Consider the masterful takedown of the Soviet Union by Ronald Reagan.  “We win, they lose.”  He insisted on that premise.  One of his finest moments was “Mr.  Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”   He walked out of the 1986 Reykjavik summit when Gorbachev insisted on the U.S. foregoing research on what was known as SDI – the Strategic Defense Initiative.

These masterstrokes destroyed the Soviet Union -- the Iron Curtain entirely fell apart.  Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot.

There are legends in the sports world that parallel Reagan’s brilliance during their time in the spotlight.  Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady.  All examples of those who have dealt masterstrokes against their opponents.  There are countless examples of brilliant masterstrokes in the business world as well.  History is filled with stories of military genius: Patton’s brilliance, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Charles Martel. 

We have witnessed similar events recently concerning the terrorist regime of Iran. The first stroke was rescinding Obama’s disastrous Iran “deal” By President Trump in May of 2018.  It was really no deal at all, or as Trump has continually called it, one of the worst deals in history.  The networks and Democrats squealed for weeks afterward.  Fortunately, the American public shrugged its shoulders, in basic agreement with the President’s decision.  That Iran deal was appalling.  Obama gave them some 150 billion dollars, and as most people now know, delivered pallets of cash to the greatest terrorist-supporting state in the world.  We got a muted promise that Iran might let us inspect their sites if they had some 30-days-notice.  But the deal stipulated they didn’t have to let us in.  They got everything, we got nothing.  They would clearly get a nuclear arsenal in time. 

Then Trump wisely pulled the plug.  We could never get the money back that Obama gave them.  But we could cause their economy great pain, which Trump did.   He would continue by putting massive economic pressure with severe new sanctions on Iran, pushing our allies to do likewise.  These sanctions cut off economic growth for the Iranian regime, having made it difficult for them to trade anything.  Iran could only trade a small part of their oil with other countries, and that at close to half the price they were used to.  Economic strangulation had begun.

Enter the attempted takeover of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad last week, a seeming rerun of the Benghazi debacle.  It didn’t look good.  It was clear that Iran had instigated this attempt through some of their proxies.  It might have worked with an indecisive weasel in office.  Thankfully, that was no longer the case.  Instead, Trump took decisive action, calling upon troops and helicopter gunships to defend our embassy and our people there.  The leftists (Democrats and media shills) tried to make it look like this was Trump’s Benghazi:  It wasn’t.  Trump is the anti-Obama, the anti-Hillary.  Not only was he awake for the call, he was decisive, and quickly defused this attempt.

There is an unwritten rule of military conflicts, of great sports wins, of great business coups:  When you are winning, keep the pedal to the metal to ensure success, to finish the job.  Now that your opponent is reeling, win the game.

Which is what Trump did.

He authorized the killing of Iran’s general Qassem Soleimani, the terrorist mastermind who has had his way for well over a decade.  This was the man in charge of the Baghdad embassy takeover.  This was the man responsible for killing and maiming so many of our soldiers in Iraq with his IEDs and other terror tactics.  This was a man who helped create Hezb’allah and Hamas, along with other terrorist organizations throughout the world.  He was Iran’s preeminent general, a model of how to defeat the West.

There is footage of celebrations in Iraq and even Iran over the killing of this cretin.  Most of us knew this was a good thing -- a vicious killer had been eliminated from the earth. 

But the networks mourned.  It was almost like election night 2016 for MSNBC, CNN, and the rest.  They prattled on and on about how “unsafe” we were for getting rid of the world’s foremost terrorist.  The Democrats did likewise.  They all rushed to the microphones to tell us how bad it was that we had killed a reprobate.  How bad it was that we had provoked a new war. 

Even the normally measured Tucker Carlson got into the act.  He spent nights talking about how Trump had gone back on a campaign promise, how he was bringing us dangerously close to war now.  But Tucker was dead wrong.  No campaign promise was broken -- Trump was not going to war.  He was simply letting it be known that we wouldn’t let Iran continue its longstanding mischief-making in the Middle East.

The Babylon Bee scored a major triumph with its “Democrats Call for Flags to be Flown at Half-Mast to Grieve Death of Soleimani.”  The Bee had more social media shares than MSNBC, CNN, and the Democrat-media complex combined in the next two days.  A brutal take-down and win against our fake news media people.

Trump’s latest triumph is his speech about the Iranian missile launches.  He explained there were no American casualties and inconsequential damage to our bases.  He assured us that Iran was not going to gain anything with their saber-rattling.  He assured us they were standing down.  He assured us -- and the Iranians -- there would be a price to pay if they escalated in their attempts at violence.

And -- take note, Tucker -- he assured us we were not going to get involved in a new war in Iran.  He assured us we were not going to send troops to invade Iran.  He simply was putting Iran on notice that we were the big dog, that we would continue after them if they did not cease their involvement with terrorism.  He insisted Iran would never have a nuclear weapon while he was President.

He assured the Iranian people that they would become prosperous once again if Iran’s government would cease its terrorist efforts and its drive to become a nuclear power.

He rightfully blamed this crisis on previous administrations who coddled and gave money to Iran.  Administrations that could themselves have taken out the general, but didn’t.  America was reminded that the missiles were paid for by the Obama administration.

I remember Reagan telling Gorbachev to tear down the wall.  I remember his steps, and his success.

After this speech, I think we have seen that kind of greatness one more time.  We have been watching mastery.