Trump Responds Bigly to Iranian Aggression [OPINION]

Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei warned President Trump in a cold, short quote, following the Irani-backed attack on the U.S. Embassy in Iraq: "You can't do a damn thing."

Evidently, the president disagreed.

While Iran's political presence in Iraq has grown to dangerous levels for American personnel and Iraqi Sunnis alike, little has been done to counter this. This may have changed on a dime after yesterday's U.S. airstrike in Iraq which killed Iran's heavy-handed General Qassem Soleimani.

Soleimani was the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and their clandestine "unconventional" (read: terrorist corps) called the Quds Force. He is believed to be behind the slaughter of thousands of protesters in Iran, Iraq, and Syria and to have orchestrated guerilla tactics such as the placement of thousands of IEDs, many of which killed American military personnel.

Kata'ib Hezbollah is an Iraqi paramilitary group supported by Iran. They organized the New Year's Eve storming of the U.S. Embassy and the siege of it last week. Only after the Pentagon sent support forces did they retreat from the immediate area and disperse. There have been no reports of casualties due to that.

The Democratic presidential candidates are responding with measured condemnation of the U.S. airstrike. Yesterday, former VP Joe Biden acknowledged Soleimani's murderous past but called his death at the hands of the Pentagon (via Trump) escalatory. "He's tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox," Biden said.

Senator Elizabeth Warren called Soleimani a murderer, "responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans." That didn't prevent her from concluding with a shocking statement that, "Trump’s reckless move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict”.

Remember when President Obama helped Libyan revolutionaries kill Qadaffi, or when he ordered the assassination of American citizen al Awlaki, or even the bin Laden airstrike? Were any of these characterized as lawless aggression, "escalatory" or reckless?

As I predicted, as long as it condemns the president, the Democrats – and our biggest media outlets who side with them – will slide away from Trump and ally with just about anyone else, enemies of America or not. This incident is pretty good evidence.

Ironically, whatever retaliations that may be heading our way will be likely to have been funded by the $100 billion the Iranians received for their "good behavior" during the Obama Administration.

Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@townsquaremedia.com. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.