Americans have good-faith concerns about the prospects of launching an attack on the Islamist regime in Iran. War should never be taken lightly. Not even if your cause is righteous. But President Donald Trump needs to remind the public that the murderous Islamic cultists in Iran are our enemy — and that matters.

The Islamic Republic's war against the United States famously began with the Islamic coup of 1979, when revolutionaries grabbed 52 hostages from our embassy and held them for 444 days. But it never ended.

From the early 1980s, Iran's proxy army of Hezbollah killed 241 U.S. servicemen in Lebanon. In the early 2000s, the Revolutionary Guard, along with Iraqi proxies, murdered over 600 Americans with IEDs. Iran has been killing Americans.

Not until Trump atomized terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani did the U.S. really do anything about Iranian belligerence, even though any one of the above incidents was casus belli.

The Iranians twice reportedly hatched plots to assassinate Trump in 2020 and 2024. Numerous Iranian operatives have been indicted by the U.S. for meddling in our elections, cyberattacks and for stealing aerospace, tech and satellite data.

Yet, both Republican and Democratic administrations have bent over backward for decades trying to appease these medieval cultists and coax them into signing agreements, sometimes sending pallets of unmarked currency and transferring billions. Each time, the regime has just strung us along, stretching out negotiations while secretly continuing to work on their nuclear ambitions, destabilizing the Middle East and murdering Americans.

But the most important question right now isn't what Iran's done. It's what it would do if it had nukes.

Iran's Islamist regime is uniquely evil. Anyone who believes that the Iranian clerics won't act more aggressively and violently toward the "Great Satan" when they are shielded by nukes is fooling themselves. If it is willing to massacre tens of thousands of its own people and subject its citizens to decades of destitution in a crusade to develop nuclear weapons, how will it function under the shield of a nuclear weapon? What would stop Iran from buying increasingly advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles from geopolitical foes such as China and Russia that, at some point, would be able to hit the U.S.? What would stop the Iranians from disrupting international oil markets and trade? What will we do when its proxies start killing Americans?

Some people point out that international leaders have been warning Iran was on the cusp of developing nuclear weapons for decades, and yet it's never come true. Indeed, Iran can sit perniciously close to weaponizing its uranium for a long time. But the Iranian program has been slowed by the U.S., Israel and probably other nations, through cyber warfare, clandestine operations, assassinations, sabotage and military efforts. Every time we interrupt the clerics, they become more sophisticated and more careful.

Never once will any of Iran's Western propagandists, however, concede that Iran can choose peace whenever it likes. What the U.S. is reportedly asking of the mullahs in Geneva is completely reasonable for a signer of the nonproliferation pact:

First, Iran must completely dismantle its nuclear sites and programs. If the Iranian regime truly has no interest in obtaining nuclear power, as it claims, this should be no problem. We bombed the country once, and we could do it again.

Second, Iran needs to hand over existing stockpiles of enriched uranium to the U.S. The only reason Iran has them is for a nuclear weapons program. If Iran wants a reactor to continue low-level enrichment for medical purposes, it's welcome to it.

Three, unlike the toothless deal agreed to by Barack Obama, a new deal can have no sunset clauses. No enrichment ever. Islamist warmongers shouldn't get their hands on weapons of mass destruction today, or in 10 or 20 years.

Four, no sanctions relief until Iran upholds its end of the agreement. "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has never been voted into any office by the people of Iran, refers to the U.S. as "the most wicked, sinister enemy." Khomeinism is a zero-sum apocalyptic cult. The clerics are not rational actors who can be trusted to sign and abide by international agreements.

Iran is an enemy of the U.S. Of our allies. Of Christians. Of peaceful Muslims. We are not the world's policemen, but we also can't turn inward and ignore reality and long-term threats. One of the slogans of the Islamic Revolution is "America can't do a damn thing against us."

But that isn't the case, is it?

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books — the most recent, "How To Kill a Republic," available now. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post and numerous other publications. Follow him on X @davidharsanyi.

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