Mark Thiessen, unsurprisingly, gets it.
As Trump critics claim that Operation Epic Fury is the start of a new “forever war,” Thiessen rightly argues that Trump is not STARTING a new war, but ending one that is almost 50 years old.
“WE’RE WITNESSING THE BIRTH OF THE TRUMP DOCTRINE”https://t.co/atpt4gESvO
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 3, 2026
I would say, “Well, duh,” but Thiessen’s point is probably news to people whose ability to think long term is eclipsed by the attention span of sheep.
Critics say President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran is a violation of his promise not to engage in “forever wars.” In fact, the opposite is true. Trump is not starting a forever war in Iran; he’s ending one.
People who have the attention span of sheep, at best, and gnats, at worst, probably haven’t noticed that Iran has been at war with the United States since 1979.
That assessment isn’t based on some abstruse, difficult-to-parse theory that dives deeply into the psychology of Iranian leaders, or connecting dots with strings on a board like a conspiracy theory. It’s an obvious fact that Iran has spent nearly 50 years doing everything it can to harm America, Americans, our Western allies, and even our allies in the Middle East.
They are quite proud that they have been conducting a war with us. It is their reason for being.
For 47 years, the Iranian regime has been waging war against the United States. That war began in 1979, when Iran seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. The war continued as Iran orchestrated the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 258 Americans, followed by the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans. It continued in 1998, when Iran provided “direct assistance” to al-Qaeda for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, training its “operatives about how to blow up buildings,” according to a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
After the 9/11 attacks, Iran provided sanctuary to senior leaders of al-Qaeda fleeing U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and allowed the group to use Iranian territory as a pipeline to move money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East. (It still harbors Saif al-Adel, successor to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri as leader of al-Qaeda, in Tehran). Iran also provided training and bomb-making equipment to insurgents in Iraq, including “explosively formed penetrators” that killed and maimed thousands of American troops.
I know that Democrats have had a soft spot for Iran, probably because they share the same basic goal of destroying Western culture, but the claim by Gavin Newsom and others that Trump’s attack on the Iranian regime was based on an invented threat is rather bizarre.
It’s not like Iran has been making googly eyes at us, begging to become our friends.
Gavin Newsom and the Ayatollah Khamenei sound almost like the same person at times, berating Americans.
All Trump has done is destroy — trust, institutions, the east wing, our alliances, our confidence in one another. pic.twitter.com/HxE4chb7Dl
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 3, 2026
Opposition to the Trump Doctrine has little to do with the policies, which have been, so far, very successful. They have everything to do with hatred toward Trump because he opposes the transnational consensus of managed decline.
You may be the most ridiculous person to ever exist in this site.
This is you two month ago. https://t.co/R31RUWRJBG pic.twitter.com/VMkTd3ccBe
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 3, 2026
What Democrats see in Trump is a bull in the china shop destroying the world order of the 20th century, and to a great extent, they are right.
But that order has been characterized by a series of hostile powers, from the Soviet Union and Communist China to the hostile regimes of Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, taking potshots at Americans without much response.
Trump is not starting fights, he is ending ones that have been going on for decades.
This much is certain: Donald Trump is making history. There have been just 45 presidents since the founding of our republic. Of those, only a handful truly transformed the world. In the modern era, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Nazi fascism and Ronald Reagan defeated Soviet communism. If he succeeds in defeating Islamic radicalism in Iran, Trump will take his place alongside them as one the most consequential presidents in U.S. history.
Trump’s policy—his doctrine—is that the United States will no longer suffer the slings and arrows aimed at us by our enemies.
The past 50 years of war waged on America by our implacable enemies will end.
Trump is taking down our adversaries and sending a message to our future enemies, like China, that America is standing tall again and will punch back twice as hard should anybody take a swing at us.
Good.
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