The media has generated itself into an absolute frenzy over the “imminence” of the threat Qasem Soleimani represented when the United States militiary, with the authorization of President Trump, decided to take him out. If Ted Bundy is sitting in your daughter’s living room eating a baloney sandwich, do you wait for him to grab a pick axe before you consider him an “imminent” threat? This is unserious foolishness.

Qasem Soleimani was an enemy combatant with the blood of American soldiers on his hands. Just because he was wearing an Iranian uniform does not mean he should be protected from the wrath of the United States. President Obama invaded Pakistan without their knowledge to kill Osama bin Laden. If he'd been wearing a Pakistani soldier's uniform, would that have somehow diminished President Obama's moral authority to make the decision? No.

Even as hypocritical as the left usually is, this Iran business has seen them outdo themselves. For example:

1. Embracing the Constitution:

Raise your hand if you knew that progressives were aware of the existence of our Constitution. Between abolishing the Senate, circumventing the Electoral College, ignoring the Second Amendment, packing the Supreme Court and despising the First Amendment as well as their overall dismissal of any law or precedent allegedly created by white men; you’d be forgiven for thinking the Democrats had never read it. 

Who remembers Democrats clamoring for President Obama to pass his Iran deal through the Senate, as the constitution directs for treaties? You might argue that Democrats view the constitution with Wilsonian disdain, but that would be unfair to Woodrow Wilson. Modern Democrats view the constitution the same way they view democracy: it’s a tragic impediment when it prevents them from seizing power and it’s above discussion when they control it. Today's Democrats (and far too many Republicans for that matter) view our political system in terms of how much power they can amass to their cause and apply against their opponents. Statesmanship, bipartisanship, moderation, consensus, respect for the checks and balances of the three branches: all of this has been choked in a Twittery fart cloud of stupidity, partisan hackery, brinksmanship and naked power plays.

2. Outrage over “assassinations”: 

You will recall that President Barack Obama authorized a drone strike that  killed a 16 year old American born boy who was eating dinner in Yemen. Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was the son of Anwar al Awlaki, an enemy combatant and terrorist who had been killed two weeks earlier in another drone strike. According to  the president, the boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just as his 8 year old sister was when President Trump ordered a raid in Yemen six years later that led to her being shot in the neck and killed. All of them were American citizens. 

It's extraordinary to me that the killing of Qasem Soleimani has generated far more outrage than the extermination of an American family - including two children - without anything like a trial or legal intervention. Certainly our soldiers are not targeting children but these raids and strikes seem to happen with very little (if any) congressional oversight. Trump's raid (which he allegedly didn't even watch) also led to the death of Navy SEAL William Owens. Where has Nancy Pelosi been for the last 9 years?

Republicans should welcome her efforts to reign in the war power of the executive branch. It's about time. Who knows if Congress could have saved the lives of al-Awlaki's children or William Owens? Say what you will about Trump or Obama, neither one wants the blood of soldiers and children on their hands. Our elected officials have become petty and polarized but congressional oversight and more deliberation around such decisions can't possibly be a bad thing. What is unfortunate and questionable is that Pelosi chose the grave of a piece of human detritus like Soleimani to finally plant her flag of outrage.

3. Where are the Twittery cancel goons?

Speaking of human detritus, Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has been paraded all over the news after Trump's strike harrumphing about America’s outrageous behavior. The sympathy for him is astounding. Here's something interesting he said in June:

"Our society has moral principles, and according to these principles we live," Zarif responded. "These are moral principles regarding the behavior of people in general. And that's because the law is upheld and you abide by laws."

The "law" he refers to prohibits men from having sex with other men. Some estimate as many as 4,000 to 6,000 men have been executed by the Iranian government for being gay since 1978. For a community that parades around in front of Chick Fil A because their CEO doesn’t support gay marriage, the silence is awfully deafening, no?

I mean, it’s not like Democrats and progressives intentionally stood down from their usually vocal support of the LGBTQ community so President Obama could sign a lucrative deal for American donors in Iran... Right? …. Nah.

Meanwhile, Mayor Pete is busy blaming America for Iran shooting down a passenger plane while trying to shoot at…. Americans. That isn’t a typo. The only gay candidate for president is basically running interference for a country that would execute him for his sexuality if he lived there. Iran has admitted to this “mistake” after trying to cover it up and all of progressive Twitter seems to be commending them for not blaming Jewish sorcery or women. What honesty and bravery!

There's a great deal of conspiratorial, populist nonsense wafting through the electorate about America's "illegal" foreign wars. Americans have a long history of isolationist instincts. That's not a bad thing. Of all the ignorant rancor and nonsense surrounding this issue, Mayor Pete, a US Navy veteran, has been the most eloquent and moving:

“Whenever I see that happen, I think about the day we shipped out, and the time we set aside for saying goodbye to family members,” Buttigieg said. “I remember walking with a friend of mine, another lieutenant I trained with, as we walked away and his 1-½-year-old boy was toddling after him, not understanding why his father wasn’t turning back to scoop him up. It took all the strength he had not to turn around and look at his boy one more time.”

We love to talk about war but we rarely consider the consequences, especially how those decisions affect the immediate families of the soldiers we send to the front. Both President Obama and President Trump have admirably indicated their intent to de-escalate our foreign conflicts. Unfortunately, presidents have access to information that most of us don’t and it seems obvious that this information often overrides their political instincts when the responsiblity lands on their shoulders. That doesn’t mean they should just get the benefit of the doubt, but it's absurd to think that the United States has no legitimate reason to be active in the Middle East.

First, the United States has material interest in the region. Americans may not like it but they sure like their smart phones, video games, sports cars and beach vacations. Leaving the Middle East to its own devices will surely put a huge amount of power and resources at risk. Even though fracking has greatly alleviated our reliance on the oil in this region, walking away would likely come at a great cost to our way of life - and to the potential safety of many others. And that points to the second fact: someone will control that region if America doesn’t.

Without the United States in the picture, who steps into the power vacuum in the Middle East? Russia? China? Turkey? Iran? Which one of these powers should we trust to maintain the free flow of oil resources in the region? Recep Erdogan can’t wait to massacre the Kurds and the Armenians. The Ayatollah would love nothing better than to turn Israel (and every Jew and Christian) into dust. The Chinese are already massacring and erasing the Uighurs (Muslims) and the Falun Gong and they’ve repeatedly murdered and terrorized their own people. Watch One Child Nation if you want to know what modern genocide looks like. And the Russians? They’ve never ethnically discriminated against the dissidents they choose to oppress. Every one of those countrys is a dangerous, totalitarian regime with no acountability to its people or the free world.

President Trump has an abysmal record when it comes to dealing with strong man regimes, but his opportunism is far better than Bernie’s proposed isolationism or the current general Democratic disposition towards pretending Iran is some legitimate actor on the world stage. Maybe you don’t care about people being massacred and enslaved on the far side of the globe, but two world wars have taught us that sitting at home and ignoring it isn’t a good option. The United States has plenty of warts and flaws, but we are - by far – the most important catalyst for peace and prosperity on this planet. If we pack up and go home now, our children will be packing up to go to war in 20 years.