Every Philosophy 101 student knows the dilemma. If given the chance to kill Adolf Hitler years before his tyrannical ambitions unleashed death and destruction, would you be willing to pull the trigger and end the life of the innocent Austrian art student he seemed to be?

Frank Miele

For most of us, the answer was clear.

Given what you know now — that Hitler would be responsible for the deaths of millions — the life of that aspiring but not very talented art student would be a small price to pay to at least attempt to prevent the Holocaust and World War II.

Of course, there would be unforeseen and unintended consequences. No war means no war heroes, for instance. Cancel the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. But that would just be the beginning. There would be no way to gauge whether the death of Hitler before he came to power would actually improve the world or not. Still, considering the 70 million to 85 million deaths caused by WWII, most of us would probably roll the dice.

But that was yesterday’s moral dilemma. Cue the Iranian nuclear bomb scenario.

For the past three weeks, every social influencer, Hollywood celebrity, cable TV news panelist and X user has weighed in on the wisdom of the United States using military action on the side of Israel in order to eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat. The arguments against it have ranged from the vacuity of “orange man bad” to the more reasoned approach of “show me the evidence.” But when confronted with the awful possibility of Iran’s “Death to America” mullahs having access to nuclear weapons, almost everyone agreed that’s just not a good idea.

But before we ever got to that point, it was amusing to watch otherwise sane people twist themselves into pretzels in order to justify doing nothing when the alternative could likely lead to death and destruction just as widespread as Hitler’s war. My favorite twisted thinking was the argument that proposed that as long as Iran wanted a nuclear bomb, it should have the right to get one — consequences be damned — because we have no right to interfere with the decisions of a “sovereign nation.”

Of course, there was a legitimate concern that a U.S. attack on Iran could lead to a long-term ground war, and if any other president had made the decision, it very likely could have. President Donald Trump, on the other hand, has a long track record of avoiding war, using American military power to end conflicts, not to begin them.

Yet even many of Trump’s allies seemed to walk away from him in the buildup to the B-2 bombers dropping “bunker busters” on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon were convinced that Trump was being manipulated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or by so-called neo-con commentators such as Mark Levin or by the Murdoch media empire or the invisible deep state into committing to a brand-new “forever war.”

With friends like those, Trump was right to keep his own counsel. Or keep to the position he had held for years — Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.

What about MAGA? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green and other self-righteous conservatives claimed for weeks that Trump, the inventor of MAGA, had betrayed the movement and violated his own campaign promises.

But wait a minute. MAGA is Make America Great Again, not Make America Grovel Again. A large portion of that slogan’s appeal is restoring America’s greatness abroad. Under Presidents Obama and Biden, the American profile in foreign affairs shrank to a slim shadow of its former greatness. Whether it was Obama airmailing pallets of U.S. dollars to Tehran or Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, everyone knew that America had become a handmaiden to globalist interests.

Under Trump 2.0, those days are over. Trump never said he was against foreign military engagement. He said he would protect American soldiers and American interests from foolish foreign entanglements, the same warning that George Washington issued in his farewell address. And Trump has been good to his word.

The result so far has been magnificent. Not only did Trump deliver a significant blow to the Iranian nuclear ambitions, but he also forced Israel and Iran to accept a ceasefire after 12 days of war (and decades of bellicose propaganda and terrorist activity). Following Trump’s negotiation of a peace deal between India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed enemies, the Iran operation made Trump the heads-on favorite for the Nobel Peace Prize (were it decided by honest, impartial judges).

And just last week, in a clear victory for MAGA and America First, Trump was hailed by our European allies as a conquering hero, not for his Iran policy, but for finally convincing NATO countries to pay their fair share of our common defense costs.

No wonder Democrats are remaining mostly silent about Trump’s foreign policy successes. As for history, hopefully it will speak loud and clear in praise of this president’s willingness to take action to protect future generations when others have dithered and doddered.

And every patriotic American should be rooting for him, because it’s not a philosophy quiz this time; it’s real life.

(Frank Miele, retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell, Mont., is a columnist for RealClearPolitics.)