When I was younger, I mistakenly took pleasure in being correct. I grew out of that in the last few decades: I take no joy in being correct, because it’s increasingly due to a bad decision made elsewhere by someone I don’t even know.
As we see the equivalent of our 9/11 unfold in Israel, I look back at our actions in the US since 2021 that most definitely contributed to these events:
Iran sanctions were working prior to ’21. They were doing little to nothing on the international stage, as we were squeezing them hard to stop being continual repeated bad actors and were trying to develop nuclear arsenals for two reasons only: To wipe Israel off the map and to attack America. That’s it. That’s been their agenda, even before the Obama JCPOA agreement that almost ALL of Congress on both sides also said was a phenomenally stupid idea.
Fact: Iran sanctions weren’t lifted by Biden, they were UNENFORCED. Same effect, with one not needing congressional approval. That took cash reserves of Iran from $4B (2020) to over $43B (end of 2022 and climbing). That’s Joe. Not “mis-represented” – fact. Look … it … up.
Fact: Iran, prior to 2021, was pumping approx. 300K barrels of oil per day. Now it’s over 4M barrels per day. The US is allowing it to be sold off.
Fact: Iran received over $6B in unfrozen assets plus several Iranian prisoners held by the US, in exchange for 5 US hostages. That money is only to be used for food and medical supplies. Fine. The Iranian move: shift other Iranian money around that was being used for food and medical supplies to instead fund other activities, e.g., missiles and drones for Hamas and Russia (as they fight Ukraine, and Iran is now a major arms supplier to Russia).
I am far from a rocket scientist when it comes to this stuff, but when the signs are CLEARLY out there through our foreign policy actions in the last almost 3 years with trying to be nice to Iran to talk them back into the JCPOA (which has gone nowhere, but they’ve taken the economic handouts), we have isolated ourselves from Middle East nations (e.g., Saudi, who are now more aligned with Russian, Iran, China, and Syria), we have displayed weakness in Afghanistan. We have been bullied out of the room in our own China meetings (e.g., Anchorage), shunned by China at almost every major turn, etc. What type of rocket science degree does one really need? I recall posting about this in June, 2021, December, 2021, and March, 2022. Just to name a few. Every blog said the same thing: These foreign policy actions are going to set the stage for bad things, and we’re all going to feel it. Well, here you go.
As we watch over 160 countries flow people across our border in the 6M that have illegally crossed since Biden took office, including over 150 on the terrorist watch list that we know of JUST in the last year alone, I have to ask the elephant in the room question: What is being planned now … here? Global intelligence totally missed the Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran build up that led to this newest war. That’s thousands of missiles and other arms and equipment that should have, at the very least, shown up on supply line intelligence. We can’t even stop the fentanyl killing 100K of us on this soil, despite capturing tens of millions of pills annually in busted shipments.
After Pearl Harbor, Japan pitched a “cease fire”. Really? After the Israel attack and butchering and rape and murder of hundreds of civilians, Hamas is pitching a “cease fire”. No. This is the part many of us can’t seem to understand: Bad actors leverage and take advantage of good intentions. That’s been proven thousands of times over the centuries, and nothing has changed. When you fear something, you think twice before acting. When you don’t fear something, you plan, execute, and destroy. Prices must be paid, lessons learned, and deterrence re-established. That’s the up- and down-ballot lesson for 2024. That goes for major cities and crime, and international adversaries. Good intentions are fine – when backed by strength without fear of using it. It’s that simple. Until we realize that simple fact of human behavior, people will suffer and unfortunately die.
Soon I will start posting ideas on solutions. It’s too easy to call out the ridiculousness of what’s going on these days. Time to pick a harder topic.
