Are Iran's Nine Lives Nearing an End? Victor Davis Hanson

 Victor Davis Hanson (townhall.com)  

"Before the Biden appeasement of Iran, the Trump administration had isolated and nearly bankrupted Tehran and its proxies. Its Revolutionary Guard terrorist planners proved to be easy targets once they operated outside Iran."

"The theocracy of Iran has been the world's arch-embassy attacker over the last half-century.

"So it has zero credibility in crying foul over Israel's April 1 attacks on its "consulate" in Damascus and the killing of Iran's kingpin terrorists of the Revolutionary Guard Corps there.

"Remember, the world was first introduced to the Iranian ayatollahs by their violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1980.

"Iranian surrogates next bombed the American embassy in Beirut and the Marine barracks in 1983.

"In fact, Iran has attacked U.S. and Israeli diplomatic posts off and on for decades, most recently in 2023, when Iran helped plan an attack on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

"For this reason and several others, Iran's justification for sending 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles into Israel because Israel had bombed an Iranian diplomatic post is completely ridiculous.

"One, Iran has never honored diplomatic immunity. Instead, it habitually attacks and kills embassy personnel and blows up diplomatic facilities across the world.

"Two, on April 1, the Israelis attacked a pseudo-"consulate" in Damascus which was hosting grandees of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as they planned terrorist attacks on Israel.

"Without Iran, the Middle East might have had a chance to use its enormous oil and natural gas wealth to lift its 500 million people out of poverty rather than to be mired in constant tribal and religious anti-Israeli, anti-American, and anti-Western terrorism.

"During the Iraq War, Iran's Shiite terrorists and its massive supplies of deadly shaped-charge explosive devices killed hundreds of Americans. It routinely hijacks container ships in the Straits of Hormuz and stages near collisions with American ships and planes." . . .

The World Is Paying a Deadly Price for Barack Obama's Foreign Policy Legacy  . . ."The Trump administration undercut Palestinian terror efforts, stifled Iranian ambitions, and created space for the Gulf states and Israel to enhance ties.

"Biden immediately reversed those gains, reverting to Obama-era Iranian boosterism. We're now experiencing the consequences of pacifying Islamic ideologues. Obama might have sent the mullahs pallets of cash in the middle of the night, but the Biden administration openly subsidized the Revolutionary Guard with a $6 billion ransom payment, at least $25 billion in sanction relief, including $10 billion via a waiver, and so on."  . . ."Every conflict against Israel unfurls the same way: Its enemies threaten or attack the country. Israel responds and heads for a victory. Only then does the world demand "restraint." Finally, the antagonists demand Israel rewind history to a more convenient spot. (Modern Democrats demand that Israel show restraint before it even has a chance to respond. That's a new twist.)" . . .