Israel has for decades understood what the American public is just beginning to appreciate: Iran has been at war with our democracy for nearly half a century.
President Donald J. Trump has long recognized the threat, along with the grim reality that Iran's ayatollahs and their Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been zealously committed to deploying nuclear weapons that would jeopardize more than the Middle East. Their chants of "Death to America," were not just meant to inflame their citizens but to transmit their strategic intent: truly "Death to America."
Without a declaration of war, the Iranian clerics have directed the murder of American servicemen, the assassination of opponents anywhere in the world, funded sleeper cells, and created a ring of terrorist organizations whose mission remains to drive Israelis into the sea. The outrage of October 7, 2023 was just meant to be their curtain-opener.
Having dithered since our diplomats in Tehran were taken hostage in 1979, America has been sleepwalking past this chilling reality. Not so President Trump.
One analyst and geopolitical author, Afshon Ostovar, recently told a reporter, "Iran has been picking a fight for 47 years, and it finally got that fight."
In an age when the attention span of many of our citizens is measured by the length of a TikTok video, and our reality is diffused and distorted by artificial intelligence, too many of our citizens expect this conflict to be concluded within days if not hours. We need to appreciate that the reality of combat with a well-armed enemy is not a video game. It requires courage, valor, strategic vision, and tactical execution. Tehran is betting that they can outlast us even if they can't outfight us.
The Israelis are reminding the Iranians that there is no respite or deadline to end this conflict. Israel most recently said it killed Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, in its most recent strike, adding to the list of terrorist leaders no longer able to direct attacks against democracy.
After Japan attacked the United States without warning in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Congress, "We will win through to absolute victory... so help us God."
An equally resolute Trump recognizes we have been under attack for nearly a generation, and the time has come to "win through to absolute victory... so help us God."
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
