The once-glowing “Shining City On a Hill” has dimmed, says George

As the leader of the free world, and “The City on a Hill,” as first described by the leader of the Puritans, John Winthrop on March 21, 1630 taking it from the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:14, America is still the hope of the world.

Since that day in 1630 — nearly 400 years ago, it has been America that has been providing hope to a weary world.

The “American Dream” is still our collective dream, and yes, as we stand in the middle of a march towards World War III the most feared development is war in three different places at the same time.

Along with Ukraine, Gaza, and Taiwan, we are almost there with China, as it flexes its muscles.

One of the greatest postwar tragedies is the loss of Iran.

Until 1979, Iran was one of our greatest allies in the Mideast, as well as host to numerous U.S. Military bases, and even more.

I sat at the bedside of the great Shah of Iran and with his beloved Farah Diba at his side.

Following a time of prayer together, with tears streaming down his cheeks, he said, “I wanted to bring my beloved people into the modern age and did it too fast.

“I didn’t realize how evil the mullahs were and what they would do. Even the communists would at least have been progressive, the mullahs will turn my country back a thousand years.”

That is that is exactly what happened.

Tehran, once known as the Paris of the Mideast transformed into a dark shadow of a city.

The modern day version of Jimmy Carter’s foolishness was removing oil sanctions, then giving Iran cash, which according to some estimates, resulted in a windfall of nearly 200 billion dollars going to Tehran’s mullahs.

It doesn’t take much in the way of common sense to realize that the sudden rise in Iran’s belligerence in Israel, Gaza, the rise of the Houthis, 159 attacks on U.S. forces — the most recent with three deaths and 30 wounded — is directly related to being suddenly flush with cash, a result of Washington, D.C.’s actions.

Amazingly we pay our enemies to attack us!

Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump said, “We had driven Iran to its knees. If we had been in the White House, we would have had a deal with them as they were completely devastated as all their oil exports had stopped and they were bankrupt.”

It was the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who said eight years ago, as he opposed the nomination of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, said: “Mr. Antony Blinken, who is not only unqualified, but in fact in my view, one of the worst selections that this president has chosen.”

That pointed observation combined with that of former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said of Joe Biden, “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” causes one to understand the string of nonstop foreign policy blunders — beginning with Afghanistan and continuing into the present day.

Antony Blinken, as staff director, to the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.) could always be seen in hearings hovering around Joe.

In tis regard, the déjà vu is troubling, but not surprising: the “disastrous two” – both soundly condemned by their contemporaries are at it again; engaging in one foreign policy disaster after another.

The great tragedy is that one of the main reasons President Trump was so overwhelmingly hated in Washington was because of his firm commitment to not mire the United States in wars.

War, sadly seems to be the very lifeblood of the swamp these days.

May God protect us. May God bless the United States of America.

(A related story may be found here.)

Amir George is the author of “Liberating Iraq,” and oversees the World Hlpline at worldhelpline.org.