Americans debate whether this war was worth it. Thirteen soldiers came home in boxes. Hundreds of others carry wounds. Nobody takes that lightly. And certainly not someone like me – who chose this country and carries its flag by choice, and not by birth.
I was born on the Iranian border and grew up in the shadow of the wars. I have seen firsthand what these policies do to the people of this region. I’m still traveling around the Middle East – I was recently in Erbil, Riyadh and Dubai. I know what people say when the cameras are off. It’s not anger at America. It’s relief.
But this is what the critics are missing. For millions of people in the Middle East, this war did not start on February 28. He started decades ago. What changed is that a president decided to stop controlling the problem and face it head on. The people of the region noticed it. I promise you, they noticed.
What most Americans never hear is what those people actually want. No war. No jihad. No martyrdom. Across the Gulf, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, 140 million people are under the age of thirty. They want what every young American wants: a job, a stable country, and a future that isn’t hostage to someone else’s ideology. New leaders in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kurdistan and Syria are building toward exactly that goal. When I sit with young professionals in Erbil, Riyadh or Dubai, they talk about startups. They talk about AI. They talk about opportunities.
MIKE PENCE: TRUMP AND OUR INCREDIBLE ARMY END 47 YEARS OF IRANIAN TERROR
And this is not a theory. Look what happens when stability takes root. The UAE was an empty desert fifty years ago. Today it is a global trade center where millions of people – including Americans – live, invest and build. Surrounded by hostile forces, the Kurdistan region of Iraq has built one of the most open societies in the Middle East. It became the largest safe haven for persecuted Christians in the region. And despite a severe economic embargo from Iranian-backed forces, Kurdistan has built a stable, multibillion-dollar economy that hosts virtually all of the U.S. forces in Iraq. People move there because it works. These places are no exceptions. These are foretastes of what the entire region can become.
The Middle East is not a burden. It is a region of extraordinary talent, ambition and wealth, held back by a few violent people who have never been as weak as they are today.
What stops it is the same force every time. Iranian-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen – all taking orders from Tehran and all blocking the future the rest of the region is trying to build. For 45 years, one capital has exported instability to every corner of this region – not because the Iranians want it, but because a small circle of power benefits from it.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
The numbers tell the story. Since February 28, Iran has hit every country in the region that chose to partner with the West – and not one of them has fired a shot at Iran. The UAE has absorbed more than 2,800 missiles and drones. Thirteen people were killed. More than 200 were injured. Kurdistan has been hit more than 700 times. Fourteen dead – including a husband and wife who died at midnight, and two daughters who remained behind. Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar – all affected. None of them threatened Iran. Their only transgression is that they chose a different future.
These forces have not only destroyed the Middle East. They’ve been killing Americans for decades.
Every president before this one chose to look away. They minimized the threat. They told the Americans it was under control. They left it for the next generation. But ignoring the Middle East always comes at a price. Barack Obama withdrew from Iraq. ISIS has filled the vacuum. His nuclear deal sent billions to Tehran and its proxy terror groups in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Joe Biden called it strategic patience. That patience gave us October 7. The problem never went away. It always got worse. This president made a different choice.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
I grew up in this. I didn’t study it in a seminar. I know what a rocket sounds like when it hits a neighborhood school. I know what families look like when they pack up their cars at three in the morning and drive towards the only city still standing. The fear in this region is not that America has acted. It’s that the world will lose interest before anything changes.
The Middle East is not a burden. It is a region of extraordinary talent, ambition and wealth, held back by a few violent people who have never been as weak as they are today.
The people of this region have been asking the world to listen for decades. Maybe that will happen now.
