Unforeseen Contingencies

Three cheers for President Trump, the USAF, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the IDF!  Thanks to them, Iran no longer has a nuclear program.  This is one of the happiest developments in international affairs since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a foreign policy triumph for America and Israel.  The neutering of Iran's military establishment and destruction of their atomic bomb program is one of the most promising advances for peace in a long time.

Some pro-Iran weirdos, such as the silly commentator Tucker Carlson, have tried to argue there is no evidence Iran had a nuclear weapons program, and that Iran was simply trying to develop civilian nuclear power.  It's impossible to take such arguments seriously.  First, Iran could simply have bought reactors, say, from Russia.  Second, if Iran simply had been developing civilian energy, there would have been no need to bury its programs in underground bunkers and block the IAEA from observing.  Third, even the Iranians admit they enriched uranium to at least 60%.  Power reactors require enrichment to 3-4%, 5% tops.  Only bombs require the highly enriched uranium Iran was developing.  

Iran has been the leading state sponsor of terrorism, arming and funding Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis, the Polisario Front in Morocco,  Muqtada Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, and many others.  Iran is behind numerous terror attacks, such as bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina in 1992 and 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish Center, the October 7 massacres in Israel, numerous attacks on American military personnel, and attempted assassinations in the United States, including a plot against President Trump.  There is no reason why such a regime should be tolerated.  The destruction of the Iranian military leadership was warranted and justified, and so was destroying their atomic weapons program.

The bombing of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan was certainly justified by libertarian principles.  A homicidal theocracy that exports murder around the world must not have nuclear weapons, and it is perfectly fine to bomb their program, and them, to oblivion.  This is particularly so since they were offered the opportunity to give it up peacefully, and instead adopt trade with the civilized, developed world to mutual benefit.  Since they refused, they have been crushed, justifiably.

It is heartening to finally see a Western leader or two stand up for civilization.

// posted by Charles N. Steele @ 16:52 0 comments

President Donald Trump has told Iran's "Supreme Leader" Khamenei that he must "unconditionally surrender."  Good.  The civilized world ought not tolerate savages and dictators who threaten freedom and peace of the rest of the world.  The Iranian government, a pack of belligerent religious loons on a quest for nuclear bombs, needs to be put down.  If Iran doesn't surrender, it's time for the USAF to drop some GBU-57 bombs on Fordow.

Powerline Blog and Ace of Spades HQ have included in their coverage of these events the outrage of the isolationist (and increasingly anti-Semitic) wing of Trump's supporters, such as Tucker Carlson. Here's an example from Ace at AosHQ, and here's a piece with a brief mention from John Hinderaker of Powerline.   

I think Donald Trump has a remarkable characteristic: to a very unusual degree, he seems to be a sort of mirror in which people project their imaginations.  While mostly we see this with his detractors on the left, certainly the isolationists imagined Trump was one of them.  A number of Tucker Carlson fans have told me so.  They also have told me that no one who cares about America should give a flip about Israel, about October 7, about Iran having nuclear weapons, about anything Russia does to Ukraine or Europe, or anything else abroad.  And any of us who do care are "neocon warmongers."

I'm not a neocon or a warmonger, it's simply obvious that liberty is essential and all these things the isolationists say we should ignore are very serious threats to liberty.  It's also hard to understand how anyone who pays attention could think Trump is an isolationist who thinks these things.  He has always emphasized that his first loyalty is to America, but also he understands that America is the leader of  world.  Trump '45 was certainly not anti-Israel; he moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a thing to which other presidents had paid lip service.  Trump reversed Obama's policy and gave deadly weapons such as Javelin missiles to Ukraine to kill Russians.  Trump authorized attacks in Syria that killed at least 200 Russian soldiers of the Wagner Group and also destroyed at least 25% of Syria's combat aircraft.  In Iran, IRGC Gen. Soleimani was blown to pieces at Trump's order.  And Trump changed the rules of engagement established by Obama, allowing the U.S. military to destroy Daesh (ISIS).

But with Trump, people seem not to pay attention.  Instead, they seem to see what they want to see.  Apparently Khamenei was not immune, and now he and his regime have fallen through the looking glass, and into the fires of hell.

// posted by Charles N. Steele @ 23:09 0 comments

Happy birthday to: the American flag, the U.S. Army, and President Trump!  It's a great time to celebrate America.  

I won't write a long essay on this, but America is the reason ideologies like divine right of kings, totalitarianism, and socialism do not dominate the world.  And while American might, such as the U.S. Army, has been important, it is primarily America's ideals and America's incredible entrepreneurial and productive powers that have done this.  Which ideals?  America enshrined individual natural rights as the centerpiece of government, and made the commercial republic, where people pursue their own lives and well-being, not the visions of a ruler, as the fundamental principle of society.

Despite all the turmoil in the world today, the world's future is potentially very bright.  The world needs simply to implement the America ideals.

Happy Flag Day!

// posted by Charles N. Steele @ 11:11 2 comments

The Israeli Air Force has just bombed nuclear targets in Iran.  There are rumors they also hit key figures in the Iranian nuclear program and the regime.  This is great news!  "We" at Unforeseen Contingencies  believe Islamist dictators are always fair game, and if there is a threat they'll acquire nuclear weapons, Whacking them becomes an imperative.

Benjamin Netanyahu just gave an address on the bombing.  It is excellent, morally and strategically sound.  Video is available on this ynetnews.com article.

// posted by Charles N. Steele @ 19:47 0 comments