Operation Epic Fury Is an Advertisement for American Predominance

For several years the narrative of a waning of the “American era” was taking root around the world. Nations looking to hedge their bets took to flirting with Moscow for security arrangements and Beijing for economic and technological lifelines. And we witnessed a seemingly unstoppable Islamic-inspired and funded terrorism flooding the western world.

Indeed, the better part of two decades of seemingly nonplussed presidents from both political parties treated the Iranian threat as a can to be kicked down the road. They relied on flawed nuclear deals, pallet-loads of cash, complex sanction regimes and localized ceasefires, hoping that if they just managed the symptoms, the disease of radical Islamic terrorism would somehow cure itself. Predictably, though, the notion that Islamism, and not Americanism, was on the right side of history, came through.

However, the war with Iran is a brutal demonstration of the unparalleled benefits of allying with the United States and its unique partner Israel instead of the autocratic alternatives. Consider the fate of the Iranian regime: they relied on Russian-supplied air defense systems that proved completely, embarrassingly useless against Western stealth aircraft, electronic warfare and precision munitions. They relied on diplomatic cover from China that evaporated as soon as the bombs actually started falling.

Plainly, nations watching the conflict unfold have learned the hard and undeniable lesson about global alliances. Allying with Moscow or Beijing offers only empty rhetoric and faulty hardware when a true existential crisis erupts. Allying with Washington and Jerusalem offers the protection of the most lethal, capable, and technologically advanced military apparatus in human history.

Epic Fury has shown that the notion of a multi-polar world is largely a myth. When the chips are down there is no security substitute for an American umbrella as anchor.

To be sure, there is no denying that the longtime special relationship between Israel and the U.S. played somewhat of a role in the extent of the cooperation. And primarily there was a shared concern for Iranian sponsorship of terror and predatory designs on its Gulf neighbors, Israel and the U.S. Yet the fact that the U.S. would go “all in” together with a partner, albeit a strategic one, is a reassuring lesson not lost on the other Gulf states.

What comes through is that the Trump administration has replaced the dangerous ambiguity of appeasement with absolute strategic clarity. President Trump recognized a fundamental truth that his predecessors chose to ignore: you cannot negotiate with a regime whose core, theological identity is predicated on your destruction. Diplomacy only worked when both sides prefer peace to war; the Islamic Republic has always preferred war, using diplomacy merely as a stalling tactic to build a better, more lethal arsenal.

Ultimately, the message is that the return to reality demonstrated that the U.S. is no longer begging for concessions in European negotiating rooms or turning a blind eye to proxy attacks in exchange for false promises. It is dictating terms through American airpower, proving that the only language the Ayatollahs truly understand is overwhelming force.

So, there it is. Israel may soon be getting it from both sides of the political aisle.