In 1990, after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, President George H.W. Bush was considering the American response. He was torn: On the one hand, he saw the necessity of pushing Saddam out of the oil-rich state, maintaining the impression of American strength in the region. On the other hand, he wanted to avoid conflict altogether.
Three weeks after the invasion, Bush had still not made a decision. That’s when he famously accepted a phone call from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “Remember, George,” she said, “this is no time to go wobbly.”
Bush didn’t go wobbly. The United States expelled Saddam from Kuwait. That was the last outright military victory in American history.
Today, the United States faces down threats on all sides, the wages of appeasement of America’s most vicious enemies. From cutting awful deals with Iran to appeasing Russian aggression in Crimea, from bowing before Chinese expansionism to sending overt American aid to Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban, America’s foreign policy – particularly under former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden – has bred aggressiveness among our enemies.
That aggressiveness cultivated last week in the worst single terror attack on the West since 9/11, in the form of a murderous rampage through southern Israel that left 1,300 people dead and 200 kidnapped.
America’s enemies are betting on her going wobbly. They are betting on a morally blind media to press Israel to stop her offensive into the Gaza Strip in order to depose the evil terrorist group Hamas. They are betting on an activated Left to intervene to press Biden to pressure Israel to stop.
If that bet pays off, the West will be far less safe.
Here’s why.
Let’s assume Israel leaves Hamas in place in the Gaza Strip – which would be the end result of a ceasefire at this point. Hamas will quickly consolidate its support among Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank, creating another massive terror threat for Israel from its East. That terror threat is already materializing: Palestinian terrorists have already attempted to infiltrate multiple areas of Judea and Samaria. On Friday night, mosques around Israel played a muezzin call expressing solidarity with Hamas and calling for Palestinians to join the violence. That will only grow worse if Hamas survives.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah in the North will know that Israel is surrounded on all sides and may choose to launch a massive offensive against Israel that will end with tens of thousands of Jews dead and Israel itself endangered. Again, that possibility is quite real: Israel is apparently holding off on its ground offensive in order to retain enough troops in the North to prevent a massive Hezbollah move.
If Hezbollah jumps in, Israel will respond with everything in its arsenal, as it would have to; Iran, with Russian and Chinese backing, would then enter the conflict. At that point, nuclear conflict would certainly not be off the table. Israel will not allow a second Holocaust to take place without using everything in its arsenal. In fact, an Iranian attack on Israel could turn into a next-stage Sunni-Shiite war, thanks to Iran’s increased regional power; at some point in this chain of events, America would be dragged directly into such a war. Meanwhile, the world’s oil supply would be radically decreased, crashing the global economy.
Or America can stand tall.
Here is America’s role. It is a simple one and does not require American use of force.
First, America must provide Israel the material and moral support to destroy Hamas. Israel will shed extraordinary levels of blood of its own citizens in order to protect civilians in Gaza and to kill terrorists, but Israel will require rearmament. America should do so. An Israel wounded by Hamas is an invitation to broader conflict.
Second, America ought to use our diplomatic might to push to alleviate the situation – on the Arab side. We ought to push Egypt to open its border to refugees to minimize civilian casualties, and push Turkey to accept refugees. America ought to leverage Qatar into turning over Hamas’ leadership to an international body, and push Qatar to get Hamas to release American and other hostages held by Hamas.
Third, America must deter other actors from escalating this conflict. That’s presumably why Biden himself is visiting Israel, and why America currently has aircraft carriers stationed in the Mediterranean. An ounce of prevention will be worth kilotons of cure.
All of this is doable without expending significant amounts of American treasure or any American blood. But it can only happen if the Biden administration doesn’t go wobbly – if it doesn’t start parroting the dangerous moral equivalence of the media or the absurd perversities of international pseudo-humanitarian organizations that make no demands of Hamas and many demands on Israel.
America can flex her muscles without using them. In fact, we should. A world without America is a dark and chaotic place – and a more dangerous place for America. All that can be avoided – so long as America doesn’t go wobbly.
Ben Shapiro, 39, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author; his latest book is The Authoritarian Moment: How The Left Weaponized America’s Institutions Against Dissent.
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Interesting but flawed article. I have no problem with the first recommendation. We are already doing it and Israel has already stated it doesn’t want U.S. personnel involved in a fight that they, Israel, see as their fight to wage and win. The only purpose of our aircraft carrier fleets in the Mediterranean is to deter Iran from directly engaging in support of its proxies Hamas or Hezbollah. It’s a show of force, nothing more.
Where the article goes off the rails is in the second and third recommendations. Egypt, like every other Arab country in the region, has been stung by allowing people into their country from Gaza before. Every time violent criminal acts and terrorist instances have always followed such humanitarian gestures. So, Egypt has a right to secure its own borders, as do the other Arab states as they see fit. You don’t see any of the other Arab countries in the region rushing to offer Palestinians access, do you? It is because of the exact same reason. The rest of the world isn’t as stupid as the current U.S. administration to allow in completely unvetted people to flood into their countries and just hope for the best.
As for pushing Turkey or Qatar to do anything, that is a NOT this administration. This is an administration who has built its foreign policy on a foundation of appeasement and begging for things and the rest of the world knows it. So good luck with pushing any other nation to do anything they don’t want to do.
As for the third recommendation, deterrence only works if the other players realize you are serious and will stand up to them if challenged or attacked. Unfortunately, this administration has built a reputation over the last 2 1/2 years of being weak and preferring appeasement at every turn. Thus, Biden’s photo-op visit to Israel directly undercuts the imagry of our naval ships in the region. I guarantee you that every leader in the Middle East knows Team Biden will blink if Iran or one of its other proxies in the area does anything. So the third recommendation is only valid if we had someone completely different in the White House other than the dementia patient and his merry band of Marxist Obama holdovers.
Very good article Ben , I would say that in addition to keeping the reasons for the Second World War in mind when thinking about avoiding a Third World War would be to realize that there is a ” Fifth Column ” acting openly as opposed to the 1940’s anti – American Fith Column way of operating.That fact puts some important matters in the right perspective. Any comments made on this topic need to be very brief, just summaries of what could be discussed — in terms of printed paper pages in a book it could easily go into 300 to 400 pages to do a proper job of it — to compare strategy , tactics , the diplomacy, the economic aspects involved.This article is appreciated and your suggestions make very good sense .Having things in balance is another way of thinking in terms of being resourceful — and being resourceful is one of the most important things needed in regards confict — whether preparing for conflict or thinking about how to avoid it. Other points for consideration would be to develop a high level of intelligence , have courage , have a knowledge of history — and the resourcefulness connects with all of those actually . In the spirit of God Bless America , land of the free and home of the brave. Let Liberty be the watchword.
Put President Trump back in office is how the United States avoids WWIII.
The World was at peace when he ran things.
And President Trump didn’t get us into any WARS or finance them.
george bush was NOT “torn”. He was a part of it. timetofreeamerica.com/revelation is 1 of 2 who research deep, wide, + more than anyone I ever heard. themelkshow.com is the other. Some of today’s accurate prophets have known pieces & parts of these for 1 – 2 1/2 years. PRAY!