Bias clouds intellect.  That's never clearer than when watching a New York Times writer argue that President Trump is so ignorant that he has no idea what's happening in Iran and Iraq and is blind to the effect of his foreign policies.

David Sanger, the New York Times' Washington correspondent, expresses concern over what he perceives as Trump's foreign policy failures in North Korea and Iran.  North Korea's Kim Jong-un has been boasting that he will unveil a new "strategic weapon," while one of Iran's proxies invaded the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.  For Sanger, those are "aha" moments:

But the events of recent days have underscored how much bluster was behind Mr. Trump's boast a year ago that Iran was "a very different nation" since he had broken its economy. They also belied his famous tweet: "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea."

[snip]

Many foreign policy experts say he fundamentally misjudged the reactions of two major American adversaries. And neither seems to fear him, precisely the critique he leveled at Barack Obama back in the days when Mr. Trump declared America's toughest national security challenges could be solved as soon as a president the world respected was in office.

Sanger's antipathy to Trump seems to have made him forget the entire Obama foreign policy era.  On Obama's negligent watch, North Korea constantly threatened the West and did in fact became a nuclear power.  Meanwhile, Obama blithely entered into his Iran deal, transferring hundreds of millions of dollars to Iran, removing sanctions, and putting Iran on a glide path to a nuclear arsenal.  Iran, which was already the leading state sponsor, became even more of a threat to Israel, the U.S., and all of the nations of the Middle East.

This discussion does not even need to touch upon Trump's response to Kim Jong-un's threats.  To date (thankfully), the volatile North Korean leader has done nothing beyond talk.  The hot issue is Iran.

Sanger argues that an ignorant and arrogant Trump is misjudging how Iran will react to his aggressive policies vis-à-vis Iran's meddling in Iraq.  He seems to believe that Trump, who has always been a political watcher, has ignored everything the mullahs have done with regularity since 1979, when they occupied the U.S. embassy in Iran and held our diplomats hostage for 444 days.  Here are events just from Obama's presidency:

1. In 2011, presumably even as Obama held out the promise of a nuclear deal with the mad mullahs, Iran tried to carry out a terrorist bombing in Washington, D.C.
2. In 2012, members of the IRGC in Kenya were arrested for planning bombings targeting American- and other Western-affiliated destinations in the country.
3. In 2016, the IRGC seized two U.S. naval vessels and ten U.S. sailors.

The mullahs were unmoved by Obama's efforts to give the regime sweetheart deals in the naïve belief that it would moderate the regime's radicalism.  No one was more unrealistic or misjudged the mullahs more than Obama and his team of "foreign policy experts" did (no doubt some of the same ones Sanger consulted for his article).

Iran is under tremendous pressure externally thanks to the sanctions Trump has imposed.  The economic effect from these sanctions has led to widespread riots throughout Iran, which the regime is putting down with the utmost violence.

No foreign policy expert worth his salt could know Iran's history and then claim surprise when the mullahs used violence to try to force American policy changes.  Iran has acted with bloody aggression since day one and has been called to account only once, in 1988, when the U.S. Navy destroyed half of Iran's navy in a single day.  It's a certainty that the Trump administration was prepared for Iran's aggressive acts.

Trump's advanced knowledge and appropriate preparation explain why it is that Iran's proxies are not occupying the U.S. embassy in Iraq today, and why, unlike Obama's Benghazi, there are no U.S. dead or wounded in Baghdad.  Results on the ground don't indict Trump's policies; they vindicate them.