POLITICS: Trump’s bold move to rid the world of Iran’s evil regime once and for all

Iran’s rulers have been at war with “the great Satan” since they seized power amid the 1979 revolution, taking our diplomats hostage, masterminding the slaughter of our troops from Beirut to Baghdad, sending assassins to strike on our soil and more. 

For decades, they’ve worked to acquire nuclear weapons and missiles that can strike the United States — capabilities they think would secure their rule forever as well as allowing them to utterly dominate the Middle East and impose their insane creed on vulnerable nations everywhere.

And America’s presidents have done little to stop them, focusing on other threats around the globe and problems at home, imagining the ayatollahs can be appeased into behaving and/or simply preferring to ignore this festering menace.

President Trump is taking decisive action instead of hoping to get away with kicking the can further down the road — after weeks of seeking a peaceful accommodation, indeed after months and (counting his first term) years of proving to Iran’s rulers that Washington’s forbearance was over.

At his direction, US forces took out terror master Qassem Soleimani in early 2020; last year, we joined Israel in eviscerating Iran’s nuclear-weapons program.

The ayatollah wouldn’t take the hint, and our president rightly concluded that he won’t be reasoned with.

Clear-eyed, Trump has expressed how any agreement with the regime is “not worth the paper it is written on.”

He is correct when he claims he is the only president willing of making this generational move. And he clearly fears presidents who follow would demure like those in the past. 

We would also note that this does not show any signs of being a repeat of the Iraq War. It would be foolish to claim that the administration has not planned for the “day after,” given the haunting memory of Bush’s folly.

However this plays out, it’s easily the most significant single action in the Middle East in decades, perhaps centuries. 

Coming on top of the regional peace-building of the Abraham Accords, it has the promise of a lasting entente that even includes formal Saudi-Israeli peace — and of dramatically pulling the teeth of the Islamist movements (Sunni as well as Shi’a) behind most of the world’s terrorism.

That Tehran’s initial efforts at counterstrikes have failed spectacularly suggests the downside for America is minimal: The rote protests from Beijing, Moscow and lesser powers are meaningless noise.

Trump is also risking his own political capital, and that of the Republican Party — stakes he deems well worth the likely payoff for our nation and the world.

He, and the men and women in uniform now waging war thousands of miles away, deserve the support and prayers of our entire nation.