Garnering Insight: Hammer down

Garnering Insight: Hammer down

What is a hammer? First and foremost it is a tool that has been used for ages.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as a hand tool consisting of a solid head set crosswise on a handle and used for pounding.

Throughout recent history, our presidents have unilaterally used the heavy hammer of the U.S. military as a powerful tool against evil throughout the world. To be honest, be it red or blue, I’m pretty consistent to hammer down — political party be damned.

Over the weekend, President Trump wielded Thor’s mighty midnight hammer against nuclear facilities deep underground in Iran. Let’s be real honest, Iran was not enriching uranium to produce new forms of atomic energy, it was strictly to build a nuclear bomb for itself and its fellow current axis of evil powers. These pinpoint strikes by elite U.S. Air Force pilots at bare minimum set back Iran’s nuclear program years and at best annihilated it, and may allow its people to rise up against a true totalitarian regime where women or people in general have no rights.

For everyone who is angry with President Trump over these crippling strikes against the world’s foremost leader of terrorist activities, how many of you were throwing a huge fit when President Obama sent a Seal team to execute Osama bin Laden inside of Pakistan? I was no huge fan of President Obama, but I was sure proud of him for green lighting that successful mission by some of our greatest warriors.

Is the outrage from elected officials and by many on social media about Operation Midnight Hammer because it came from President Trump?

Friends and readers, I really want you to ask yourselves these questions.

Where was the outrage then? I am far from a Trump apologist, and some of the things he has done in personal life don’t exactly jive with my own beliefs. President Clinton’s personal life and the things he did while in the Oval Office were not exactly ethical. I mean President John F. Kennedy was also reportedly not always the best family man. And let’s not even start about the last administration and darn near every other politician’s personal life.

Throughout our nation’s history, our presidents have used the greatest hammer in the world against some pesky, foreign-made nails without congressional approval.

President Biden authorized strikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq as well as drone strikes in Somalia and strikes against Houthis in Yemen, all without congressional approval.

Under President Obama, there was the aforementioned assassination of Osama bin Laden, drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and participation in NATO-led military intervention in Libya in 2011, all without seeking congressional approval.

President George W. Bush militarily intervened in Libya and Syria.

President Clinton authorized strikes against Iraq in 1993 and 1998. Also in 1998, he authorized retaliation against Afghanistan and Sudan following bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In 1999, President Clinton had the military provide the vast majority of air power in Kosovo during NATO-led military intervention. Yes, it had Senate approval, but not from the House.

President George H.W. Bush invaded Panama in 1989 to remove dictator Manuel Noriega from power and brought him to the U.S. to face charges.

The Great Communicator, President Ronald Reagan, invaded Grenada in 1983 and authorized airstrikes in Libya in 1986 against Gadhafi.

President Kennedy sent U.S. troops (sound familiar?) to southern states to enforce racial integration in schools and our nation’s initial participation in the Vietnam War.

So now that I have provided a little historical context, can we please bring the temperature down? This was not the onset of World War III. In fact, we may have just hit the nail on the head. Hammer down!

It seems that many of those who are currently upset about the president attacking nuclear sites and subsequently negotiating a peace, as well as getting NATO members to pay their fair share, suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

There is nothing President Trump has done or will do that will ever be OK with those people. And really that’s OK also, because that’s our right as Americans — we don’t have to agree ; we can peacefully disagree. But it just sometimes seems that those who are in disagreement with our president are in disagreement with everything he does because they’re still angry over the election.

I understand some people may really believe this the start of WWIII. They may want to look back to when Putin invaded Ukraine and Hamas attacked Israel or any other host of military actions as the genesis of a new worldwide war — which, by the way, we are not at.

Ken Garner is the owner and publisher of The Maryville Forum and The Post.