Every servicemember lost in combat is a tragedy. Their sacrifice deserves our gratitude, our respect and our remembrance.
But to act as if something extraordinary has gone wrong each time a service member is killed in combat is to misunderstand the nature of war, and it’s the kind of reflexive response America’s adversaries have come to count on.
Our enemies learned long ago that to triumph over the United States, they need not defeat us militarily. They just need to wait us out, which is why Iran never negotiates in good faith but habitually drags out negotiations as long as it can.
Iran does not seek solutions. It buys time. Every diplomatic effort becomes an opportunity for Iran to delay, regroup and advance their strategic objective, while America questions its resolve.
Americans want quick victories with minimal cost. Unfortunately, war does not always conform to those expectations. We do not live in a world where our adversaries are as shortsighted as we have become.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Russian military deaths in Ukraine are now somewhere between 400,000 and 450,000.
Total Russian military casualties (killed, wounded and missing) are approaching 1.5 million.
These figures demonstrate just how differently authoritarian regimes calculate the cost of conflict.
Their capacity to endure pain and suffering may offer our adversaries an advantage when it comes to their staying power, but it is not an attribute the United States should seek to emulate. The value America places on every human life is one of its greatest strengths.
But that strength creates strategic challenges for the United States when confronting adversaries who place far less value on the lives of their own soldiers — and even their own civilians.
We are fighting a regime that just months ago was willing to kill tens of thousands of its own people because it saw them as a threat to their stranglehold on power.
Those challenges are exacerbated when elected officials here at home — indeed, an entire political party — view every casualty as an opportunity they can exploit for political advantage.
It would be overstating things to say Democrats are actively rooting for Iran to defeat the United States, but they would be just fine if the outcome of the conflict is less than optimal for the United States.
It’s bad enough when a U.S. servicemember loses his or her life in the line of duty. To have that death then be exploited for partisan advantage is a tragedy on top of a tragedy.
Iran has killed thousands of Americans over the past 47 years, was on the verge of developing a nuclear weapon and already has the ballistic missiles necessary to deliver those weapons 2,000 miles in every direction.
Iran has also worked for decades to obliterate Israel and exterminate the Jewish people, but that’s of little consequence to a political party that has a growing number of members who don’t like Jews anyway.
And because antisemites have become an important voting bloc for the left, Democrats are far more likely to characterize U.S. and Israeli action in the Middle East as “genocidal” than to use that term in relation to the Iranian regime.
President Donald Trump, like presidents before him, miscalculated, assuming Iran’s leadership viewed negotiations as a path toward genuine compromise rather than just another opportunity to stall and delay.
Trump held out an olive branch, offering the Iranian regime the opportunity to coexist with its neighbors, to join the community of nations and create a brighter future for its people. But Iran rejected his offer, proving once again its leaders are irredeemable, hate-filled fanatics who slaughter people, including their own, in the name of God.
Iran has made its choice, and Trump is now left with two alternatives: capitulate, which is the course of action demanded by Democrats, or finish what he started despite the inevitable military and political costs.
To cut and run may serve the political needs of Democratic politicians, but it would reward Iran’s malignant behavior, allow Iran to remain in a position to blackmail the world whenever it wishes, cause America’s allies to question its value as a reliable partner and generally make the world a much more dangerous place to live.
It will also make meaningless the deaths of the American servicemembers who gave their lives in service of the country they loved.
Is that really a price Democrats are willing to pay to improve their chances in the midterm elections?
Almost certainly.
We’ll learn soon enough if it is a price the American people are willing to pay to avoid rising gas prices.
But as they make that decision, Americans need to remember that voting to give Democrats the House and/or Senate will bring the socialists and communists who call the Democratic Party home one step closer to the power they seek.
Chris Roemer resides in Finksburg. He can be contacted at chrisroemer1960@gmail.com.