Trump’s justified NATO gripes, it’s a war to end Iran’s warmaking and other commentary

Conservative: Trump’s Justified NATO Gripes

Critics wrongly predicted President Trump would “announce his intention to withdraw the United States from the Atlantic Alliance” or at least “lash out at NATO” in his Wednesday night speech, smiles National Review’s Noah Rothman, “but the outrage in this administration toward America’s European allies is real.” “America’s allies may be used to the president’s casual hostility toward NATO,” yet his skepticism “is now being echoed even by the Atlanticists in his administration.” It goes beyond European “pique”: “Trump’s grievance is not with NATO per se but some of its constituent members,” especially the ones in “old Europe” who have denied overflight rights. NATO’s “success” is “self-evident” but “the work of generations” could be “undone” by “mutual vexation.”

Historian: It’s a War To End Iran’s Warmaking

Team Trump says that “the U.S. intends to finish destroying the arsenal and factories of Iran’s ballistic missile program,” cheers Victor Davis Hanson at The Free Press. And the war should also “mostly end Iranian subsidies to its Arab terrorist proxies, while eliminating Iran’s air defenses, air force, navy, and ballistic missiles and drones.” The president’s endgame challenges “are as much political as military.” Since Democrats offer “no positive counter-agenda,” they push “the perception of American defeat, in the hope they “win a new Democratic Congress.” Trump critics claim “the bombing only made popular protests more difficult” and that ending it without regime change “would prove the war effort was all in vain.” Nonsense: “Humiliating the ayatollahs” and “defanging its military-industrial complex” should “increase popular dissent” and hasten the regime’s fall.

Libertarian: Doing Fine With No ‘Nation’s Doctor’

“Americans have gone over 430 days without a ‘nation’s doctor,’ as the surgeon general is often called — and few, if any, have noticed,” shrugs Jeffrey A. Singer at Reason. “The surgeon general and the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps are vestiges of a bygone era,” as now “sprawling agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health” dominate “federal public health activity.” This “system continues to function just fine without a surgeon general,” while the public-health corps is plagued by “overlapping roles, diffused accountability, and higher costs.”

Culture critic: Tiger’s Tragic Decline

The “impact” of Tiger Woods on pro golf, and sports generally, can’t be overstated, notes The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley; “at the height of Mr. Woods’s career, golf surpassed the NBA and even the National Football League in television ratings.” His success led “demographic groups that traditionally perceived golf as a country-club activity” to tune in and even pick up clubs. But his more recent history leaves one “more sad than surprised” by the champ’s recent car crash, evidently under the influence of drugs. Woods “continues to drive himself” while pursuing “another comeback,” but why? His “legacy is secure.” Sports stars make handling “pressure” seem “effortless,” but they still must “face inner demons as the rest of us do.”

Urbanist: DSA Copying the Soros Model

“Races for city councils, state assemblies, and state senates often get scarce media attention but represent real opportunities for power that” the Democratic Socialists of America are “increasingly seizing,” observes Josh Appel at City Journal. It’s “a similar political strategy” to the Soros network’s model for electing progressive prosecutors across the country these last two decades. In 2017, the DSA national convention “voted to prioritize elections going forward.” Zohran Mamdani is now NYC mayor, and “DSA candidates hold approximately 250 local political positions across the 50 states.” “In New York City, ten DSA-endorsed candidates are running for Congress, the state assembly, or the state senate in upcoming elections” — all of them “determined to entrench DSA policies on immigration, housing, health care, and other issues in New York politics.” “The Soros-funded” effort proved “how vital local elections are”; the rest of us “ignore it at our peril.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board