Victor Davis Hanson: How To Ensure a Big, Ugly War with Iran

Frontpage Mag

Biden is in no position to win a war that his own appeasement birthed.

"Iranian-backed militias have attacked American installations and forces in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan some 170 times.

"Ostensibly, these terrorist groups claim they are hitting US forces to coerce America into dropping its support of Israel and demanding a cease-fire in the Gaza war.

"In reality, these satellite terrorists are being directed in a larger effort by Iran to pry the US. out of the Middle East, in the manner of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing.

"That way, Iran will be free to fulfill its old dream of becoming a nuclear shield for a new Shiite/Persian terrorist axis from Tehran to Damascus to Beirut to the West Bank and Gaza—surrounding Israel and intimidating the Gulf regimes and more moderate states like Jordan and Egypt into concessions.

"These Iranian appendages have made a number of unfortunately correct assumptions about America in general and the Biden administration in particular.

"One, after the recent serial humiliations of the flight from Afghanistan, the passivity of watching a Chinese spy balloon traverse with impunity the continental United States, the mixed American signals on the eve of the Ukraine war, the troubled Pentagon’s recruitment and leadership lapses, and the destruction of the US southern border, both Iran and its surrogates feel that the United States either cannot or will do much of anything in response to their aggression.

"They see the U.S. military short thousands of recruits, its leadership politicized, its munition stocks depleted by arms shipments to Ukraine and Israel, and the massive abandonment of weapons in Kabul.

"Two, they view Joe Biden’s serial appeasement as a force multiplier of these perceptions of American weakness. After entering office, the Biden administration begged for a renewed Iran deal from a preening theocracy. It sought to ensure calm by delisting the Houthis from global terrorist designations and sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas and radical Palestinians to buy good behavior." . . .

Obama's navy on their knees: Iran Humiliated the US Navy Under Obama — but It Stopped Under Trump (businessinsider.com) . . .

"Iran's navy made a point of harassing and humiliating the US Navy in 2016 after then-President Barack Obama had sealed the Iran deal, but since August 2017, the US Navy says things have changed.

"It seems like they've absolutely made a conscious decision to give us more space," Navy Cmdr. William Urban recently said. "That is definitely a change in their behavior."

Iran would charge US Navy ships with fast attack craft, buzz fighter jets with drones, and even shine lasers at helicopters operating at sea during Obama's presidency.

"But the worst, most embarrassing incident occurred in January 2016, when Iran's navy seized two US Navy rivernine boats and the 10 sailors on board after the ship wandered into Iranian waters due to mechanical issues. They broadcast footage of the sailors, crying, in detention, on television across the country. Iran later announced plans to build a monument commemorating the event." . . .

DOUGLAS MURRAY, reporting from Israel since October 7th, shares some findings ignored by the mainstream media

 BareNakedIslam (barenakedislam.com)

"Moral corruption of UNRWA. The goal of destroying Hamas, once and for all. Life in Israel since October 7th. Muslims don’t care about the Palestinians, they just hate Jews."

More Douglas Murray videos in this site:   

Moral corruption of UNRWA.

 The goal of destroying Hamas, once and for all.

Life in Israel since October 7th

Muslims don’t care about the Palestinians, they just hate Jews.

Dozens of Hostages Dead in Gaza, Israeli Military Intelligence Reveals

Captured by Hamas

 Haley Strack; National Review  "Hamas captured more than 240 hostages in its October 7 attack, which killed 1,200 Israelis. An estimated 136 captives reportedly remain in Gaza and of those, the Israeli military has declared at least 31 of them dead, according to intelligence leaked to the New York Times.

"An additional 20 hostages also may have been killed in captivity.

"The Israeli military is “deploying all available resources to locate and retrieve as much information as possible regarding the hostages currently held by Hamas,” a spokesman told the Times. Israeli Defense Forces notified the families of the hostages this week.

"U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Cairo on Tuesday to negotiate the possibility of a cease-fire deal with Egyptian officials that could prompt the release of the rest of the hostages.

