This week, the Islamic Republic of Iran once again demonstrated its hostility toward the United States while the current administration showed its utter inability to deal with the Iranian threat.
On Wednesday, in an obvious sign of aggression, four Iranian attack boats approached a U.S. Navy warship at high speed in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians ignored multiple warnings made by the USS Nitze and came within just 200 yards of the U.S. ship. To avoid a disaster, the U.S. Navy patrol fired three warning shots into the water to force the Iranians to change course.
Such dangerous maneuvers from Iran seem to have become the “new normal,” at a time when the United States is facing growing security and diplomatic challenges in the Middle East, many of which have been created by the lack of U.S. leadership.
A similar situation occurred in the Strait of Hormuz last December, when Iranian warships harassed the U.S. Navy by firing rockets in close proximity to our vessels. One month later, Tehran flew a drone over our aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Persian Gulf.
Time and again, Tehran is flexing its muscle to demonstrate to the United States that it is fully capable and willing to not just oppose our policies, but to also openly confront us. And our response so far has been lacking, to say the least.
The naïve eagerness of President Obama and his administration to play into Iran’s hegemonic ambitions has tremendously emboldened President Rouhani and Supreme Leader Khamenei in recent years, allowing them bully the United States.
Evidence of this was on full display when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards captured American sailors in January. Forced to kneel with their hands behind their heads, our sailors were publicly humiliated and required to apologize on camera in an effort to intimidate and embarrass the United States. The Obama administration responded in a characteristic manner: expressing appreciation and gratitude “for the quick and appropriate response of the Iranian authorities.” Enough said.
We recently learned that the Obama administration paid $400 million to Iran as ransom for the release of American hostages. After months of lying and stonewalling the media about the covert transaction, the U.S. State Department finally conceded that the timing of the money transfer was indeed directly linked to the release of the hostages.
From the very beginning, the Obama administration’s part of this story didn’t make any sense. The White House attempted to sell the American public a fairytale that the cash stockpiled by the U.S. government at a Geneva airport didn’t have anything to do with the American hostages who were boarding a plane in Iran at the very same time. The administration swore that it wasn’t a quid pro quo, and that they were simply using leverage to achieve their objectives.
What the American people finally learned was that, despite longstanding U.S. policy not to negotiate ransoms for hostages, the White House did coordinate the exchange with Iran and sent $400 million of taxpayers’ money to a Swiss bank to be converted into several foreign currencies and delivered by plane as cash to the agents of the world’s biggest sponsor of terrorism.
It was merely the latest in a long line of examples of how Obama has been outfoxed by the Iranians. Just look at how he points to the outrageously misguided deal with Iran over its nuclear program as his key foreign policy accomplishment. The disastrous nuclear deal basically guarantees Iran a path to nuclear weapons. The American people opposed the deal, as did a majority of their representatives in Congress, but Obama and his allies rammed the deal through over objections by using parliamentary gamesmanship.

Just imagine if Obama displayed a fraction of the same resolve when confronting Tehran as he has shown ignoring the will of the American people who did not buy the administration’s false arguments about the terrible nuclear deal.

It is truly a sad state of affairs when the world’s only superpower, the United States, is forced to play by the rules of the unelected Shia mullahs in Iran who run roughshod over their own people’s human rights and proudly oppose American values.
Taking advantage of the spineless Middle East policy of the Obama administration, Iran continues to bolster its influence in the region and to threaten the American people. After eight years of the Obama presidency, a one-time regional outcast is now emerging as a major force to be reckoned with and direct counterweight to American influence.
This dangerous trend cannot continue. We need true leadership in the White House. It is time for America to stop acting like a frightened weakling and to start using the many tools at our disposal. Rather than casting off the biting economic sanctions that had Iran on the ropes, we should be doubling down on them to help reduce the inevitability that we will have to confront Iran militarily.
As we turn the page on the Obama presidency, America must chart a new direction and demonstrate to Iran that the current pattern of humiliation is coming to an end. Whoever wins the upcoming presidential elections needs to understand that if we don’t start standing up for ourselves, then no one else will. The world is watching.
Media wishing to interview Armstrong Williams, please contact [email protected].
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