear bombs out of religious zeal than a North Korea who would use nuclear bombs as bargaining chips for food and economic acid) with a nuclear bomb would have only accelerated the likelihood of a World War III.
So it’s about oil—Russia can’t sell it (even India backed down after Trump’s tariffs, and Europe’s finally figured out it works better to buy oil from the U.S. and its allies instead of Russia, if they really want to get Putin to stop attacking Ukraine), and China can’t get to it.
Commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz is a huge part of global economic traffic and commerce, and Iran was and is threatening this critical waterway as it has for decades.
Hence it WAS, IS, and ALWAYS WILL BE about the oil, and the dollars, and the economy that makes us go to war in this modern-day era…except for Khameini and the Iranian mullahs, who still were caught up in a medieval crusade against Israel, the U.S., and the West.
…and we showed restraint against that regime, despite it being the central nervous system of global terrorism, for roughly half a century.
And WE were and are the bullies?
We’re not needing TSA and airport/public venue security guards and resources because of any threats coming from Israel, England, Germany, France, or the Republican Party…we need that security because of Iran and its Sunni al-Qaida counterparts.
As the old saying goes, WAR…IS…HELL.
But in this case, not going to war would have been worse.
Maybe Trump thought that the bombings of the nuclear facilities last year would end the nuclear threat, and maybe he was wrong—but those of us who read history books and watch the news have always looked over our shoulders at Iran, wondering when a new North Korea-type threat of the Middle East and South Asia would occur.
Maybe Trump should not have encouraged Iranians to stand up to their tyrannical overlords, only to see them bring in Hezbollah goons (a modern-day version of the S.S. troops of the German Nazi era) and slaughter over 25,000 civilians.
But if this is a War we didn’t want—and we (“we” being conservatives, independents, moderate liberals, and centrists) really did NOT want it—it still remains a war we must survive…and WIN.
And if it was always about the oil that still does power our economy and allow us access to food and a better quality of life, then so be it.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at[email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
