President Donald Trump entered his second term promising to measure America’s success not only by the battles we win but the ones we end. Operation Epic Fury has become the largest test of that vision. Trump’s critics call it a “war of choice.”

They are partly right. Trump has finally decided to end the 47-year war the Islamic Republic of Iran has waged against us, and do so on America’s terms.

When an enemy demands “Death to America,” we should believe them. Since 1979, that aim has been the organizing purpose of the clerical regime in Tehran, repeated at Friday prayers, celebrations, anniversaries and on official airwaves.

More than empty words, the Islamic Republic has continuously made good on this demand.

From Lebanon to the Persian Gulf, the regime has weaponized and exported terror to kill Americans. It plotted assassinations on U.S. soil. In Iraq and Afghanistan, it developed and deployed lethal, armor-piercing explosives that killed and maimed hundreds of soldiers. As its clerics impoverished their people, their ballistic missiles rained down on civilians and bases alike. By their admission to U.S. negotiators, they enriched enough uranium to construct 11 nuclear warheads.

This must never be allowed to happen, for our safety and the peace of the world.

Before pursuing war, Trump repeatedly offered Tehran peace. His offer was unbeatable. If the Islamic Republic forswore nuclear weapons and its ballistic missile program, America would provide guaranteed uranium for peaceful power.

No nation seeking to generate peaceful electricity for its people would reject such a gift. The Islamic Republic did just that. Operation Epic Fury is the just and necessary result.

“Turns out the regime that chanted ‘Death to America’ was gifted death from America,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth noted. It was a pithy phrase that captured a larger fact.

This is not a war of aggression, but one of necessity: to end the clerical regime’s unending war against us.

Importantly, America’s operational goals are clear, achievable, morally grounded, and conducted in coordination with its enduring ally: Israel.

The first goal? Dismantle the missile “sword.” The joint air campaign is systematically neutralizing the Iranian ballistic missile infrastructure that threatens Tel Aviv and, as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned, could soon reach Western Europe and perhaps someday the American homeland.

Second, entomb the larger threat. By targeting Iran’s enriched material and nuclear weapons capabilities, Trump is enforcing his primary “red line”: no nuclear weapons for Tehran.

Third, decapitate the apparatus of terror. By eliminating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the architects of his campaign that killed 30,000 Iranian protesters in January, this operation gives Iranian society the space it needs to seize its own destiny. Khamenei’s demise is the beginning, not the end, of that process.

“This will be, probably, your only chance for generations,” Trump declared to the Iranian people. “Take back your country. America is with you.”

If the United States and Israel succeed, and all indications suggest that they will, then we are witnessing the birth pangs of a more peaceful Middle East. The fact that Saudi Arabia and Gulf capitals are getting off the sidelines to side with the U.S. and Israel against Iranian aggression would have been unthinkable just one year ago.

This “bandwagon effect” is precisely what is needed to expand Trump’s Abraham Accords: a regional peace agreement based on shared interests and mutual security. Until then, let’s pray for our servicemen and women. Their courage and skill may finally secure the peace that “endless diplomacy” never could.

That is how Trump will be remembered as the “peace president.”

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ABOUT THE WRITER

Peter Doran is an adjunct senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

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