For those surprised that Iran hanged people, including a wrestling champion, because they were part of anti-government demonstrations, remember that Iran has killed at least tens of thousands of their own people in the last months according to reports. They’ve killed thousands of Americans over the last fifty years. They killed thousands or tens of thousands of others in the area. They have supported the worst of the terrorist organizations in the world. Those organizations have attacked just about everybody in the area already. They’ve attacked us.

Iran declared themselves to be at war with us five decades ago. We are the Big Satan according to them. The nation that must be destroyed. I can’t say how much ability they have to destroy us, and I expect it to be less than we fear, but more than we think. Even me who has followed them and studied them for my entire life. The fact is that they have been at war with us for a long time. They’ve been killing us for a long time.

The timing of this most recent hot conflict between us was a choice by the leaders of our era. The timing of it. But not the underlying conflict. The underlying conflict predates all of our leadership right now. It is a conflict that has gone on for over a generation. For all of my life. I do wish it hadn’t gone hot now. But it is possible that now was the best time our leaders could arrange for it. Or at least less bad than any other time it could have happened. We will all learn more about it as time goes by. Was this smart or stupid? Or was it the best of many bad options?

Time will tell. And maybe history will tell what time finds out. Maybe. I think we will all find out in the coming months and years.

For myself, I have never in my life been sad to hear that a leader in Iran is dead. They are monsters. They have been all my life. I hope to live to see a day when the leaders of Iran are worth mourning when they die.