Author : Stan Norwalk
My long time friend Dr. Steve we will call him. A doctor, Jewish mind you who is very educated, very smart, great family guy, great patriot but to be nice a Trump hater bar none. I say Jewish because it appears below in his comments that he does not support Israel which is strange since he is Jewish.
I wonder if Dr. Steve realizes that Israel the only Jewish state in the world surrounded by hostile actors is in great danger of elimination especially by Iran. Dr Steve either doesn’t care or doesn’t understand the seriousness of the potential loss of his tribe which indirectly puts him and his family in danger.
Here below is Dr Steve’s response to my defense of Trumps war with Iran.
“Stan, You can’t help but try to equivocate. This whole mess was ill-considered, ill-conceived, unnecessary, uncalled for, unwarranted (as there was NO IMMINENT THREAT!) and unwanted by the American People! And now… we’re in and we’re stuck and Trump and all his moronic sidekicks are in a panic! What a FREAKIN’ MESS. Netanyahu has been trying to get the US to attack Iran for the last 40 years and 4 presidencies and only Trump was stupid enough to do it! It was well-known from the start that Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz and GUESS WHAT????
And now we’re being represented by 2 Real Estate Developers and VP with Zero experience in Diplomacy. What a PATHETIC BUNCH OF CLOWNS!! And here we are Stan, stuck in a boondoggle, spending Billions a day, sacrificing American Lives on A War That NEVER Should have started! And now…Holy Sh*t! Wake up Stan!”
Here is my reply:
Steve we didn’t start the war as you stated. It was started in 1979 when the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei took power in Iran as their theologian supreme leader and continued for the next 47 years first by taking American hostages and then decades of killing us and suppressing the basic freedoms of the Iranian people until President Trump unlike his cowardly predecessors put an end to it. Our past presidents caused the deaths of over a thousand American lives because of their inaction’s, lack of leadership, weak foreign policies of appeasement, their lack of guts and experience.
And to suggest that the American people do not support the war is not true as the polling shows more than 75 % of Americans do support the war.
President Trump took his decades of successful business experience along with the leveraging of the mightiest military power in the world, the greatest capitalist economy in the world, his knowledge of banking, economics, and politics and used the “Art of the Deal” to overpower Iran in a matter of months. And so far he is winning. This could be one of the shortest wars in history but let’s see what happens and how it plays out.
It’s true that JD Vance, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have little or no experience in diplomacy but that is not uncommon when it comes to politics. Thousands of people in politics over the decades have started at the bottom and some did better than others .
Hillary Clinton was never a good Secretary of State or Senator but had lots of experience as the first lady for her husband as Governor in Arkansas, later as Presdent for two terms, and as a two term Senator in New York, but she was a disaster as Secretary of State. Her experience was beyond JD Vance, Jared Kushner’s and Steve Witkoff but experience does not guarantee success as she exemplifies.
Kamala Harris never was a good Vice President and was on her way to be President which she had no experience at. She was a failure as Border Czar and was inefficient at public speaking using word salads to get by when she was confused and ill prepared. Her presidential platform was basically to continue the failed policy’s of President Biden.
President Biden was in Congress for decades and was always on the wrong side of history; His Congressional career was a disaster as well as his Presidency.
President Obama was a community activist and had a short stay as Senator. His Presidency proved to be a failure when it came to uniting Americans, foreign policy, race relations and health care. His foreign policy allowed Iran to have a pathway to a nuclear bomb. Not an ounce of intellect or common sense regarding his Iranian policy of appeasement that led to thousands more to die.
President Obama’s flawed Iranian policy of appeasement failed as he sent 1.7 billion dollars secretly overnight in an unmarked plane in cash on pallets. This money helped finance terrorism in the Middle East and President Biden made it even worse when he removed Trumps sanctions on Iran prohibiting them from selling oil and doing banking. This enabled massive flows of oil money into Iran once again that was always used for terrorism , thus the loss of more lives thanks to the weak foreign policys of President Obama , President Biden and would have continued under a President Kamala Harris had she been elected.
Lets not forget President Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan where he left behind Bagram air base, 87 billion dollars of our military equipment, 13 dead American soldiers , our Afghan friends who helped us for 20 years left behind to be butchered and murdered when we promised them when we left they would come to the United States. Both Presidents failed at foreign policy and diplomacy.
In the meantime Iran is on its knees with no military other than some speed boats and a few drones and missiles left. The Trump teams efforts between its successful military and economic attacks on Iran along with its diplomacy although moving along slowly will prove to be a winner and the fastest war in history will be over in months and not decades.
Jared Kushner from the outset of the presidential campaign of his father-in-law Donald Trump was the architect of Trump’s successful digital, online, and social media campaigns, enlisting talent from Silicon Valley to run a 100-person social-media team dubbed “Project Alamo.” He was a major factor in his father-in-laws victory. And let us not forget he was the senior advisor to President Trump and led the negotiations for the Abraham Accords fostering direct ties between Israel and Arab states UAE, Bahrain and Morocco taking another step forward for peace in the Middle East. Jared is now a billionaire and that shows his proficiency in business and politics even though he started with his father’s money just like President Trump did. Steve Witkoff is also a successful businessman and negotiated successfully as a businessman which is precisely the reason President Trump picked him.
JD Vance came from extreme poverty in Appalachia, went to Yale law school, served his country in the Marines, served as United States Senator, and is a successful author.
Dr Steve you said there was no imminent threat for this war on Iran. You are right but there was never any imminent threat when Iran struck and killed our people in the past. Here is a list of deadly attacks on the United States of America and there was never an imminent threat.
Dr Steve here is a little history why Iran is the number one terrorist country in the world.
