Making hard choices for preservation of peace

As George Washington once said, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.” This is the dilemma of peace, sometimes in order to protect it; you have no other choice but to go to war.
That is exactly the situation Saudi Arabia and its allies in the region found themselves facing. All political reasoning had failed with Iran and its expansion ambitions.
Throughout the recent years, they kept buying recruits, or better to say puppets, north and south, east and west, to play their games of instilling instability, manipulating facts, recreating realities on the ground. They somehow created and lived the tale that they will be the sole leader in the region liberating it out of its misery. However, they were wrong in their thinking.
Iranian intentions to destabilize the region were and still are obvious. The other powers in the region would never allow them to continue gambling with the whole region’s future.
In order to put an end to this dirty day, the operation “Decisive Storm” has been launched. It is mainly aimed at rescuing Yemen from the clutches of the gang that decided overnight that it could rule the country with the support of Iran, of course.
The other objective of this military operation is to convey a strong message to Iran that enough is enough.
This initiative taken by the Kingdom and its Arab and Muslim allies is the translation of the Saudi political efforts we have all been witnessing since Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman assumed the throne. I cannot recall a week that passed without a major political figure visiting the Kingdom and meeting with the king and his team. Apparently, we have been drawing the broad lines of a new policy in the region along with our international allies.
Still, the war itself came as a surprise to all of us. However, it did not take us long to understand the necessity of this action. This operation reminds me of Dwight D. Eisenhower who once said, “We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.”
However, the decision to go to war is always tough; it is a very calculated decision where a lot of trade offs are at play.
Therefore, for all those who are overjoyed with “Decisive Storm” on social media and news channels, hold your horses!
War is not a picnic; so after finishing with Yemen we should focus on Syria before completing the journey to the north of Iraq to fight the self-ascribed Islamic State.
“It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it,” as Robert E. Lee, an American solider in the civil war, once said.
The Saudi decision to intervene in Yemen has send a strong message to Iran and all terrorist groups in the region: We are ready to exhaust all political options on the table, but when the time comes, we will never shy away from the battleground. We are ready to “sweat” in peace, and yet, not afraid to “bleed” in war, paraphrasing Norman Schwarzkopf’s quote.
What we can only wish is that the message the Kingdom and its allies are sending to Iran and its puppets are well received so the time of war is shortened. The gang in Yemen should better realize that it is time to let go of stubbornness, as the country is deteriorating rapidly.
And Iran should also realize that there is a difference between keeping silent out of weakness, and out of wisdom.