I won’t play Iran expert here. I grew up in Dubai in the 1980s. I remember once my school had to be evacuated for days on the threat of a bomb. I remember for a long time having to go through police checkpoints to get into school. Our lunch boxes would be open and book bags searched for bombs. It was all thanks to the Iranians.

At the height of the Gulf War, my father on an oil platform had to be evacuated as the Iranians decided to blow it up. Thankfully, they didn’t hit his, but others. One day, from school a few blocks from the Persian Gulf, we could see smoke on the horizon as platforms burned. We could hear the explosions.

Iran has been messing with us for a long time and we have treated them like gnats to be swatted. But eventually, a gnat might bite. It can become more than a nuisance.

Over the past few years, the Iranians have become more aggressive. The Obama Administration’s Iran Deal did not stop Iranians from exercising terroristic intent across the Middle East. But it did give them money to pay for their attacks.

Since 1998, Qassem Suleimani has been Iran’s puppet master, orchestrating terrorist brigades around the world.

He is now dead thanks to American resolve. If you want a sense of the man, read this by Gen. Stanley McChrystal. If you want a sense of the damage inflicted, survey the headlines of drone attacks, terrorist attacks, bombings, and more destruction across the Middle East for the past twenty years.

Suleimani and Iran have been fighting us and our allies and we have restrained ourselves. Suleimani and Iran could be emboldened knowing we would never strike at them directly.

Now we have and he is dead and Iran will retaliate.

There are lots of partisans who hate President Trump who are even now declaring themselves experts on the Middle East. But they aren’t. They all take the same position — Iran will respond and escalate. This is destabilizing. This could be a regional war or worse.

Yes, but that ignores that Iran has been targeting Americans and American allies for some time. Just last week, an American lost his life during an Iranian backed attack. Hundreds of other Americans have died on Suleimani’s orders. President Trump finally acted decisively against a butcher of Americans.

All these people keep wanting the United States to take the punches without punching back. These Democrats and partisans are like the school that punishes the kid who finally decked the bully. They hide behind the myth that Obama solved the situation and turn a blind eye to the reality that he just fed the Iranian war machine.

President Trump must prepare for an Iranian response. It will come. It will be violent. It will be deadly. It will come. And we should hit back even harder. It is time to stop coddling the Iranian regime.