Hart: Middle East? We can't control Chicago.

President Donald Trump waves while boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Tuesday. Administration officials are briefing Congress on what they say are ties between Iran and Al Qaida. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
President Donald Trump waves while boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Tuesday. Administration officials are briefing Congress on what they say are ties between Iran and Al Qaida. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)

Worries about Iran's attacks on Saudi ships in the Strait of Hormuz caused many to fear war in the region. The war-mongering neocon faction of the GOP, thankfully no longer in the White House, or Obama's passive/aggressive team, might have had us at war by now. And based on U.S. "intelligence" reports, "W" Bush would already have invaded the wrong country.

Current Democrat Party leaders like AOC have a different response to this aggression. The new progressive Dems are wondering why all this talk about the Straits of Hormuz? They would only retaliate if the gays of Hormuz were attacked.

Trump has employed a diplomatic response, and he doesn't bother asking the anti-American United Nations to help. America would have better results appealing to the International House of Pancakes.

With such tension with Iran in the region, there are few exit ramps and little communication with the thugs in Iran's theocracy. I paid $2.06 yesterday for a gallon of gas in Tennessee. The U.S. is energy-independent now, so we have less reason to go to war over oil. Let Israel, the bar bouncer in the Middle East, handle this.

We have not gotten the final bill for Iraq, nor have we been informed why we went and what we accomplished there. The same holds true for Afghanistan, despite the trillions of dollars spent. Our government did finally find bin Laden; he was in his house in Pakistan.

The U.S. military-industrial complex does not have Trump's ear, and that is good. He justifiably treats the whole D.C. swamp with skepticism. U.S. hawks trying to goad him into another war should understand by now that we cannot control other countries. We cannot even control Chicago or our borders.

Obama promised to end wars; he stayed at war for all eight years of his presidency, a first for a two-term president. He ordered military raids, bombing, and air and drone strikes on seven countries, including Libya, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria. For that, of course, the Left gave Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. Ronald Reagan brought down the Berlin Wall without a shot fired - no Nobel Peace Prize for him.

The goal of Obama and Bush in the Middle East was to set up an American-style democracy, presumably a government run by lobbyists and public sector unions.

Trump admires Reagan and has used his foreign policy template: peace through strength. Hopefully Trump will continue on this path, to de-escalate wars and conflicts and to focus on America first. Contrary to the fearmongering rhetoric of Bush and Obama, hordes of Muslim extremists are not going to cross the ocean and invade America. They don't have ships, cable TV or processed cheese. When they get those, maybe we worry.

We let bin Laden win by being goaded into two expensive wars that did nothing but galvanize the Muslim world against us. We gave up too many freedoms with the Patriot Act, TSA, Homeland Security, NSA, etc., which grew an unaccountable government.

For the kids out there, here is a summary of Iran. (No, Iran is not the part of your iPhone that tells you how many miles you walked that day.) This was once a prosperous, Western-type country. Then the religious leaders took over. In 1979, Iranians protested in Tehran, burned American flags, seized our embassy and took 52 Americans hostage. It's hard to explain to young people just how much some people hated disco.

Former Secretary of State John Kerry, whose oversized head looks like he may have personally inspected Iranian nuclear plants too often, botched sanctions and shipped billions in cash on pallets to Iran. He embarrassed America with the Iran nuclear deal. Fox News gleefully reported that Trump pulled us out of the Iran deal. CNN and MSNBC hate Trump and said they wished Fred Trump had pulled out.

By the tone Trump has taken, we have de-escalated the possibility of war with Syria, Libya and most notably North Korea. New National Security Adviser John Bolton (whose mustache fought in the Civil War) is proffering hawkish views to Trump, and things are heating up with Iran. Say what you will about career diplomats John Bolton or John Kerry, they are no Dennis Rodman.

Contact Ron Hart at Ron@RonaldHart.com or @ronaldhart on Twitter.

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