What would we do without the media? The world would be so much more “unfair” without the media refereeing political and even geopolitical disputes.
Our gatekeepers now inform us that Iran’s missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq was within the rules because it was “proportional” — whatever that means.
How many times did the media call a foul on Israel for its “disproportionate” response to Palestinian rocket attacks? The poor little terrorists don’t have sophisticated warplanes and smart bombs. So whenever Israel retaliates — always after several provocations from Palestinians — it’s “disproportionate” retaliation.
But Iran played by the rules.
By limiting its initial response to airstrikes on an Iraqi base used by U.S. forces, Iran appears to have sought to leave Trump an off-ramp: score settled, no need to escalate.
There were multiple signs that Iran had tailored its action to be arguably commensurate to Trump’s. The Iranians hit a U.S. military target rather than American civilians, just like the U.S. drone strike had taken out an Iranian military asset. Soleimani, perhaps the most powerful military official in Iran, was the long-serving head of its elite Quds Force.
How “fair” and “proportional” are the Iranians? They even hit the U.S. bases at the same time of day!
The strike hit on Iraqi soil, just like the U.S. strike that took out Soleimani. In symbolic signs of tit-for-tat retribution, the missiles came at about the same time of the night that the U.S. had killed Soleimani. An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader even tweeted a photo of the Iranian flag, just as Trump had tweeted the American flag in his first comment on Soleimani strike.
Got that? Their tweets were even proportional.
The media has ruled that Iran’s launching its illegal missiles at U.S. bases in Iraq a “proportional” and thus, “justified” response to American “aggression.”
If so, Iran has already lost.
“Proportional” military responses are for losers. The winners invariably demonstrate overwhelming superiority in firepower — something Trump is about to do. He is going to be criticized for it. It’s not “fair” to Iran — as if war were some kind of athletic contest and “fair” actually matters. All that matters in war is winning and the only thing moral about war is its quick and decisive ending in victory.
This is achieved by bringing military superiority to bear in such a way as to convince the enemy that “proportional” responses might look good at the UN and on American TV, but don’t matter anywhere else.
We are not going to unleash a ground assault on Iran. It’s totally unnecessary. We can cripple the Iranian state using drones and cruise missiles fired from ships and planes out of range of Iranian defenses. Trump probably won’t go that far, although if I were a Revolutionary Guardsman living at headquarters, I’d find a very deep hole to live in for the next few days.
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