Donald Trump made it clear in a post on Tuesday on Truth Social: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Trump was calling for the unconditional surrender of a regime that has been at war with the United States ever since its inception. Those who are wringing their hands over the demise of Iran’s Islamic regime are paying insufficient attention to how it has terrorized its own citizens for 46 years, to the degree that Iranians in increasing numbers these days are openly cheering on the Israelis.
Those who are calling for an actual ceasefire, or for Israel to be restrained in striking Iran, are also ignoring the fact that for all of those 46 years of its existence, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been at war with the United States. On Nov. 4, 1979, less than two weeks after the constitution of the new Islamic Republic was adopted, a group calling itself Muslim Students Following the Imam’s Line (that is, the Ayatollah Khomeini’s line) entered the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran and took the skeleton staff of sixty-six that was still serving there after the fall of the Shah hostage.
Khomeini was delighted, dubbing the hostage-taking “the Second Revolution.” He told a reporter, “I regard the occupation of the American Embassy as a spontaneous and justified retaliation of our people.” Khomeini wasn’t worried about the Americans interfering with his regime: “Jimmy Carter is too much of a coward to confront us militarily.” Indeed.
Four years later, Hezbollah, a creation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, first gained international notoriety when it perpetrated the Oct. 23, 1983, bombing of military barracks in Beirut, in which 241 American servicemen (including 220 Marines) and fifty-eight French military personnel were murdered.
Hezbollah and Iran have always denied involvement in that bombing, but there is considerable evidence to the contrary—not least the fact that the truck carrying the over twenty-one thousand pounds of TNT that were exploded at the barracks was driven by an Iranian national, Ismail Ascari. On May 30, 2003, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth found Iran and Hizballah responsible for the bombing, which he called “the most deadly state-sponsored terrorist attack made against United States citizens before September 11, 2001.”
Hizballah continued its actions against the United States by kidnapping the CIA station chief in Lebanon, William F. Buckley (not to be confused with the stand-athwart-history-shouting-stop guy), on March 16, 1984. Buckley’s captors subsequently delivered several videos to American embassies showcasing how they were torturing him. After viewing the first, CIA director William Casey said: “I was close to tears. It was the most obscene thing I had ever witnessed. Bill was barely recognizable as the man I had known for years. They had done more than ruin his body. His eyes made it clear his mind had been played with. It was horrific, mediaeval and barbarous.”
Related: Is Israel Dragging the U.S. Into Another Regime Change War?
Iran continued to commit acts of war against the United States. On Dec. 22, 2011, U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels ruled in Havlish, et al. v. bin Laden, et al., that Iran and Hizballah were liable for damages to be paid to relatives of the victims of the 9/11 jihad attacks in New York and Washington, as both the Islamic Republic and its Lebanese proxy had actively aided al-Qaeda in planning and executing those attacks. Judge Daniels determined that Iran, Hizballah, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and other Iranian government departments, as well as the Ayatollah Khamenei himself and former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani were all directly implicated in Iranian efforts to aid al-Qaeda in its 9/11 plot.
Then in March 2023, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked Biden regime Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “How many attacks has Iran or its proxies launched against American positions in Iran and Syria, uh, since Joe Biden took office?” Austin answered, “There’s been, uh, about 83 attacks, I think, uh, since, uh, in the last several years.” Cotton responded, “That’s a lot of attacks over two years. How many times have we retaliated against Iran or its proxies?” Austin said: “We’ve, we’ve launched four major strikes, senator, but now — an, an attack can consist of a number of things. It can con — consist of, uh, you know, a rocket that’s fired in the direction of one of our bases but not effective —” Cotton interrupted, “Mr. Secretary, I’m well aware of what an attack could entail. So 79-and-4 is Iran’s record right now….” After some more back and forth, Cotton asked Austin, “So what kind of signal do we think this sends to Iran when they can attack us 83 times since Joe Biden has become president and we only respond four?”
It sends a signal of weakness. The Islamic Republic of Iran is counting on that weakness now. But Donald Trump is not Old Joe Biden, or his weak and effete handlers.
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