If you aren’t dead and you live somewhere in this world, you probably know that President Trump ordered a drone attack that killed Soleimani, Iran’s top general of the Quds. If you followed world news at all, you had to know that this has been escalating for a while. The attack on the US embassy in Bagdad was never going to go unanswered by Trump. Did he do the right or wrong thing? I don’t know. I do know that the world has one less truly evil man walking around today. I do know that I am thankful we do not have Hillary Clinton as our president right now as she allowed the slaughter at our embassy in Benghazi during the Obama administration, as did Obama himself. She ignored repeated requests for assistance and then stated “What difference does it make?” I do know that Trump as the Commander in Chief had and has the military capability to have done much worse. He chose to go after one leader. Yes, he also got the men in his immediate vicinity, but the loss of life was minimal in comparison to other choices that could have been made. The statement of taking out a leader was enormous. He could have chosen a smaller statement, but that is not in his character. Trump just drew his red line in the sand. Obama used drones to eliminate the perceived enemy on more than one occasion. Unlike Obama, Trump probably will not backdown from the line he just drew. Iran has no choice but to show some type of retaliation in order to save face and maintain a façade of strength. Ultimately, Iran does not have the capability to win a war with the US one on one. They can inflict some damage on both our allies and on us. The US can blow up the entire planet several times over all by itself.
The conflict in the middle east is one of religion. In modern times, oil has been introduced into the equation, but this began long before we even knew what oil was. It won’t end until the end times. If you have no faith, then you may have a hard time understanding the Middle East. People of varying faiths are fighting for their souls and eternity. They are fighting over land they believe is rightfully theirs. They aren’t necessarily fighting for today or even their life here on earth. You cannot negotiate, apologize or reason someone out of their faith. Faith simply does not work in that manner. All we can do is minimize acts of terror and human atrocities. The sanctions should never have been lifted on Iran during the Obama years. Obama should not have delivered a pallet of unmarked bills to Iran in the middle of the night. It takes funding to operate military and terrorist organizations. We allowed funding. Oil provides funding which is why it is so important to the equation.
Where does the choose to be happy instead of fearful come into this? Conflict in the Middle East will continue until the end of this earth. Conflict in the world in general will continue until the end of this earth. Humans create conflict. It’s what we do. It is constant. There is no point in living your day to day life in constant fear in the US. We are blessed to live here where we can voice our opinions, vote for what we want, make our own choices as to where to live and what career path to follow. We can choose which religion to follow or to follow none. That is not the case in many areas of the world. As Americans, we really don’t have much to fear. We have control over our own lives and choices if we step up and take it. We can choose to be a victim our entire lives, live in fear, ask for special treatment, and remain unhappy and fearful, or we can decide to enjoy our life, be happy, and be thankful for the freedoms we have just because we live in the US. Most of us in the US can choose happiness over fear in our day to day lives. We are truly blessed. We should be grateful and thankful instead of full of fear.
Middle of the Muddy Road 