Here are my observations and opinions from my select news of the day.

I’M HERE, BACK FROM THE BRINK OF WAR – You know, the war with Iran that was supposed to be devastating because we took out Qasem Soleimani, arguably the leading perpetrator of terrorism in the world.

Soon after word of the hit on Soleimani, Democrats and their friends in the leftist media were saying we were on the brink of another interminable desert war, even World War III.

The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel, claiming to quote a Democrat member of Congress reacting to the strike, wrote @daveweigel: “You need two crazy leaders to start a war, and unfortunately, Iran doesn’t have one.”

Of course, as the president ordered troops to Iraq to protect our interests there should Iran retaliate, the left reminded us of candidate Donald Trump’s views on keeping us out of these wars, despite the fact that his decision was made to keep us safer.

“Mainstream outlets, suffering mightily from Trump Derangement Syndrome, practically rooted for a wider conflict with Iran in the hopes it might damage Trump, then evinced genuine disappointment when Iran backed down after half-heartedly lobbing a few short-range ballistic missiles in the direction of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, which inflicted no casualties,” wrote John Daniel Davidson, of The Federalist.

“I would even go so far as to say they were hoping that we would end up in a war because it would help them in the election,” commented Stephen Kruiser in PJ Media. “These are the same people, after all, who spent last year rooting for Americans to be hit with a recession.”

We have been told that the Iranians warned Iraq that they would be sending missiles their way, and that anywhere from a dozen to 50 missiles were fired, and at least a half dozen failed.

In an unconscionable act, MSNBC allowed an uncorroborated report from one of its correspondents, quoting Iran state media, that 30 U.S. troopers were killed in the attack.  Where is their journalistic integrity?

So, what’s next?  Reviewing a number of options in Townhall, commentator Victor Davis Hanson offers that “Tehran might conclude that a hit-and-pause strategy is preferable.”

With all that we have seen happen in the Middle East … especially over the last 40 years with Iran … it would be foolish to predict what might come next.  Iran could certainly strike a major blow somewhere, or they might just cool it and disrupt our lives with cyber attacks.

In President Trump’s day after address, he leaned toward de-escalation of hostilities and opened the door to discussions down the road, while stating that we would remain vigilant.

As I have previously stated, I don’t believe those fat cat mullahs want their cozy lives disturbed by war any more than President Trump wants us to enter a war with them.  They have learned the hard way that Donald Trump is no Barack Obama.  “You don’t get to hurt Americans.  Ever if you do, bad things will happen,” said Trump.

As Trump often says, ‘let’s see what happens.’

WHY NOW?  – The President has unapologetically stated that the terrorist Soleimani should have been taken off the battlefield “a long time ago.”  While he has not named names, I will.  Both President’s George W. Bush and Barack Obama were weak-kneed, concerned more about political correctness than the safety of Americans abroad.

“Smart people learn from their mistakes,” said Rep. Gary Palmer a Republican from Alabama, “but wise people learn from other peoples’ mistake.  That’s why you study history.”

In 1988, terrorists successfully carried out bombing attacks on the U. S embassies of Nairobi, Kenya and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania because the Clinton administration’s state department failed to heed warnings by our ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, while some 5,000 were injured, including Ambassador Bushnell.

There were five warnings of attacks on our Benghazi compound that were ignored by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other Americans were killed.

WHERE-O-WHERE are those diplomats, who were so critical of President Trump over a ridiculous telephone call with the Ukrainian president in those foolish hearings?  I recall that they all spoke of their devotion to service in dangerous places around the world.

Why aren’t they standing up and writing op-eds now, lauding the president for his devotion to protect them, whether it be in Baghdad or Kenya.  It should be apparent to them that he has learned from others’ past mistakes.

MEANWHILE, as Jules Crittenden, the Boston Herald’s senior editor, suggested in his piece, “Iran blinks. Point Trump,” “Maybe it’s time to think about helping him (Trump) instead of hindering him,” Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are out to curtail the president’s ability to act in defense of American interests, providing aid and comfort to terrorists.

MSNBC’S tired Andrea Mitchell, who consistently looks for a negative in any good news story about the Trump administration, seems to be suffering from amnesia.

Appearing on the pathetic Rachel Maddow Show, she said, the current president has “the worst national security team that I’ve ever seen.”  She characterized President Trump’s existing operation as “least experienced, the least effective, and the smallest” in memory, adding that some of the members of his team “fail to inspire confidence.”

What’s happened to Mitchell’s short-term memory?  She is quick to refer to Trump as a former reality show personality, while “forgetting” that President Obama, the community organizer, hired Ben Rhodes, a student of creative writing, to be his national security fabulist.

It was the arrogant Rhodes who created an echo chamber on Iran to pull the wool over the eyes of young reporters whose only reporting experience consisted of being around political campaigns.  They became what he referred to as “force multipliers.”  He had the help of Victoria Nuland and Jen Psaki at State to help him spin good news around the nuclear deal talks.

In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Rhodes said “it was first necessary to lie to a corrupted and inexperienced American media about all sorts of things, beginning with the nature and intentions of the enemy Iranian regime.

Of course, the aging Mitchell, part of “Old Washington,” was one of Rhodes “compadres,” people he could reach out to … reporters and columnists who often tweet in sync with While House messaging.”

IT WAS ALSO MITCHELL, who accused the president of lying when he states that the pallets of cash Obama delivered to Iran was used to purchase weapons that could be used against the U.S.  She says Obama was merely returning money that made up an amount of Iranian funds that had been frozen; part of the nuclear deal agreement.  CBS and CNN also ran with this story, according to MRC’s NewsBuster.

REMEMBER how Speaker Pelosi spoke of the urgency to complete the process of producing the articles of impeachment, unwilling to take the time to go to the courts to gain access to other witnesses, resulting in a December 19, 2019 partisan vote.

Now, three weeks later, she still hasn’t forwarded the articles to the Senate, but has announced that House Democrats have “serious, urgent concerns about the administration’s decision to engage in hostilities against Iran and about the lack of strategy moving forward.”

THE REWRITES OF ELIZABETH WARREN – After the killing of Qasem Soleimani, Warren stated: “Soleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans.  But this reckless move escalates the situation with Iran and increases the likelihood of more deaths and new Middle East conflict.  Our priority must be to avoid another costly war.“

Evidently her handlers, or the DNC operatives, weren’t happy with that bland statement. After all, she didn’t attack the president.

Within 24 hours, she took a different tack saying, “Donald Trump ripped up an Iran nuclear deal that was working.  He’s repeatedly escalated tensions.  Now he’s assassinated a senior foreign military official (not a terrorist).  He’s been marching toward war with Iran since his first days in office, but the American people won’t stand for it.”

Then, appearing on CNN with Jake Tapper, she referred to Soleimani as only a government official, a high-ranking military official and suggested that Trump may have ordered the killing of the Iranian commander (not terrorist) to distract from his pending impeachment trial in the Senate.

AND FINALLY – Johnny Deplorable, tweeting @RedWingGrips writes: “Donald Trump has been in politics for 3 years and is running 2020 based off his accomplishments.  Joe Biden has been in politics for over 40 years and is running in 2020 based off what he wants to accomplish.”

                   May God continue to bless the United States o