Columnist Cal Thomas recommends adding Iran’s leadership to the ash heap as history.

That is a reference to former President Ronald Reagan’s success in reducing the former communist Soviet Union’s international infl uence.

But how do you do this to a regime of religious fanatics?

The Islamic terrorists are convinced that if they die in the commission of a “holy war” they will ascend into heaven immediately and receive their 72 virgins and food delicacies.

No matter the perceived irregularities leftists in the U.S. House of Representatives see in President Trump’s ordered drone strike that killed Iranian terrorist Qassim Soleimani, the president took a bold initiative that got the mullahs’ attention, putting them on notice you don’t kill Americans or damage their property without suffering serious consequences.

Soleimani was in charge of Iran’s Quds force, a unit supposedly dedicated to a mission of liberating “Muslim land” but was a shadow unit of the Iranian government operating through the Middle East with the U.S. and Israeli as its principal targets.

Iran’s president has threatened revenge on the United States since Soleimani’s death.

Thomas commented:

The West has long engaged in self-delusion, believing that somewhere within radical Islam there are fl owers of freedom just waiting to bloom if only they are watered and fertilized properly, because doesn’t everyone want to be free?

The problems in Iran, formerly a U.S. ally in the Middle East before President Jimmy Carter presided during the overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979, facilitating the takeover of the government’s powers by Islamists.

It’s been a continuing mess ever since, certainly not helped by the acquiescence of Barack Obama whose response to punks worldwide was to wring his hands and apologize for the “terrible mistakes” of the U.S. – past and present – and throw money at them.

President Trump, who campaigned on the reasonable solution of pulling American troops out of the Middle East and letting them fight it out among themselves as they have for thousands of years, might have given another message by smoking the chief terrorist in Iraq. He certainly did it in a way anyone should understand: “You don’t hurt Americans and get away with it.”

Columnist-author-attorney Kurt Schlichter adds another facet to the situation, referring to the Iranian protesters seeking a sane nation, thousands of whom have already been slain or imprisoned by the current Iranian regicide, commenting:

“Oh, and we should be aiding the resistance inside Iran, because someday – 40 years after that fool Jimmy Carter allowed the country to descend into theocratic tyranny – the people of that nation will take back their freedom. In the meantime, we need to reemphasize that the days of messing with Americans with impunity are over.”

Certainly no one wants an all-out war.

Iran, which can’t afford a war, surely doesn’t want one and neither does the U.S. but Iran certainly can’t be allowed a nuclear arsenal that it could use against Americans or Israel – or others in the Middle East with whom it disagrees.

President Trump is giving revived meaning to the term Americanism.

He has created the Trump Doctrine: “Mess with the bull and you’ll feel the horn.”

Even Muslim terrorists should understand that.

Now Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow loonies are claiming President Trump broke the law (or something) for not asking permission from Congress before launching the strike.

Trump’s instinct was undoubtedly right in not giving them the word beforehand, based on the lefties’ proclivity for spilling the beans to the media or anyone else willing to listen.

How probable is it that Soleimani might well have been informed in time to find a safe place to hide if Nancy and the gang had been informed before the strike?

Besides which the president is commander-in-chief of the military, not Ms. Pelosi.

While raking Trump over the coals for not asking permission, Pelosi didn’t mention that Obama launched more than 2,800 strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria without congressional approval.

Writing for RedState on Jan. 4, columnist Jeff Charles asked:

“Where was the widespread outrage against President Obama when he was approving airstrikes against terrorists in Syria and Iraq? Where was the collective pearl-clutching that we are seeing today? Did CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and the rest of the left-leaning media establishment take him to task for not asking Congress for permission to fi ght America’s enemies? In a word, no. But why not?

“Because they didn’t care then, and many of them don’t care now. The over-the-top reaction from progressives who claim Trump should have consulted with Congress first reeks of politically-motivated hypocrisy.”