The Trump Doctrine Is Here. It Ends Forever Wars.

Critics say President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran is a violation of his promise not to engage in “forever wars.” In fact, the opposite is true. Trump is not starting a forever war in Iran; he’s ending one.

For 47 years, the Iranian regime has been waging war against the United States. That war began in 1979, when Iran seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 50 Americans hostage for 444 days. The war continued as Iran orchestrated the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 258 Americans, followed by the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 Americans. It continued in 1998, when Iran provided “direct assistance” to al-Qaeda for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, training its “operatives about how to blow up buildings,” according to a ruling by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

After the 9/11 attacks, Iran provided sanctuary to senior leaders of al-Qaeda fleeing U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and allowed the group to use Iranian territory as a pipeline to move money, facilitators and operatives from across the Middle East. (It still harbors Saif al-Adel, successor to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri as leader of al-Qaeda, in Tehran). Iran also provided training and bomb-making equipment to insurgents in Iraq, including “explosively formed penetrators” that killed and maimed thousands of American troops.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Iran’s proxy Hamas slaughtered more than 1,200 innocent people – including 46 Americans – and took 12 Americans hostage. The Iranian regime has also attempted terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, including a 2011 plot to set off a bomb in Cafe Milano in Washington to kill the Saudi ambassador, a plot to kill former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and other senior U.S. officials, and a plot to assassinate Trump himself. And the regime that did all this was pursuing nuclear weapons and refused Trump’s repeated demands to peacefully disarm.

Now, Trump is taking decisive action to bring this reign of terror to an end. If he succeeds, the impact will be profound, opening up the possibility of enduring peace in the Middle East and beyond.

The Iranian threat is a primary reason the U.S. has to spend billions on large deployments in the Middle East. If that danger is eliminated, and a new government — one whose mantra no longer is “Death to America” — takes power in Tehran, the United States can finally draw down those forces, execute the long-promised “pivot” to the Indo-Pacific and focus on defending American interests in our own hemisphere.

As important as what Trump is doing is how he’s doing it. With Operation Epic Fury, we are witnessing the birth of a new doctrine to guide U.S. global leadership in the 21st century: the Trump Doctrine.

When Trump came to office, he faced a situation similar to the one Ronald Reagan inherited in 1981. In the wake of the Vietnam War, Americans had no appetite for sending U.S. troops to fight in distant lands. Reagan had to find a new way to lead on the world stage. So, he forged the “Reagan Doctrine,” supporting anti-communist freedom fighters across the globe to roll back the tide of Soviet Communism. That strategy helped win the Cold War.

Today, after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is similarly no popular appetite for U.S. boots in foreign hot spots. So, Trump, too, is pioneering a new way to lead. From Caracas to Tehran, he is using sanctions, tariffs, diplomacy and other tools to impose America’s will on its adversaries. If those adversaries don’t yield, then he is employing military force to decapitate regimes that threaten the American people. And he is controlling events on the ground through his willingness to strike those regimes again and again until leaders emerge who will work with America.

At this moment, the U.S. is striking Iran from the air — eliminating the regime’s leadership, its retaliatory capabilities, its nuclear program and its infrastructure of repression. Expect this campaign to last for weeks, not days. After that, what happens will be up to the Iranian people. As Trump proclaimed on Saturday: “To the great, proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. … When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take.”

In other words, there is no need for a U.S. invasion force. The Iranian people are the boots on the ground, and the fate of the country is in their hands. And if things do not turn out as we hope, and a government emerges that resumes its hostile posture toward America and its pursuit of nuclear weapons, Trump can eliminate it as well.

This much is certain: Donald Trump is making history. There have been just 45 presidents since the founding of our republic. Of those, only a handful truly transformed the world. In the modern era, Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Nazi fascism and Ronald Reagan defeated Soviet communism. If he succeeds in defeating Islamic radicalism in Iran, Trump will take his place alongside them as one the most consequential presidents in U.S. history.