"Although “efforts to free the hostages are continuing at all times,” Israel will not “agree to every deal, and not at any price,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. Hamas demands the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in exchange for the freed hostages and has pressed Israel to release thousands of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the Israeli civilians. Netanyahu has stressed repeatedly that Israel’s goal is to wipe out Hamas.

" 'We will not end the war before we complete all of its goals: the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages, and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said this week.

“ 'There are those who say ‘yes’ to everything in places where you must say ‘no.’ They receive applause from the international community but endanger our national security,” Netanyahu said. “And there are those who say ‘no’ to everything, receive applause at home, but they also endanger vital interests.”

HALEY STRACK is a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism and a recent graduate of Hillsdale College.

In 2024, Donald Trump is our last hope

Biden will lie while looking directly into the camera lens, figuring that people would never expect such in-your-face dishonesty coming from the highest elected official in the country.  Generally speaking, most people are not skilled liars.  It takes years of political chicanery to become masters of deceit.

Bob Weir - American Thinker  "We the people of these United States have been thrust into a nightmare scenario as we go through, arguably, the strangest era in our history.  When President Trump was in office, he opened the oil spigot and soon made the U.S. energy independent.  Under Trump’s leadership, in 2018, the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest producer of crude oil.  The move alone helped spur the economy and lower prices on just about everything we use.  Biden immediately turned off that spigot, resulting in high inflation and more dependence on foreign oil.  And that was just the beginning of Biden’s assault on the U.S., including opening our southern border to millions of illegal aliens, as he used executive orders to reverse everything Trump did to make our country greater.

"The invasion of our border by scores of foreign countries is nothing short of a declaration of war!  Yet, instead of using our military to fight off the invasion, Biden lies to us about the border’s security while using our military to protect Ukraine’s border.  It’s become evident that the left is willing to use any means necessary to weaken our country.  Voters in the 2024 general election should keep in mind the question: are we better off now than we were four years ago?  No sensible person could answer that question in the affirmative.  As much as I hate to admit it, the left, with its nefarious allies in the MSM and the total corruption of the “justice system,” is winning the war with propaganda." . . . 

As the Oct 7 Hamas massacre has shown us, a large portion of the American population is more than a little susceptible to propaganda, no matter how reprehensible the source. TD

The U.S. is going off the rails

Eric Utter - American Thinker    

It’s not just actual trains that have gone off the rails of late.

How crazy have things gotten in the formerly United States?

Let’s have a look. Trigger warning: it’s not pretty.

According to the New York Post:

Students at Stamford public schools will no longer get the day off on [Veterans’ Day and Columbus Day] for the next two school years after the board voted 5-3 to remove them Tuesday night, the Stamford Advocate reported.

The motive for the removals is obvious, however at least one board member claimed the holidays were simply axed to shorten the school year which currently extends into mid-June. If so, why were these two days removed and no other holidays? After all, PRIDE! month is celebrated, even if there is no single day off. And the schools are closed on Indigenous People’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Yom Kippur, Election Day, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, and “Juneteenth.” Incredible. Maybe cut out a couple of them? Of course not.

(And Election Day isn’t a “day” anymore. It goes on and on for months, via mail-in balloting, until the Democrat party candidate has enough votes to win.)

Meanwhile, at Brookfield High School, oddly enough also in Connecticut, a newly installed tampon dispenser in a boy's bathroom was torn off the wall just 20 minutes after it was installed.

This prompted Marc Balanda, the school’s principal, to write an email to the school stating, "I am aware that the law says ‘men’s bathroom’ but the actions today that led to vandalism and destruction of property were the work of immature boys, not men.” So boys aren’t men but girls can be?! Wow.

In nearby New York City, a mayoral commission voted to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson from City Hall, where it’s resided for almost two hundred years ... because he owned slaves.

Why Do So Many Young Americans Hate Israel? -

  The Lid (lidblog.com)

Those members of Gen Z who are marching for Hamas or telling pollsters they oppose Israel are driven by a variety of motives. For many, old-fashioned ignorance or personal factors such as a desire to join a popular cause may determine whether they march against Israel, as their predecessors marched for isolationism in the 1930s. 

