The recent Israel-Iran conflagration is not a distant headline — it is the consequence of a brutal, existential calculus by a regime that openly vows Israel’s destruction. In June, Israel launched sweeping strikes deep inside Iran, targeting what it called nuclear and military infrastructure in a preemptive campaign meant to neutralize an advancing threat to the Jewish state. Those strikes were decisive and deliberate, and they forced the world to confront that containment and diplomacy have failed with a regime that cheats, threatens, and hides behind proxies.
Iran answered with waves of drones and missiles aimed at Israeli cities and infrastructure, inflicting casualties and spreading terror among ordinary Israelis. What followed was not mere tit-for-tat — it was a demonstration that Tehran will use ballistic missiles, UAVs, and proxy forces to project chaos beyond its borders, risking a wider regional war that could draw in the United States and our partners. This conflict has already cost hundreds of lives and shown how quickly a localized strike can metastasize into a multi-front showdown.
American interest and regional stability are directly on the line, because Iran has explicitly threatened U.S. bases and even floated the prospect of closing the crucial Strait of Hormuz — a move that would spike energy prices and punish innocent Americans. Iran’s rhetoric and its demonstrated willingness to strike beyond its borders make clear that this is not a contained proxy fight but a confrontation with a strategic adversary that seeks to bend the world to its will. Our national security establishment must treat Tehran as the direct threat it is, not as a negotiating partner to be indulged.
Worse still, the human cost has included attacks on medical facilities, with hospitals damaged and civilian lives imperiled amid missile barrages — a grim reminder that Iran and its proxies do not spare the innocent. Strikes that hit hospitals and other civilian infrastructure cross moral and legal lines and underscore why Israel acted when it did; a nation cannot wait to be erased while international institutions wring their hands. The pictures and accounts of shattered hospitals should harden American resolve to stand against a regime that operates without honor.
Conservatives should be unashamed in demanding that Washington back its allies with strength, not apologias. Weakness only invites more aggression, and the predictable chorus of condemnations of Israel from the global elite rings hollow when it ignores Iran’s genocidal rhetoric and the decades of subversion it has funded across the region. If American leadership means anything, it means standing squarely with democracies and the innocent — and reminding adversaries that there is a cost to unprovoked aggression.
This moment calls for clarity: support Israel’s right to defend itself, reinforce our military posture in the Middle East, and hold adversaries accountable through sanctions, strikes on legitimate military targets, and cutting off the channels that supply the regime’s war machine. Our veterans and servicemen deserve the tools to deter and, when necessary, defeat tyranny; our lawmakers must fund and authorize what’s necessary to protect American lives and interests.
To my fellow Americans of faith and conviction, pray for the innocents caught in this conflict and for the leaders who must make terrible choices. Stand with the people who share our values of freedom and the rule of law, and demand a foreign policy that prizes strength over spectacle, clarity over equivocation, and courage over cowardice. America’s role as a guarantor of liberty in a dangerous world depends on it.
