LOS ANGELES.–Cutting his teeth on foreign policy by tagging along the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.) and Sen.Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), 69-year-old, soon to turn 70, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) needs to come up to speed in recommending how to deal with Iran. Graham lived through the 1979 Islamic Revolution watching the U.S. embassy hijacked by Iranian revolutionaries, taking 54 hostages, holding them for 444 days. Graham operates today with a grossly exaggerated view of Iranian power, proven over the 12-day war a paper tiger. Iran’s performance in its war with Israel was more inept than Saddam Hussein when U.S. troops arrived in Baghdad in 2003. But his current understanding of Iranian power way exaggerates Iran’s capability in its military and nuke programs. Graham should have a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come up to speed.
Trump spoke truthfully when he said that Iran took a beating in its 12-day war with Israel, essentially showing the world that Iran has a feckless military. Israel spent 12-days decimating Iran’s military capability, hitting missile silos, missile manufacturing sites, and striking Republican guard headquarters. Iran lost in 12-days a staggering amount of generals and nuclear scientists, leaving upper military ranks gutted, clamoring for replacements. Yet Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is about face-saving, taking, as Trump says, a beating by Israel. So, why is Graham so worried about Iran’s future prospects, they were a fake military, pretending all these years to have the most power military in the Middle East? Graham clearly hasn’t come up to speed to recognize that Trump is in no rush to enter into any more talks or deals with Iran.
Graham was swept up in all of former President Barack Obama’s hoopla over his 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA]. Trump knew the agreement was a hoax back then so when he ran for president he promised to end it. When he cancelled Obama’s nuke deal May 8, 2018, Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans threw a fit because they were all bamboozled by Iran’s nuke programs and breakout time to an A-bomb. Turns out that never happened because Iran doesn’t really have a competent nuclear program, only capable of enriching uranium but that’s about it. Ayatollah thought enriching uranium to 60% would ward off the U.S. and Israel. Well the colossal Iranian bluff worked for a generation, striking fear in U.S. officials not realizing that Iran had ballistic missiles but nothing else. Twelve days of war proved the Ayatollah was a paper tiger.
Graham, who turns 70 in 10 days, still thinks Iran is a threat to Israeli and U.S. national security. “Operation Midnight Hammer was a tremendous military success. It set the program back, I think, a couple of years. But the question for the world is: Does the regime still desire to make a nuclear weapons? The answer is yes. Doe they still desire to destroy Israel and come after us? The answer is yes,” Graham told ABC’s “This Week.” “Until that changes, we’re in trouble,” Graham said, showing he doesn’t know what’s happening. Iran doesn’t threaten the U.S. or Israel anymore, not because it couldn’t reconstitute it nuke program but because it has no military defenses. Graham didn’t hear Trump say that if needed he would hit other targets in Iran, this time closer to the Ayatollah. Trump watched Netanyahu take Iran apart in 12-days of war. What was Lindsey watching?
Iran is less a threat to Israel and the U.S. than ever before because Netanyahu had the guts to take on the Ayatolllah’s fake threats to annihilate the Jewish State. How many Holocaust denial conference did he host, at one point infuriating former German Chancellor Angel Merkel? Graham doesn’t get that the U.S. or Israel doesn’t need the Ayatollah to say that Israel has a right to exist. After putting Iran in its place, exposing its fake military, Netanyahu settled an old score, but, more importantly, ended generations of false beliefs about Iran military prowess. Obama and all of Congress in 2015 were duped into thinking that Iran was a powerful military power that threatened U.S. and Israeli national security. Graham hasn’t come off that position, leaving him way behind the curve. U.S. intel services grossly overestimated Iran’s military capability for years.
Graham is outdated in his thinking that Netanyahu needs the Ayatollah to say he recognized Israel’s right to exist. Since the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, Netanyahu has decimated Iran’s proxy groups in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen. While the groups still exist, they have none of the firepower they had in the past. Hamas barely hangs on in Gaza’s tunnels by a thread. Hezbollah has been devastated with the loss of their spiritual leader Hassan Nasrallah. Houthis have found out what it’s like to have the U.S. air force direct its bombs on its headquarters in Sanaa. So, the Ayatollah, like the Wizard of Oz, lost his clothes and his grossly exaggerated message of fear. Listening to a recent video shows that he’s barely hanging on, if at all. So, Graham needs to get up to speed and put his trust in Trump’s national security team that has neutralized the Iranian threat.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.