EDITORIAL: US strikes a decisive blow against Iranian regime

When Israel unleashed its initial wave of missile strikes against Iranian military and nuclear strikes on June 13, there was palpable anxiety that this would be the beginning of a long, drawn-out and incredibly damaging war.

Even more pessimistic were the predictions if the United States decided to entire the fray. In that case, prepare for WWIII, warned the catastrophisers.

Instead, based on the information we have now it appears the move by the US to send its B-2 stealth bombers loaded with GBU-57 “bunker-busters” to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities has brought this chapter of Middle East hostilities to a close, 12 days after it began.

Iran’s response — an assault on American troops stationed at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar which resulted in no casualties — was a face-saving exercise, despite the regime’s characteristically hyperbolic claims it had been a “powerful and devastating missile attack”.

That this feeble PR exercise was the most Iran could muster in answer to the American action is testament to the mission’s effectiveness, and the effectiveness of the Israeli campaign to take out military targets which preceded it.

Acts of war are not to be entered into breezily. But the result — a largely incapacitated Iran — would never have been reached had President Donald Trump and others listened to sermons from Australia about the need for “dialogue, diplomacy and de-escalation”.

Iran’s maniacal regime is focused on another D — destruction.

Destruction of Israel, and the West.

It has no intention of engaging in dialogue, diplomacy or de-escalation. Unless it has no other choice.

For now there is relative peace in the Middle East, with Israel agreeing to President Trump’s mutual ceasefire proposal, having achieved the goal of “removing (the) Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile threat”.

The actions by the US and Israel in working in concert to neutralise the immediate Iranian threat has had a secondary outcome.

As well as making the world safer, it has shamed the rest of the West by reminding us what it is Israel is up against.

A neighbour bent on its annihilation.

A regime which is the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, funding Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthis in Yemen.

A sworn enemy to the West, the established world order and the principles of liberal democracy.

That the leaders of many nations, including our own, have lost the ability to differentiate between the actions of our ally Israel in defending itself and the actions of a despotic rogue state in Iran seeking to acquire nuclear weapons is a strange and perplexing state of affairs.

How long this ceasefire will last is uncertain. Iran has been severely weakened, but the fanatical fervour of its leaders is unlikely to have dimmed.

The past 12 days are proof that peace is a fragile commodity, and one which sometimes must be fought for.