Spine of Steel: America Must Embrace Trump’s Strike, Not Flinch

Precision against Iran’s tyranny is a restorative act of national strength—any retreat now would invite disaster.

Deterrence Reborn: Trump Erases Carter’s Iranian Catastrophe

OPINION: Sunday, June 22nd, 2025, By Walter Curt

When President Donald J. Trump ordered the lights‑out strike that obliterated Iran’s key nuclear sites last night, he did more than remove a ticking bomb from the world’s chest—he reminded a complacent political class what decisive leadership looks like. The operation was swift, sober, and surgical, a model of American excellence honed under a Commander‑in‑Chief who believes victory is preferable to endless hand‑wringing. Yet within moments of the blast, the same talking‑head aristocracy that has spent decades apologizing for American power dusted off its panic scripts, predicting a “new forever war” as reliably as the rooster greets the sunrise. Their reflexive dread is a feature, not a flaw: fear keeps them relevant, ratings keep them paid, and a cowed America keeps their isolationist fantasies alive.

Let’s clear the fog. Trump is not launching a forever war; he is ending one—one that began the day Jimmy Carter’s White House stood casually by while the Ayatollah’s radicals strangled a modernizing Iran in 1979. That shameful passivity birthed a theocracy that has funded terror from Baghdad to Buenos Aires, murdered our Marines in Beirut, and chanted “Death to America” with metronomic zeal. Four decades of “strategic patience” bought us nothing but body bags and mushroom‑cloud blackmail. Trump’s strike closed that chapter with the only language tyrants understand: overwhelming force backed by moral clarity.

Predictably, the pajama pundits clutch their pearls over phantom “sleeper cells” they say now lurk in every strip mall, ready to pounce. If such traitorous actors do exist, their plotting is not cause for American retreat—it is an act of war that demands American justice. The Constitution vests the federal government with the solemn duty to “provide for the common defense.” That does not mean issuing hashtags or “strongly worded statements.” It means hunting enemies until they fear the very idea of harming a single citizen of these United States. Washington’s Continentals marched through winter’s blood‑stained snow for no lesser purpose; why should we flinch because cowards hyperventilate?

What, exactly, is the alternative on offer from the “anti-war” chorus? Weakness masquerading as wisdom. They propose we defer to European envoys who never met a sanctions waiver they didn’t like. They ask us to trust international inspectors who couldn’t even keep Saddam honest, let alone the mullahs who perfected the art of subterranean deceit. They whisper that a little bribery—pallets of cash in the dead of night—will temper Tehran’s ambitions. We tried that under Obama, and Iran used the windfall to build missiles with “Israel must be erased” stenciled on the side. Only a fool repeats that experiment.

America’s DNA rejects such cowardice. From the crack of the first musket at Lexington, our republic learned that peace purchased by submission is no peace at all. George Washington did not beg King George for “de‑escalation.” Thomas Jefferson did not consult focus groups before smashing the pirates of Barataria. Dwight Eisenhower did not pause to wonder whether liberating Europe would “destabilize” the Nazi homeland. Great men understood that freedom survives only when defended by citizens with iron wills and leaders unafraid to wield the might of a free people.

Trump’s Iran strike fits squarely within that pedigree. By eliminating the regime’s nuclear crown jewels, he has given ordinary Iranians—those brave souls who chant “U.S.A—U.S.A.” in the streets—a real shot at toppling their clerical jailers. He has demonstrated to every would‑be aggressor, from Beijing to Pyongyang, that red lines drawn by this White House are etched in American steel, not vaporous ink. And he has reminded our allies that an America led by confidence, not apology, is the world’s greatest guarantor of stability.

To the self‑loathing pundits who insist the Stars and Stripes are best viewed at half‑mast: spare us. The flag flies highest when Americans refuse to bend the knee. No nation ever won respect by second‑guessing its own virtue. We secure peace by proving that assaulting us—or our interests—carries a cost so ruinous that only madmen would attempt it. That is not “warmongering.” It is the oldest, simplest deterrent known to civilization, and it works.

So, to every armchair prophet predicting doom, welcome back to reality. American strength still matters, and ordinary citizens still believe in it. We prefer victory to victimhood, courage to capitulation, and liberty to lectures from Davos. The strike on Iran’s nuclear heartland was not the beginning of chaos but the restoration of order. President Trump stood tall, and the nation must stand with him—unapologetically, unequivocally, and unbreakably.

If sleeper cells surface, crush them. If foreign tyrants test us, meet them head‑on. If the world doubts our resolve, let it tremble. We are Americans: heirs to a revolution fought against impossible odds, stewards of a Constitution forged in the furnace of freedom, and guardians of a destiny too noble to squander on timid half‑measures. Weakness is a choice—and it is one we will not make. Stand up, America. Your spine of steel is waiting.