Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, the murderous mullahs of Iran finally got what they had coming.
It’s been 46 years since the Ditherer-In-Chief Jimmy Carter laid the foundation for Iran’s near half-century as a worldwide sponsor of terrorism, and turned young, impressionable, 16 year-old me into a lifelong Republican. Over that time, we got pretty used to hearing “Death To America” chanted on evening newscasts.
There’s a good chance we might not be hearing that so much anymore.
For 46 years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has waged what can only be described as a sustained campaign of flagrant hostility against the United States. This is not rhetoric; it is a matter of record. And it is moral justification for the U.S./Israeli raid over the weekend.
Consider just a portion of the documented examples:
1979–1981: Seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran; 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days.
1982–1990s: Iran-backed Hezbollah kidnaps Americans in Lebanon; CIA Station Chief William Buckley tortured to death; journalist Terry Anderson held for more than six years.
1983: U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63, including 17 Americans.
1983: Marine barracks bombing in Beirut kills 241 U.S. service members.
1985: TWA Flight 847 hijacked; U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem tortured and murdered.
1988: Iranian mine nearly sinks USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf.
1996: Khobar Towers bombing kills 19 U.S. Air Force personnel.
2000: U.S. courts later find Iran indirectly liable for supporting terrorists involved in the USS Cole bombing.
2003–2011: Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the branch of Iran’s armed forces established after the 1979 Revolution to protect the regime and its ideological system – supplies advanced roadside bombs and weapons to Iraqi insurgents; Pentagon estimates more than 600 American troop deaths tied to Iran or its proxies.
2011: IRGC-linked plot to bomb a Washington, D.C., restaurant to assassinate a foreign ambassador.
2016: IRGC-linked cyber intrusion into a New York dam’s control systems.
2020: Ballistic missile strike on Al-Asad Air Base wounds dozens of American troops.
2023–2024: Iran-backed proxies launch roughly 180 attacks on Western forces; drone strike in Jordan kills three U.S. service members.
2024–2025: Federal cases allege IRGC-linked plots to assassinate an American journalist and discuss targeting former President Donald Trump.
Never mind the mullahs’ desire for a nuclear weapon and the fantasy of annihilating both the U.S. and Israel, which brought the destruction of those facilities last June.
For decades, both Republican and Democrat Presidents tried every tool short of regime change to moderate Iran: sanctions, negotiations, nuclear deals, limited retaliatory strikes, diplomatic isolation, targeted assassinations of terror leaders and international pressure. None altered the evil fundamental posture of the mullahs. Murder of innocents and combatants continued across the globe, executed by Iranian flunkies like Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis with Iranian cash.
There’s an old adage about cutting off the head of the snake. Americans finally elected a President who wasn’t afraid to use the axe.
It’s easy to grasp Trump’s stated objective to defend Americans by eliminating threats from the Iranian regime when it’s viewed in this historical context. It’s an acknowledgment that Americans come first; that the status quo has failed, and that without the move Iran’s campaign of murder would have continued. After decades of violence, attacks and the murder of Americans, Trump put a stop to it.
History matters. History shows a pattern. America is alive and well.
By Dane Hicks, Kansas Informer
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels “The Skinning Tree” and “A Whisper For Help.” As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association’s Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
