The Daily Signal - Obama’s 7‑Month War vs. Trump’s 30 Days: The Left’s Selective Outrage | Victor Davis Hanson

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Starting point is 00:00:26 Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary. Let's start with the current state of affairs in the state of affairs. the bombing campaign against Iran. We could call them Iranian questions. Iranian. How's that? There's been a question, is it legal? And the left has brought that up on repeated occasions that Trump does not have authorization from Congress. But the 1973 War Powers Act says that a president just must notify Congress. Mark Rubio has done that. We notified Congress. I mean, we notified the gang of eight. We notified congressional leadership. It brings up another issue. We've forgotten the 2011 Libyan bombing when there was a civil war.

Starting point is 00:01:03 war, along with some NATO countries, it was the idea of Barack Obama, the constitutional lawyer, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, who demanded that we bomb. What difference at this point does it make? All keen critics of the current war, no one said a word, because the media was left, and they supported whatever Obama did. No one said a word. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. I want to have a couple of videos on the current state of affairs in the bombing campaign against Iran.

Starting point is 00:01:44 Let's start with a lot of issues. We could call them Iranian questions or Iranian-a. How's that? There's been a question, is it legal? And the left has brought that up on repeated occasions that Trump does not have authorization from Congress. But the 1973 War Powers Act says that a president just must notify Congress. of his intention, and Mark Rubio has done that. And then he has 60 to 90 days to act, depending on the particular type of authorization. He has 60, 90 days to conduct a war without

Starting point is 00:02:23 notifying Congress. And we're now in one month, 30 days. So he's not even halfway there. It brings up another issue. Barack Obama, the constitutional lawyer, has been very critical of it. But remember, we've forgotten the 2011 Libyan bombing. Remember that the Qaddafi regime had given up all of its nuclear proliferation sites. We had Americans on the ground, stealthily so, that were dismantling them. I was there in Libya in 2007, and I saw the country, and it was under massive transformation as Libyans were starting to be accrued to the idea that the children, the next generation of dictators, were going to liberalize the country. And Libya was terrified of the United States after its threats to denuclearize countries

Starting point is 00:03:23 that had started bomb programs, so it had given up its elements of it. But the point I'm making is Obama then went in in 2000. 11, when there was a civil war, along with some NATO countries, it was the idea of Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Hillary Clinton, all keen critics of the current war who demanded that we bomb, and we bombed not for 30 days, not for 60 days, not for 90 days, we don't for seven months. And we didn't have 10,000 sortersies. We had 26,000 sorties.

Starting point is 00:03:57 And no one said a word. No one said a word. Because the media was left, and they saw them. supported whatever Obama did. Same thing with the most disastrous misadventure we've had in recent military history in Afghanistan. When we left, skedaddled out of Afghanistan, we left contractors, loyal Afghans behind. We took unaudited Afghans with us with a bustle, completely unaudited, and many of them have turned up to be criminals or dependent on welfare. And then in addition, we lost 13 Marines.

Starting point is 00:04:33 We've lost that many in 30 days of war. But Joe Biden lost that in one day. And then we left, I don't know how many, the records estimates, statistics say, $30 to $50 billion of military architecture and weapons, a billion dollar embassy, $300 million refitted airfare space at Bagram. No one said a word. There was hardly any criticism. So take that with a grain of salt.

Starting point is 00:05:02 The war is legal and the hysteria about it as media-driven as a part of the left's ability to weaken the presidency. The aims of the war, this is very important. Donald Trump listed four or five aims. He did on March 1st. He did on March 20th. We know what they were. We wanted to end their nuclear program. We're almost there.

Starting point is 00:05:24 Stop their ability to make a bomb. Number two, we wanted to end their missile program. ballistic missiles, and we're making progress, and we wanted to stop the ability of them to recreate them, their industry. Israel's going after that, and we can't really stop the resupply if the Russians are sending new missiles across the Caspian Sea, as some reports suggest, but we're trying to do our best. So the war is not lost at all, and the aims have been systematically achieved. The third, remember, was stop. the money going to Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas. And they are all desperate. That was very

Starting point is 00:06:04 unpopular with the Iranian people to give precious billions of dollars why they were near starvation and armed Arab terrorists. They were not in favor of that. A fourth was to stop the killing of Americans over the last 47 years. No terrorist entity or cadre has killed more Americans in barracks, embassies. During the Iraq and Afghan war with shaped charges, then Iran has. It tried to kill Donald Trump. It tried to kill John Bolton. It tried to kill Mike Pompeo. Try to kill Brian Hook. Try to kill the Saudi ambassador. So we're going to try to stop that. And then, of course, we don't want it to be the regional disruptor that perennially threatens the Gulf states. They're attacking Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia,

Starting point is 00:06:55 all of these countries that are the main exporters of oil and the competitors of Iran. And remember, they've intimidated them for years. And maybe now we can stop that. That was another aim. And finally, regime change was not explicitly listed. That would be the optimum result. You want the regime out because whatever damage you do, and it will be considerable in three or four or five, ten years, it will be resupplied.

Starting point is 00:07:25 by the Chinese and the Russians. But that was not an explicit agenda item. Donald Trump said, help is on the way. He mused about getting rid of these theocrats. We've decimated their military and theocratic chain of command, but we never explicitly said, we're going to Iran to get rid of the government. The Israelis might want to do that. They're more proximate and more vulnerable, and that's up to them if they want to continue after we do it. That can be a, a dividend of our aims, but it was not an exclusive, stated, explicit aim that we went in there to get rid of that regime. And the reason why is that usually requires ground troops.

Starting point is 00:08:07 We may have some ground troops. Who knows? But we had these, I can use that term again, misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, and both were aimed at regime changes. They did not work, at least not work the way they were planned. Finally, and we're going to get to this in another video, a lot of people are saying the war is lost. Lost, lost, lost. Hysterical.

Starting point is 00:08:29 It went south. Who's to blame? All we can do is compare history. And as I said earlier, if you look at the first Gulf War, 42 days of bombing, and four days of ground troop, and as far as the airpower, we lost 63 aircraft. 63. We haven't, we've only lost one major plane. We lost 63 helicopters and aircraft and 20 airmen dead. And in the Serbian campaign, it went on for 72 days.

Starting point is 00:08:58 We had all our NATO allies behind us. In Serbia, it was a paper tiger compared to Iran. So in comparison to these types of operations, it's been very successful. What I want to get to later on is that all war, as Klauswitz said, is an extension of politics by other means. or I think the German might suggest a continuation of politics by other means. It's true, it is. So there is a political and a military side, and we can't mix the two. Militarily, this is a clear victory, and it will have political dividends or ill effects

Starting point is 00:09:36 depending on a cost-to-benefit analysis what the American people adjudicate. In other words, when they look at this war and they say it was not an existential war, immediately, but it was necessary to stop this Iranian threat of 47 years. Was it conducted in a way that the pluses outweighed the minuses? And then they will make a political calculation. If the war is still going on and they feel that it wasn't, then they will pressure Donald Trump through their representatives and the media to stop it, even though militarily is successful. Military, successful operations are not always politically successful. We've learned that. that in Vietnam where we didn't lose a single conventional battle. We didn't lose a single

Starting point is 00:10:22 conventional battle in Iraq or Afghanistan and we lost the war. Politically, politically. We won amazing victories in 1952 and 3 in Korea, and politically it was a stalemate. So let's not confuse the two. You can have a militarily brilliant campaign as we're having and you can lose this war politically. We haven't yet, but something to watch for. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Obama’s 7‑Month War vs. Trump’s 30 Days: The Left’s Selective Outrage | Victor Davis Hanson

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