The Iran issue is the elephant in the room issue on nuclear and ballistic missiles that has been shoved under the rug for many decades. But problems of this sort do not go away – they grow and fester and become unmanageable more quickly than people realize.
The Nazi regime in Germany assumed power towards the end of 1932 and the beginning of 1933. But it took years until the Nazi Party would go from a bullying movement with a radical racial ideology and turn into a massively effective war machine that threatened the entire Europe and beyond. The crucial years were 1933-1938. All of the signals were there that indicated what the intentions of the Nazis were. But most of the world stood by with a rather isolationist attitude. Outside of Churchill, a few brave Germans who were killed or bullied into submission by the Nazis, very few spoke out clearly about the Nazi problem.
Then, in Sept. 1939, the rude awakening struck deeply into Western Poland. Soon after, it was Belgium and France. There was no reason to assume that this would not have occurred. The Sudetanland and Austria were already swallowed up by the Nazi war machine many months earlier. But Russia played nicely with Germany in order to grab the part of Poland they wanted to grab, America buried it’s head in the sand, and Chamberlain met with the Nazis and promised peace in our time.
Donald Trump has just made the fateful choice to jump into the fray and whether via short-term military raids, strong economic sanctions, or a combination of the two, he is determined to leave the world safe from the Islamo-Nazi threat that is a clear and present danger to the Western world.
President Trump is certainly baffling many Israelis with what seems like his constant waffling and pivoting. But he is probably driving the Iranians crazy too. It is way too early to judge President Trump on the outcome in Iran. But there is no question that the threat will either be neutralized or President Trump will be judged as failing in this war against Iran. I would hege my bets on Iran losing this battle.