- 1979–1981 Tehran Hostage Crises:Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
- 1983 Beirut Barracks Bombing:Hezbollah, with Iranian support, bombed the U.S. Marine compound in Beirut, killing 220 Marines and 21 other personnel.
- 1983/1984 Beirut Embassy Bombings:Suicide attacks targeted the U.S. embassy in Beirut, resulting in dozens of deaths.
- 1996 Khobar Towers Bombing:Iran-backed Hezbollah al-Hejaz detonated a truck bomb at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 American
- Iraq Insurgency (2003–2011):The U.S. Department of Defense estimated that Iran was responsible for at least 608 American troop deaths in Iraq through the training and equipping of Shia militias with advanced roadside bombs (EFPs).
- Afghanistan Influence:Iran provided weapons and funding to select Taliban factions to undermine U.S. and NATO forces.
- 2020 launched missiles at Ain al-Asad Air Base, causing brain injuries to over 100 U.S. troops.
Recent Attacks and Plots (2021–2026)
- Middle East Proxy Attacks (2023–2024):Iran-backed militias conducted over 180 attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, wounding over 180 service members.
- Tower 22 Attack (January 2024):A drone launched by Kataib Hezbollah killed three U.S. service members and wounded over 40 at a base in Jordan.
- Assassination Plots on U.S. Soil:The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Iranian nationals for plotting to assassinate former U.S. officials and critics, including a 2024 charge regarding a plan to kill President Donald Trump.
- October 7 Connection:Iran-backed Hamas killed 46 Americans in the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Methods of Operations
- Proxy Networks:Iran utilizes groups such as Hezbollah (Lebanon), Kataib Hezbollah (Iraq), and the Houthis (Yemen) to maintain plausible deniability while targeting U.S. interests.
- Maritime Security Threats:Iranian forces and allies have targeted commercial vessels and U.S. naval ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Oman.
- Cyber Warfare:Iran has targeted U.S. critical infrastructure, government networks, and businesses with ransom ware and disruptive cyber operations.
- Direct Military Action:Iran has increasingly engaged in direct strikes, such as using drones and missiles to attack U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq directly.
If we don’t learn from the past we will repeat our mistakes so let’s end terrorism by the number one terrorist country in the world bar none by finishing this war against Iran, giving long lasting peace a chance in the Middle East, stop the murdering of Jews in Israel and return the government of Iran to its good people who want to be free and have a democratic government.
My final word to my friend Dr Steve is whatever I wrote here will not make a dent in changing his mind, his hatred and disdain for President Trump and his policies nor will it convince him that the world will be a better place when Iran is given back to its people .
Sources of Information was Wikipedia and AI
Counter-argument (Dr. Steve’s position, strengthened)
Stan,
I think the core issue isn’t whether Iran has ever acted against U.S. interests, we both know it has. The real question is whether this war was necessary, justified, and wise right now. And that’s where your argument falls apart.
1. No clear, imminent threat = no justification for war
Even U.S. intelligence assessments over the years have been inconclusive or cautious about Iran actively building a nuclear weapon. There’s a difference between capability and intent. We’ve seen this movie before with Iraq and so-called “Weapons of Mass Destruction” — a war justified on intelligence that turned out to be wrong. That mistake cost hundreds of thousands of lives and trillions of dollars.
Starting another war without a clearly defined, imminent threat risks repeating that exact failure.
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2. The nuclear issue is more complex than “they’re building a bomb”
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for civilian energy, and while many countries (including Israel and the U.S.) distrust that claim, the reality is:
* Iran was under strict international inspections during agreements like the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal)
* When those agreements were in place, enrichment levels and capabilities were significantly limited
If the goal is to prevent a nuclear weapon, diplomacy and inspections have historically been more effective than war.
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3. Cause and effect matters — history didn’t start in 1979
You frame Iran as the aggressor starting with the hostage crisis. But that ignores key context:
* In 1953, the U.S. and UK backed a coup overthrowing Iran’s democratically elected government (1953 Iranian coup d’état)
* The U.S. then supported the Shah, whose regime was widely seen as authoritarian and repressive
* Many Iranians viewed the U.S. as controlling their country and exploiting its resources
None of that justifies hostage-taking or violence, but it explains why hostility developed. If you ignore cause and effect, you end up misdiagnosing the problem and prescribing the wrong solution — again.
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4. War strengthens hardliners, not the Iranian people
You say this war will “give Iran back to its people.” Historically, the opposite happens:
* External attacks tend to unify populations behind their government, even unpopular ones
* Reform movements inside Iran get weakened, not strengthened
* Hardliners gain power by pointing to foreign aggression as justification
If the goal is a freer Iran, war is one of the least effective tools.
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5. “Quick war” assumptions are dangerous
Every modern U.S. conflict was expected to be short:
* Afghanistan
* Iraq
Both turned into long, costly engagements. Iran is larger, more complex, and has extensive regional networks. Escalation (especially in places like the Strait of Hormuz) could impact global oil supply and drag the U.S. into a broader conflict.
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6. Experience in diplomacy actually matters
Running a business and running geopolitics are not the same thing. Diplomacy involves:
* Coalition building
* Cultural understanding
* Long-term strategic restraint
Dismissing that gap is risky. Foreign policy mistakes don’t just cost money, they cost lives and can destabilize entire regions.
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7. Public support is not as clear as claimed
War support tends to be fragile and reactive, especially early on. It often shifts quickly as:
* Casualties rise
* Costs become clear
* Objectives remain undefined
We’ve seen that pattern repeatedly in U.S. history.
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Bottom line
This isn’t about defending Iran. It’s about avoiding another preventable war based on incomplete intelligence, ignoring historical context, and overestimating our ability to control the outcome.
If the objective is security, stability, and preventing nuclear escalation, then diplomacy, containment, and international pressure have a far better track record than rushing into war.