For just a minute, let’s take stock of what’s happening all around us.

Our nation is at war with Iran. (OK, call it a conflict, but with munitions flying in all directions, it sure feels like a war). The U.S. and Israel are leading a massive military mission to stymie the relentless efforts by Iran, the world’s premier sponsor of terrorism, to acquire nuclear weapons. So far, in only four weeks, we’ve fired about 11,000 precision air and cruise missile strikes against Iranian targets, effectively knocking out their air defenses, their Navy, their Air Force, and much of their missile-launching capability.

Iranian leaders are not happy about that. In response, they and their proxies have launched over 1,000 missile and drone counterstrikes, targeting (inexplicably) their neighboring countries, along with Israel and Middle Eastern nations that they perceive as U.S./Israeli allies, particularly the United Arab Emirates (UAE). For the most part, Iran’s missiles and drones have hit civilian, non-military facilities —basically anything they can reach — and fortunately, most have been intercepted by missile defense systems. The Iranian military strategy seems to be to do as much damage and to kill as many people as possible.

Evidently, the assertions by critics of this war that the Iranian threat was not “imminent” were premature; obviously, Iran was armed, locked, and loaded on day one of the hostilities. If anything, our preemptive strikes were just in time.

Luckily for us here in the USA, Iran’s ballistic missiles can’t travel this far. But we’re not exactly in the clear. Residing among us, right here in our country, are an estimated 15 million illegal and unvetted immigrants from all over the world, no doubt including some radical jihadists of Iranian or other origin. What are the chances (I’d guess 100%) that among them are small groups of fanatics (call them “sleeper cells”) who carry in their hearts the Death-to-America commitment of their counterparts back in Iran?

It’s not a hypothetical concern. In the past four weeks, there have been four terrorist attacks in this country, claiming three lives and dozens of injuries. In those cases, the perpetrators were reportedly naturalized (although obviously unassimilated) U.S. citizens, a different but related worry regarding our immigration policies And of course, those recent events, each involving one or two assailants, were minor league on the scale of international terrorist activity.

But what’s to prevent U.S.-based death-to-America enthusiasts from falling back on their old, tried and true tactics, such as suicide bombing? With the juicy targets across our vast country — a Starbucks here, a muni bus there — It would take only a few suicidal volunteers looking for an early ticket to heaven to rack up some serious scores.

Keep in mind too, that we’re talking here of the same ruthless mentality — with similar jihadist roots, and conceivably involving even some of the same actual terrorists — that masterminded and executed the barbaric raid by Iran-sponsored Hamas of an Israeli music festival on October 7, 2023 — raping, torturing and killing over a thousand innocents, and kidnapping several hundred more for use as human shields and hostages in planned further hostilities. And of course, there is our own US September 11th nightmare from 2001, in which radical Islamic terrorists killed 3,000 Americans. Didn’t we promise ourselves to “never forget”?

Worried yet? I certainly am, particularly because thus far in this little rant I’ve not mentioned the critical detail that while we Americans largely ignore (other than complaining about gas prices) what’s happening around the world, our Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — the government agency that was created after 9/11 solely for the purpose of providing 24/7 protection to our citizens here at home from such atrocities — is currently sidelined. For nearly 50 days, Democrat senators have repeatedly voted to withhold congressional funding for DHS, leaving agents out of action just when the people they protect have needed them most.

The Democrats’ proudly stated reason? They feel that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of DHS has been too aggressive in their methods for finding, apprehending, and deporting violent illegal immigrants in our country (quite possibly including some who might be inclined to engage in the kinds of terrorist atrocities that have appalled us from afar). Even if those senators’ concerns about ICE are valid, their action is a national disgrace.

You can’t make this stuff up. I ask again: are you worried yet? You should be. We all should be worried.

But evidently, this past Saturday, a few million Americans were not worried enough to pass up the opportunity to attend one of their local “No Kings” rallies, intended to showcase their outrage over our president’s allegedly authoritarian behavior. Numerous media interviewers reported that President Donald Trump’s unacceptably authoritarian behaviors, most frequently cited by protesters, are twofold: ICE excesses and his “war of choice” against Iran.

Think about the absurd, completely circular illogic on display here. The No Kings protesters detest our president, probably because Trump hatred is currently their preferred party’s primary political stratagem. But when asked, they assert that they disapprove of Trump primarily because he took action to protect them from the terrorist horrors those thugs inflict worldwide, including the possibility of future nuclear annihilation. And further, they’d prefer that he tone down his efforts to remove such prospective terrorists from our midst.

As I said, you can’t make this stuff up.

Our war with Iran is only four weeks old; it remains to be seen how it will all work out. It took great political courage for the president to embark on the path of shutting down Iran’s nuclear aspirations, and he is now under enormous pressure to declare victory and stop the war. But what he is trying to achieve is hugely important — it may turn out to be the most impactful presidential action of the century (imagine how the course of world history might have been altered had there been a serious initiative in the 1930s to derail Hitler’s Third Reich before it metastasized). I hope he stays the course and finishes the job.

Meanwhile, I’m reminded of the unforgettable newspaper cartoon character of decades ago, Walt Kelly’s Pogo, who would proclaim time and again: “We have met the enemy and he is us”. Bingo.