Today is not a good day to be a Democrat.Whatever may follow the apparently successful US strike on Iran's nuclear production facilities is naturally a matter of huge speculation. One thing is clear however; whether you like the man or not, what US President Trump says about anything will be definitive for the duration of his term. His credibility abroad is now total. And to the chagrin of his domestic enemies, his decisive action today will in America earn the grudging respect even of people who didn't vote for him. Why? In the words of the great Islamo-fascist himself, Osama bin Laden, "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.".Still, some fear that Iran, even though its military command structure and offensive weapons are much depleted after eight days of missile bombardment from Israel, may still lash out via its regional proxies. They may be right. Iran may still — briefly — be able to block the Straits of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world's oil flows.Certainly, there is nothing in theory to even stop sleeper cells causing mayhem in the US. Iran is led after all, by religious fanatics inspired by an apocalyptic vision of the end of history.However whatever the Iranians do, they will not do with nuclear weapons. That was always the great fear as Iranian mullahs called out 'Death to America,' even as they called out 'Death to Israel.'.The more attractive scenario is that in the face of clear military defeat, a much diminished physical capacity to continue the war and the deaths of many of the key decision makers, the regime that has held a mostly resentful Iranian population in thrall for nearly 50 years, simply crumbles. Sensible people take over. A deal is done with a not un-generous US and a mightily relieved Israel. There is peace, at last.This is not to suggest that along with that peace, will come goodwill. Even a people that hates its leaders, as many Iranians are said to do, still struggles to accept a humiliating defeat. But significantly, Iran has no allies in the region (or anywhere else) except its client groups Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen. For the mullahs in Tehran, they're broken reeds upon which to lean. They have few options..For, what is not a matter of doubt today is that Iran is the single country in the world that has boasted that it wants nuclear weapons not to deter unruly neighbours, but simply to destroy another nation whose religion it hates.Now, they will not have those weapons. That hateful dream is over. That means the world really is now a safer place. But not only because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon in our lifetime. It is because none of this day's work will go unnoticed in Moscow, or in Beijing. Trump has credibility. With their 'red lines' that were no lines, his Democrat predecessors never did.The Democrats will hate this. But everybody now knows Trump is now the strong horse.
