He had them in his sights. All he had to do was say, “Go.”
His generals estimated that within 30 minutes 150 Iranians would not go home alive. As hard as the military tried to avoid it, there may have been civilians killed in the strike.
They refer to that as “collateral damage.” That does not make it sound so bad. After all, this is war.
In the United States, there is one Commander in Chief who makes the decision. President Trump figuratively had the target(s) in his sights and his finger on the trigger. He made a final decision to lower his weapon and re-holster it – for now.
In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd for Meet the Press, President Trump explained his decision. For the average American watching, his explanation was very clear, logical, and simple. There was no Washington-speak.
He made it clear that nothing was final up until the point that he made the final decision. “Nothing is green-lighted until the very end because things change.”
I took a double-dose of Alka-Seltzer and forced myself to read and watch media clips on CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, and New York Times. I wanted to see what kind of spin they would put on President Trump’s decision.
As I expected, I saw headlines that included phrases like, “dangerous confusion”, “reversal”, “ordered attack, but called it off”, “sloppy handling”, Trump’s tale strains credulity.” The mainstream media, who just days before were clamoring that the President was bringing us to the brink of Armageddon, were now saying that he was indecisive.
It takes time to prepare for a strike, but a strike is not ordered until it is ordered. The mainstream media is intentionally misrepresenting what President Trump himself clearly explained. “Nothing is green-lighted.”
President Trump went on to explain to Chuck Todd that he weighed the response. “They shot down an unmanned drone, …. and here we are sitting with a 150 dead people that would have taken place probably within a half an hour after I said go ahead. And I didn’t like it, I didn’t think, I didn’t think it was proportionate.”
The mainstream media obviously cannot, or refuse to, understand plain language. The President prepared to respond and he easily could have responded. He made the decision that only he could make.
It was a wise decision. The leaders of Iran need to understand what happened and be thankful that the President did not pull the trigger. He was fully justified if he had launched a retaliatory strike.
In this case, he took another course of action. Iran knows what could have happened.
Some say that now Iran will be more emboldened to act. I do not believe that is the case at all. Whether they ever publicly acknowledge it or not, Iran knows that they dodged a bullet and they have no one but President Trump to thank.
Now, if Iran is wise, they will cease their mischievous behavior. This time, President Trump holstered missile strikes. They are foolish if they expect him to do it again.
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