Madden Mischief

They’re far from two guys running street gangs looking to pick a fight or battle over turf. Nor are they a couple of land-grabbing conquerors. Instead, you might say what Trump and Bibi are all about is doing what they believe in their hearts and feel in their guts is the fair and right thing to do to rid a region of bellicose rulers, a bunch of merciless bad guys before they corral, clobber and execute too many good ones.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu are the proverbial good guys leading democracies trying to crush a totalitarian regime before its missiles go haywire, cause nuclear calamity, destruction and death.  And a brave and mighty U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines has Trump’s back now on a mission to restore order, plus justice and peace.

No, I don’t like warfare any more than you do.  Wars are the pits, the worst way to settle disputes.  And today they’re more destructive and deadly than ever, like this one against a radical regime that slaughters its own people for daring to protest while attacking countries nearby with lethal missiles and deadly drones. 

Why are so many worried about a nuclear armed Iran?  There are plenty of reasons.  One is why would you want a bully to be stronger, deadlier?  After showing its penchant for murdering by a mishigas of missiles, and now on the way to developing nuclear warheads, the violence-prone, anti-American Islamic Republic of Iran has emerged as a vicious global threat.

The Iranian regime has invested heavily not only in uranium and missile technology, but many believe also in terror networks spanning continents.  Leading journalists have reported the regime’s fingerprints found on bombings, assassinations, cyberattacks, and propaganda meant to destabilize governments, and threaten human freedom throughout its region and beyond. 

A major German journalist once called Iran “the most aggressive and dangerous totalitarian force of our time.”  But does that mean all Iranians are dangerous?  HELL NO!  Those who waged that revolution were not the Iranian people, but the current crop of Iran’s totalitarian leaders now armed with and developing even deadlier weapons.

But is war the only solution?  How about deeper, more sincere peace talks with Iran?  Unfortunately, peace talks are like tangos. They take two and Iran wasn’t dancing.  America tried its best to not let war become that nightmarish journey to peace for in warfare there are always innocent casualties, inevitable mistakes, such as when an apparently misdirected Tomahawk hit near an Iranian school killing so many children.  How tragic.  How sad!

But what can we do?  Right or wrong, our president felt compelled to take on an evil adversary before this hostile regime attacked us, trying once again to fulfill its death wish for Americans as it has already fulfilled many times before and now was nearing technological capability of producing weapons-grade uranium, making it a more formidable foe about to enter the devasting nuclear threshold state.

Western intelligence agencies estimate that given its stockpile and centrifuge capacity, Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb.  The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency figured it could take Iranian fanatics less than a week to produce sufficient fissile material and perhaps just a few more to assemble a deliverable nuclear device.  So, if it chose to do so, Iran had the technical capability to actively pursue the most lethal weaponization.  Imagine that in the hands of a zealous dictator, albeit one cloaked in religion but out to kill?

How do you think that ominous thought made one of America’s closest friends and staunchest allies feel?  Yes, Israel found itself way too close to a menacing tiger about to sprout nuclear fangs!  Then when negotiators seemed to be stalling and with talks going nowhere, it stirred fears of an impending attack, raising the provocative question: “do we let them strike first?”  

No, our President thought it best for all Americans if we attacked before what he had a sense they were about to do.  So swiftly we acted, annihilating Iran’s hostile leaders and their ability to wage war and now urging Iranians to overthrow the harsh and mercurial theocratic regime governed by the slain supreme leader’s successor son, now apparently himself wounded.   

Now what’s needed is unity among Americans and putting aside politics until this war is briefly over.  So, I would urge that we cease calling for war power resolutions, public hearings and votes to limit or suppress President Trump’s power over Iran.  Could it be that some are fearful to see another Trump success, such as has occurred in Venezuela and probably another upcoming in Cuba perhaps causing GOP victories in the midterm elections? 

Let’s see not only peace but some sense and dignity, maybe even kernels of democracy descend upon Iran, making it once again the great and prosperous country as it was for over two and a half millennia until 1979 when revolutionary forces aligned with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took control, establishing a theocratic political system infatuated with missiles and nuclear bombs.

Let’s all pray for the Iranian people and for peace throughout the oil-rich Middle East.  Amen!

Tom Madden is CEO of a leading PR firm, TransMedia Group, but down deep he’s a journalist at heart.  For that’s how he started as a newspaper reporter for The Press in Atlantic City, then on to The Philadelphia Inquirer where he broke many stories before venturing into public relations at the firm he launched when he left NBC in Manhattan.  Today his daughter Adrienne Mazzone is the PR firm’s enterprising president.