Well, at least now I know what the English translation of the word “fatwah” is…..and it’s “Executive Order”. Being an American who grew up in the Eighties, I remember when Iran was the equivalent of Al Qaeda, and the Ayatollah was Osama bin Laden. There were T-shirts with his mug on it surrounded by crosshairs, and signs in shop windows with varying ways to say “screw you Iran”. Without going into all the statistics about how Iran took American hostages, blew up Marine barracks, funded (and funds) Hezbollah, screamed (and screams) “death to America” in the streets, and generally is an all around boil on the ass of civilization, I think it’s fair to say the Iranians are not our buddies.

In more recent times, Iran is, and has been, a sworn enemy of the American people. For example, if you are an American war veteran injured or maimed by an improvised explosive device, that device might as well have had “Made in Iran” stamped on its inner workings. So forgive me for not exactly supporting this new defeatist endeavour.

Can anyone explain to me why we are having any discussions whatsoever with Iran? If the issue is the acquisition of a nuclear weapon, and preventing it, then did we not already have the sanctions, structures, and policies in place for just that purpose? And exactly how does speeding up a nuclear Iran help? Is it just me, or has “The One”, John “Ketchup” Kerry, and Shrillary Clinton turned the entire middle east into a caliphate on the verge of World War III? In my lifetime I have never witnessed a more dangerous world….one where global chaos is one financial collapse or nuclear detonation away?

Listen, I have come a long way in my thinking of America’s place in the world. I DO NOT think that we should be the world’s policeman, nor involve ourselves in foreign conflicts that do not directly affect my ability to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. In essence I think we need to get our collective scat together.  I am reminded of an argument I once had with someone who thought the U.S. was arrogant and imperial, and that we should not be the world’s only “Superpower”.  I am able to understand and even empathize with such a statement. But that kind of thinking is naïve and frankly dangerous. There IS GOING TO BE a world leader that sets the tone, agenda, and currency for everyone else.

For good or ill, that used to be the United States. And if you’re one of those that thinks we’re getting our comeuppance, that we have no right to set the world’s agenda, get ready. Because the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Obama agrees with you, as well as all of the rest of our ruling “elites”. The New World that you long for will be led by China, Iran, Russia, and an Islamic Caliphate….all with our assistance and capitulation. And that will be great. Unless you’re a woman, a minority, religious, LGBT, progressive, conservative, a free thinker, educated, special needs, or elderly. Because in a world not guided by the following statement, many of us are doomed.

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness….. that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed……”

And that sounds a whole hell of a lot better than, “bow”, “obey”, and “convert or die”.