Pat Cross

. . ."Does that mean all Gen Zers were pro-Israel when the left-of-center Yair Lapid was prime minister fourteen months ago? Hardly. The real reason for hostility toward Israel among that age bracket is their ignorance of the history and facts of the Arab-Israeli conflict, not the specific policies of a particular prime minister. Israel is not to blame if many young people choose to base their views on misleading Instagram photos, biased college professors, and radical ideologies that falsely paint Israel as a “white supremacist” state.

    "Nor is ignorance about foreign affairs among the younger generation a new problem in America. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was bothered by it, too.

    "In the 1930s, polls found that 63% of college students favored unilateral American disarmament, and many thousands of them signed a public pledge declaring, “We will not support the U.S. government in any war it may conduct.”

    "They couldn’t be bothered to read up on what was happening in Nazi Germany and the threat Hitler posed to world peace. They were worried about being drafted. They preferred sweet fantasies of peace to the reality of a world headed for war. And some just wanted to mimic “what the cool kids were doing”—they saw that many British university students were signing the Oxford Pledge, vowing that “under no circumstances” would they “fight for [their] king and country.”

    "In 1934, 25,000 American college students took part in a one-hour walkout from classes to demonstrate their opposition to U.S. involvement in any war. The strike mushroomed to 175,000 participants in 1935, then 500,000 in 1936— nearly half the national college student population.

    "The student antiwar movement began to crack when communist-aligned students changed their position—again and again—not as a result of studying the facts but out of obedience to their party. For them, ignorance was indeed bliss.

    "In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union preferred that America keep out of European affairs, so their followers on U.S. college campuses promoted the antiwar strike. But when the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, and the Kremlin-backed Spain’s leftwing government, its campus sympathizers suddenly dropped their calls for American isolationism. Then when the Soviets signed their nonaggression pact with Nazi Germany three years later, their followers all went back to urging America to stay out of Europe’s conflicts." . . .

Gina Carano Sues Disney Over Mandalorian Firing; Funded by Elon Musk

 The Hollywood Reporter

. . ."While she was allegedly fired for her cultural and religious beliefs, Carano argues that the entertainment giant turned a blind eye to her male costars, who allegedly made offensive and denigrating posts directed towards Republicans. She points to Pedro Pascal’s 2017 post comparing former president Donald Trump to Hitler."

"In an escalation of a standoff over her firing in The Mandalorian, Gina Carano is suing Disney and Lucasfilm for discrimination and wrongful termination in a lawsuit that opens another front in the battlefield for influence over Hollywood that has drawn in corporate America.

"Carano, in a complaint filed on Tuesday in California federal court, alleges she was fired for voicing right-wing opinions on social media and seeks a court order that would force Lucasfilm to recast her. Elon Musk, making good on a promise to foot the legal bill for users who claim they have been discriminated against due to their activity on his platform, is helping fund the suit through X.

. . ."Lucasfilm in 2021 announced that Carano will not be returning to the hit series after sharing a post in which she said “most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Naxi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?” . . .

On X funding the suit, Carano added, “I am honored that my case has been chosen to be supported by the company that has been one of the last glimmers of hope for free speech in the world.”

Tracy Chapman puts 'woke' whining out of its misery at the Grammys

 Monica Showalter - American Thinker   "Singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman has already made her feelings known about wokester whining regarding a white country-music singer who licensed her 'Fast Car' song and got a hit out of it, but over at the Grammys, she really made her point clear -- by coming out of 20 years retirement and singing a duet with the same country music star, Luke Combs, that had the Grammy audience bawling and on their feet.

"It was a class act all around, which is not something you expect much of at the Grammys anymore:

Award shows are tedious and crass, but the smile on Tracy Chapman’s face when the auditorium goes nuts for her before she takes everyone to school with no lip sync, no auto-tune and no in-ear monitors is a pretty sweet moment to capture live. pic.twitter.com/YZGbWgMmHJ

— Sean Armstrong (@manatee73) February 5, 2024

"Because, well, she's brimming with merit and talent and brilliance, and she never insults her audience. Yes, her politics are probably progressive, based on some of her song topics and lyrics, but they are always personal, and she never throws her politics in people's faces. She's first and foremost an artist. So, her music appeals to 100% of her potential audience, not 50% as the loud wokester musicians like to do to themselves, shutting out half their potential buying audience by yelling about MAGA or whatever. Chapman doesn't do that -- she lets her beautiful music speak for itself as befits a true artist.

