Did Trump just start a war? Or is he stopping a war?

Trump chooses to learn from history rather than repeat it.

Critics of Trump claim that bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities would start World War 3, but is that true? It depends on your perspective, and I found perhaps the closest thing to the right perspective and context in an unexpected place: a movie, specifically The Sea Hawk, starring Errol Flynn, one of my favorite actors, as Captain Geoffrey Thorpe. I just happened to watch it on Friday.

The setting for the movie is 1585, when Spain was building its Armada, not for defensive purposes but rather to conquer the world. England, of course, stood in her way. King Philip was determined to conquer England. The English privateers, aka pirates, understood Spain’s intentions and worked to thwart their ambitions, frequently attacking the Spanish fleet. A portion of their plunder went into Queen Elizabeth’s coffers.

About midway through the movie, Elizabeth I summons Captain Thorpe and demands an answer for his attack on the Spanish ambassador’s ship. Their brief exchange about Spain puts our strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities in context.

Elizabeth I: Do you imagine that we are at war with Spain?

I can hear Trump’s naysayers saying something very similar.

Naysayers: “Striking Iran’s nuclear facilities will put us at war with them.”

But Thorpe’s answer gives us a much-needed perspective.

Captain Thorpe: Your Grace, Spain is at war with the world.

He was spot on. Spain was already at war with the world.

Similarly, Iran is already at war with the world, specifically the free world, and even more specifically with Israel and the U.S. In fact, they have been committing acts of war against America with impunity since 1979.

Attacking an American embassy is an act of war.

On November 4, 1979, they attacked our embassy in Iran, holding Americans hostage for over a year.

On April 18, 1983, a Hezbollah suicide bomber attacked our Beirut embassy.

Attacking a military base is an act of war.

On October 23, 1984, Hezbollah bombed the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

FYI - Iran uses proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, using them to fight their wars.

But that was only the beginning of their attacks on us. Fast forward to the second Gulf War.

The deadly IEDs used to maim and kill our servicemen in Iraq came from Iran.

Yes, the IEDs were made in Iran. I remember a relative recounting how he would see men leave for patrol in the morning, only to never see some of them again, all because of Iranian IEDs.

Most recently, the attacks on our ships in the Red Sea were done by the Houthis. Under Biden, the response was almost nonexistent. General Jack Keane said we almost lost a ship and its crew. By the grace of God, they shot down the Houthi ballistic missile at the last second. By the way, Iran arms the Houthis. Then again, what else would we expect considering the response by past administrations? Indeed, the prevailing theory has been:

“Responding to Iran’s attacks will start a war; therefore, we will limit our rules of engagement.”

That has been the U.S. policy, if you can call it that. That policy completely ignores Iran’s acts of aggression towards us since 1979. However, President Trump sees their attacks for what they are - acts of war. He decided to act.

Justice served.

This is something of a side note, but I think it’s important to see how Americans viewed the attack. As I heard the list of Iranian attacks against us, I thought of the Americans who suffered and died at the Iranian regime’s hands. I had a sense of justice finally being served. I learned later that I wasn’t the only one who became emotional. When General Jack Keane learned of the attack, he too got a little emotional. He said many veterans he knew felt the same way. For them and General Keane, the attack represented a measure of retribution for all the Americans killed or harmed at the hands of Iran. Thank God, President Trump never forgot them.

Trump and his administration chose to learn from history rather than repeat it.

I recently watched episode 2 of the documentary “Secrets of War.” It was about how the Allies cracked Germany’s codes, not just during WW2, but all the way back to WW1. Who knew? Between the two wars, Germany began using an Enigma machine, which had been developed for commercial use. They adapted it to encode their military communiques.

The Poles were the first to break the early Enigma code. Hitler held a secret meeting in 1937, laying out his exact plans to conquer Europe. Because they had broken the code, the codebreakers knew of the meeting and his war plans. Incredibly, no one did anything; however, that would not be the only instance of us not acting on intel.

Now, one could argue that they were relying on whether they had properly decoded their messages. Or that they didn’t want the Nazis to realize they had broken their code. There are other reasons world leaders chose not to act, but I won’t go into them right now. Today, however, we know exactly what Iran wants because they’ve been telling us for 46 years.

“ Death to Israel!” “Death to America!”

They have been chanting that mantra every Friday since 1979. No need to break any code. We know exactly their intentions, and again, they have been committing acts of war since 1979.

That they feel no need to hide their intentions should scare us all. It means they expect little, if any, resistance to their plans. Why would they, considering the anemic response to their acts of war since 1979?

Let’s not forget that Obama signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the "Iran Nuclear Deal” without congressional approval, meaning it was not a treaty. Moreover, Iran never signed it. Yes, really. What kind of deal is that? However, that didn’t stop Obama from sending them $1.7 billion in cash in American dollars. Yeah, they hate us, but they sure like American currency. All the while, they kept enriching uranium. They must have been laughing all the way to the bank. Yeah, no wonder they aren’t afraid of us and keep attacking us.

Now I don’t know whether Trump knew that we had specific details about Hitler’s plans as early as 1937. However, he knows that the Western world did nothing to stop Hitler. Instead, they chose to appease Hitler, much like past administrations have done with Iran. Trump, thankfully, chose to act.

Will his actions start a war? Well, think about it. What would have happened if Europe and England had acted on the intel they had before WW2? What if Chamberlain had chosen to stop Hitler rather than appease him? We can’t know, but perhaps WW2 could have been averted or at least shortened, saving millions of lives.

This time, we have accurate intel. Even the Middle Eastern leaders recognize the danger Khamenei poses to the world and their regimes.[i] In 2017, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman, stated that he believed Khamenei was the new Hitler.

Their intentions to destroy us, Israel, and take over the Middle East are pretty much an open secret. Only those who don’t want to see it choose to ignore Iran’s nuclear program. I imagine some of them don’t want war. Hmm…perhaps not unlike those who chose to ignore the very accurate and detailed pre-WW2 intel?

I wonder what those who ignored the intel of Hitler’s intentions would tell us today? Would they tell us to take Khamenei at his word and his actions? I suspect that they might very well echo Captain Thorpe’s sentiments:

Iran is already at war with the world, just like Germany was in the 1930s and Spain in the 1500s.

Chamberlin would agree. When he realized that nothing would appease Hitler’s insatiable ambitions, he backed Churchill’s plan.

Trump, like Churchill, chose NOT to repeat history with endless compromises and appeasement. Unfortunately, it was too late for Churchill to stop the war. However, Trump realized that it wasn’t too late to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions. So, he took out their nuclear enrichment sites, not to start a war, but to prevent a war.

The world should be grateful that Trump chose to learn from history, rather than repeat it. I know I am.

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[i] ---. Episode 171, Trinity Broadcasting Network, 19 June 2025.