Curley: The next 24 hours will make or break Trump’s presidency

President Donald Trump gave Iran until 5 p.m. Pacific Time, that’s midnight in Iran tomorrow, to agree to a deal.

They’ve asked for a ceasefire. They’ve rejected the ceasefire.

Iran said, “No, we’re not going to do that.”

“Because of the power of our military, every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again,” Trump said during a news conference Monday. “I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours. If we want it to — we don’t want that to happen. So, do I want to do that? No. Do I want to destroy their infrastructure? No. It will take them 100 years to rebuild right now. If we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and it would never be as good as it was. And the only way they’re going to be able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius of the United States of America.”

Iran doesn’t have civilians, it has rulers and subjects

OK, here’s sort of the blinders that are on some of these journalists and a lot of people as well.

You have a journalist, go, “Well, what about the people? What about the civilians?”

The government of Iran doesn’t have civilians. They have rulers, and they have subjects. The idea of citizens and rights, and the individual, doesn’t exist there. The fact that when they started to rise up against the government and protest, the government immediately closed off the internet, and then they went out into the streets and killed people.

They think anywhere between 5,000 and more were out protesting. They just sent out the government to shoot them and then round them up. Anyone who didn’t get shot was rounded up. And I don’t know where those people are.

You think that’s a government that cares about its people? They’re just gonna go out and shoot them. So this idea of, “Well, you knock down the infrastructure, what about the civilians?” That is not the case in Iran; they don’t see it that way. But the biggest problem that the president has at this point is, if he says he’s gonna do this and he doesn’t do this, that’s a big problem.

What can Trump actually hit in Iran? The Geneva Convention draws a line

Now, according to the Geneva Convention, you cannot take out installations and infrastructure that directly affect the people, the citizens, the civilians in war.

You knock out the electrical power plant. If that thing produces electricity for the military, then that’s a prime target; you can hit that. But if it’s an electrical plant that’s going to provide power to an entire section of the city, the state, the country, then that’s a bigger problem. And the same thing occurs when you go after desalination plants, anything that takes the salt out of the water, that’s also not allowed.

So, what does he intend to hit? Who knows, but he has to do this forced.

The problem is, for the president, they still have about half of their missiles left. That’s a problem. And the other part is this: if he turns tail and leaves, because he knows it’s not polling well with the American people, and he knows it’ll lose the House and could lose the Senate as well, then he’s in big trouble.

If Trump doesn’t finish the job, no president ever will

If the United States and Israel do not finish the job, Iran will be bigger and stronger than it’s ever been before, because you’ll see zero presidents ever step up to the plate again. This is the last time.

Now, whether you agree with them or disagree with them, if America pulls away and Israel does not have enough power and does not have enough missiles, and does not have the air support, and certainly doesn’t have the military that we have — Israel can’t do it on their own. And if Israel and the United States, especially the United States, if Trump doesn’t follow through and finish this thing, whatever that looks like, this will set a course where Iran will get a nuclear weapon and will be stronger in the region, because you won’t ever see anybody talk about it.

Vance will never run on it. Rubio will never go for it. No one on the Republican side will say, “I’m running for president. I want to go back into Iran. I want to finish the job.” No way.

This will forever be Iran’s greatest victory if the U.S. does not finish it, whatever finishing it looks like. And that’s where the president has got himself in a real pickle.

This post is a transcript of the video at the top of the post. It was edited for clarity.

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