"That's why she's number one -- and every woke Hollywood loudmouth ought to take notice."

Hamas victims showed 'systematic genital mutilation', says IDF volunteer | Israel-Hamas war

 Hamas victims showed 'systematic genital mutilation', says IDF volunteer | Israel-Hamas war (youtube.com)

89,981 views Jan 31, 2024 #israelhamaswar #hamas #gaza

• A female reservist for the Israel Defence Forces who prepared the bodies of the female victims of the 7 October attacks has told Sky News some of the corpses showed evidence of sexual assault.
  Shari Mendes said some women had been repeatedly shot in the face and genitals.
  Hamas has denied claims its members abused or sexually tortured female victims.
• They have been living on foreign and Israeli aid. They were given the chance to build up a social and economically safe society. October 7th however showed what they really and foremost wanted. Ever since, I reject calling them Palestines. Gazanese it is, and they are far from innocent, far from victims, far from poor. They chose to be what they are and given the freedom, they will choose the same again. My heart goes out to all Israelis.

Nili Margalit is interviewed about her time as a hostage:

"A nurse held in Hamas captivity for nearly two months warned Israel’s leaders that remaining hostages, many with serious health issues, are facing dire conditions and “living on borrowed time.” In a letter to the war cabinet leaked to Hebrew-language media, Nili Margalit said captives are suffering from heart problems, renal failure, and Parkinson’s disease, without proper medical care or sanitation." . . .

Civilians took me. They sold me to Hamas - Nili Margalit, freed hostage (Part 1) "Nili Margalit, who endured the brutality of Hamas captivity in Gaza for nearly 50 days, describes the chilling experience of being kidnapped."Civilians took me. They sold me to Hamas - Nili Margalit, freed hostage (Part 2)"We were held 40 meters underground...with no air." Nili Margalit, who endured the brutality of Hamas captivity in Gaza for nearly 50 days, speaks of the horrors she endured at the merciless hands of the terrorists."Nili Margalit, captured with Yarden Bibas, refused to relate news of his family’s alleged death (Part 3) The physical and psychological torture of the ISRAELI Hostages by the Hamas Terrorists is Something Out of the WORST HORROR Scenario One Can Imagine. To Abduct families - separate and Bring them Together and Separate Them Again - - To Act As If Death Could Occur To Any Of Them Any Moment - - Not Knowing If Your Loved Ones are In the Next Room - Alive or Not - - UNIMAGINABLE CRUELTY.Typos corrected by Grammarly
Update: At least 32 of the 136 hostages held in Gaza killed, 20 others feared dead - NYT | The Times of Israel"If Israel gets back as many as fifty hostages, it will be a miracle. It will be a greater one if any living hostages ever manage to recover enough to live anything close to a normal life.

Israelis, this should be a message to you. Fight to the death. Do not allow yourselves to be taken prisoner. If you die in combat, at least it will be a quick death as opposed to a long torture-filled gantlet ending in death at the hands of Satan's demons in human form. That goes particularly for Israeli women." Comment from Mac

"Leaning into": Oberlin Athletics Wins NCAA LGBTQ Award After Demoting Coach Who Spoke Out Against Men in Women’s Sports

The statements about “inclusivity” are rather interesting considering in September, Oberlin demoted their then-women’s lacrosse coach, Kim Russell, to what was essentially a desk job as an Employee Wellness Project Manager, all for the crime of publicly defending herself after stating she believed women’s sports shouldn’t be opened up to men who identify as women.

 Legal Insurrection

“This award comes with a great sense of pride. It also comes with a great sense of responsibility. We cannot become complacent. We must constantly commit ourselves to maintaining and improving inclusivity on our campus.”

Does this woman actually believe what she is saying?

