"It would take about 35 minutes for the United States to utterly destroy Iran’s oil-producing infrastructure and cripple its military. Then what?

Roger Kimball writes in part in American Greatness,

It’s not entirely clear why Soleimani was even in the vicinity of the Baghdad airport in the pre-dawn hours of January 3 since he was under a travel ban from the United Nations.

I say “it’s not entirely clear,” but of course nothing could be clearer. He was there—thumbing his nose, as does everyone, at orders from the self-important joke that is the U.N.—in order to plan further attacks against American interests in Iraq with his pal Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy head of the Iranian-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Force, who also got his ultimate one-way ticket punched courtesy those U.S. drones.

The assault on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that these chaps helped orchestrate over New Years was just a warm-up act. As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted, Soleimani represented an “imminent threat” to the lives of American soldiers, diplomats, and civilians.

...But here’s a thought that will have occurred to the Ayatollah and Esmail Ghaani, Soleimani’s freshly appointed replacement. It would take about 35 minutes for the United States to utterly destroy Iran’s oil-producing infrastructure and cripple its military. Then what?

...It has been a hallmark of the Trump presidency to end the seemingly endless foreign wars and “bring the troops home.” He has always shown that he prefers diplomacy to military action. At the same time, he understands, as did Ronald Reagan, that diplomacy only works when it is backed up by military strength and frank evidence of a willingness to defend one’s national interests. Reagan did that. Just a few days ago, so did Donald Trump.

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