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Victor Davis Hanson cut through the spin on Life, Liberty & Levin, warning that the Iranian regime is playing a “very strange” game and openly exploiting American restraint while betting on our timidity. Hanson urged President Trump to set a real deadline and to threaten punishment that is irreversible and meaningful if Iran does not comply.
That kind of straight talk matters because the administration has already moved from talk to action, reimposing a naval blockade and ordering strikes aimed at disabling Iran’s ability to menace global shipping and our forces. American resolve — not endless lecturing from the coastal elites — is what restored deterrence, and the recent waves of strikes show the president is willing to back his words with force.
Hanson’s blunt point — that Iran counts survival as victory and that half-measures only encourage further aggression — is a lesson Washington should have learned long ago. If the U.S. wants to prevent a regionwide conflagration, we must impose costs so severe that Tehran’s military and economic recovery would take generations, not months.
A brave foreign policy has side effects for other bad actors too; when America acts decisively, it robs Moscow of easy leverage and exposes the limits of Russia’s ability to act as a reliable patron for proxy regimes. Scholars at conservative institutions have long argued that strength, not appeasement, shrinks bad-state influence, and recent U.S. operations make that point painfully clear to dictators who counted on American weakness.
Meanwhile, Democrats and their media cheering sections continue to preach caution and moral equivalence while our sailors and pilots take real risks to protect commerce and lives. That hollow piety betrays a contempt for American strength and for the working Americans whose livelihoods depend on open seas and safe shipping lanes.
If conservatives are serious about national security, we must rally behind leadership that chooses power over pretense and victory over drawn-out stalemate. Victor Davis Hanson reminded viewers that history rewards the bold; hardworking Americans expect nothing less than a president who will defend them and a party that will stand with him.