"In their write-up as to why they chose Oberlin for the distinction, the NCAA specifically cited their stated commitment to DEI:

Diversity, equity and inclusion is at the forefront of Oberlin’s mission. The school’s expansive efforts supporting LGBTQ student-athletes and staff include required education, physical and financial resources, campus and community partnerships, and panel discussions. […]

. . .Among Oberlin’s inclusion efforts are requiring staff and student-athletes to complete microaggression, pronoun and allyship trainings. The school has also hosted Pride-themed basketball games and 5K races to raise money for The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ youth. OneTeam trainings have been offered to anyone in the athletics department, as well.  The school is mindful of pronouns for all staff and student-athletes, maintaining a master list with those details to use in any print or digital materials. Transgender athletes have also been brought to campus to speak to student-athletes and staff. In 2018, Oberlin dedicated a locker room to be an all-gender changing space for transgender student-athletes and community members. In 2023, Oberlin student-athletes started a Queer Student Athlete Group to create a safe space for queer athletes to feel heard, represented and appreciated.

"Their athletic director, Natalie Winkelfoos, declared in her video acceptance speech that “This award comes with a great sense of pride.”

That's enough. We've used all the WOKE phrases speeches like this require. TD

IDF Gears up to Take Gaza-Egypt Rafah Crossing as Hamas Close to Defeat in Khan Younis Terror Stronghold, Israeli Defense Minister Says

  (legalinsurrection.com)

"I suspect that Hamas can’t seriously negotiate releasing the rest of the hostages because they have raped and murdered most of them. They are trying to get whatever concessions they can before the truth is revealed. My heart goes out to the friends and relatives of those who were killed and taken hostage. Never again! That means eliminating all the Hamas terrorists and their entire infrastructure." OldProf2  

"The Israeli military is gearing up to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt as it wraps up the offensive in the Hamas stronghold of Khan Younis, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Friday.

"The defense minister assured that “we are completing the mission in Khan Younis and we will also reach Rafah and eliminate everyone there who is a terrorist who is trying to harm us.” The Egyptian border, particularly the area around Rafah Border Crossing, is a major weapons supply line and terrorist escape route for Hamas in Gaza.

"Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza, is infested with underground terror tunnels leading into Egypt. According to an October 2023 report by the DC-based think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), the “tunnels to Egypt played key Role in arming Hamas.”

"With the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tightening the noose around Hamas’s terrorist leadership and jihadi fighters running out of arms and ammunition, the closing of the terrorist supply lines through Rafah is a key Israeli military objective." . . .

Watch Hamas' 'Deathly Hallows'| IDF Raid Video Right Out Of A Movie   

Dramatic Operation On Camera. Many comments must come from pro-Hamas people. For you, I will try to publish items containing Mothers, fathers and their families being burned alive andmachine-gunned. One you may like is a teenage boy coming home and Hamas killing him, showing a large puddle of blood coming from his head.

For other requests, I refer you to your Congressional representative, Tlaib, at right, your people's choice.

The Tunnel Dweller

Sooooo, we're not gonna die?

Scientist who thought we 'we're all going to die from climate change' reveals 7 reasons she was wrong - and how the issue is being overblown    "A scientist who believed humans would die from the climate crisis has made a U-turn and now believes the issue may have been overblown.

"Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist at the University of Oxford, claims that doomsday warnings of floods, widespread famine and deaths from disasters are overshadowing the progress that has been quietly made in recent years.

"She pointed out how emissions per person peaked in 2012 and remained the same since, along with the notion that organic food is not more climate-friendly and that the dreaded 2.7F of warming is not a tipping point into oblivion

"Ritchie, who published the book 'Not the End of the World,' recently shared the seven key points that led her to change her position on the climate crisis." . . .

3. Humans have overcome environmental crisis 

"The world was faced with a near global catastrophe starting in the 1980s when British meteorologist Jonathan Shanklin discovered a hole in the ozone layer.

"The hole – which hit the global headlines – was created by the release of human-made chemicals, particularly CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), into the atmosphere.

"This discovery led to the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to halt the production of CFCs, signed in December 1987, and mend the hole.

"However, scientists' alarm was first dismissed by government officials who downplayed the ozone layer issue.

"But eventually, world leaders came together to form the Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to halt the production of CFCs, which was signed in December 1987." . . .

So was it unnecessary to be afraid? Or was it because we were afraid we solved the problem? TD