Every leader of a major nation or enterprise has that defining moment that marks them out as either a careerist or a great leader.

For the politicians it is those decision points that carry with them enormous risks to their nation, or if you are chief executive officer you in effect bet the future of your company.

It is so tempting to find the route of convenience driven by the inequities of the selfish or malevolent intent of others. But for the great men and women there is only one path they can take. They are truly their brother’s keeper and finder of lost children. All of them as humans come with flawed characters but the weak and feeble of mind can never match them.

Winston Churchill is a great example, haunted all his life by the horrors of the Gallipoli Campaign but taking that fateful decision for Britain and its Commonwealth Allies to fight the evil of Nazism to the bitter end at an enormous national cost. His famous defiant speech delivered to the mother of Parliaments, and then over the air waves to the nation, took in full nearly fifteen minutes to deliver . The most memorable passages he left to the end:

<The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength.

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.>

He knew the nation could not sustain the military defence for much more than a year; the US had to come to Britain’s aid for the sake of the nation and democratic Europe. For Britain who had not been invaded, or on paper not likely be threatened for some years, would bear a great economic cost and sacrifice so many lives. To gain military supplies on the scale required meant loans that would leave in 1945 a debt mountain of 249% GDP guaranteed by the access by the USA to the nation’s intellectual property rights over, nuclear fission, computers, jet engine, radar and antibiotics. All evidenced by a paper lodged with Oxford University. Not since the Napoleonic Wars had national debt been so high which then stood at 180%! Britain lost 450,000 lives of which 85% were military. For those who state Britain is not a committed European must think hard again.

During his greatest years he was to be ridiculed by his own people and even by President Roosevelt in front of Stalin. Where have I seen that before, oh yes, in the Oval Office no less, but this time in front of the world’s media.

There were others, Jack Kennedy, who faced a potential nuclear war with the Russians in the Cuban crisis. Frederik de Klerk, who recognised that he needed to forge a partnership with Nelson Mandela to save his nation’s democracy and avoid the loss of unnecessary lives. It is one thing to seek power, but it takes a great deal more leadership courage to give it up, most other’s cling on to the bitter end. Margaret Thatcher changed the culture of a nation to save it from certain oblivion. Unfortunately, there are clear signs Britain is falling back into the same bear pit. George Bush had the crisis of 9-11 thrust upon him leading to Barack Obama to take the decision to exterminate Osama bin Laden found in a hideaway in Pakistan next door to a major military base. The risk to his Seal Team was enormous and decided against a history of failed such attempts in the past.

President Trump’s and Prime Minister Starmer moment has come too. 

Iran, a theocratic dictatorship, theocracies governs by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. Government leaders are members of the clergy, and the state’s legal system is based on religious law. Theocratic rule was typical of early civilizations. The Enlightenment marked the end of theocracy in most Western countries. 

Through their statements, actions and religious mantras it is genocidal in its attitudes to Jews and non-believers. It pursues armed insurrection beyond its borders and puts grave risks to the peace and stability of other nations. It says it pursues nuclear power for commercial reasons and yet enriches uranium beyond the 4% purity level needed to at least 60% and seeks the military technology to deliver a nuclear bomb. It even buries its plants hundreds of metres below ground to avoid attack and discovery of its intentions.

The rest of the world stands by knowing that it is just a matter of time before any major city within 2500kms can be targeted.

In 2015, under President Barack Obama, the United States and five other world powers (the UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany) signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran to control their nuclear ambitions. This was breached and extensive diplomatic efforts made to avoid the inevitable. There is no hiding place, no appeasement or de-escalation manoeuvres left.

Step forward President Trump, it is your time to define whether you are a careerist or a great peace leader. Narcistic behaviour, pursuit of transactional gains at other’s expense, or even pursuit of a Nobel peace prize no longer wash! Peace in the Middle East hangs in a frightful precarious balance, you have to act, and act now.

He has given his first answer, the decommissioning of the entire Iranian Uranium Atomic Energy Infrastructure. Israel has in meantime progressively dismantled Iran’s satellite client insurrectionist groups in the surrounding regions and Iran’s hierarchy.

It may some years yet, but the Arab World may now have a better chance of improving the well-being of its peoples.

Is his next strategic move to force Putin to retire his military completely from Ukraine and operate an air cordon sanitaire over the country with European Allies?

Or will he slip back to his old ways and still engage in those grubby exercises of levering a trading relationship for the benefit of only the USA, ignoring the international diplomatic protocols built over two centuries since the 1815 Vienna Convention.

 Keir Starmer, the British PM, must play his part. Why do politicians like him insist on the knee-jerk mantra of de-escalation or ceasefires whenever military hostilities breakout? 

The International Atomic Authority has just reported that Iran has breached its international obligations and is well advanced to produce nine nuclear bombs and an international ballistic missile, no doubt helped by North Korea. Why does he fail to grasp what he is dealing with. These are religious zealots we have seen in the past who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Why did, Hitler, Mussolini, Gaddafi meet their grisly ends. No de-escalations there or ceasefires! It is not true as some commentators say that military victory doesn’t lead to peace and a better life, it can, and it has.

No one wants war, but as we learnt in 1938, restraint led to the deaths of 60 million through appeasement. 

Don’t our politicians understand the lessons of history?

The Israeli’s are formidable as regards both intelligence operations and military deployment. 

There are few nations that can match them man for man.

 This has been coming for a long time, and diplomacy clearly wasn’t working because the Iranian Leadership couldn’t accept the international demand that Uranium could not be enriched beyond the commercial level for a nuclear power plant. They thought like Putin they could string us out. 

My disappointment, where our British Government is involved, is the political speak of de-escalation. Starmer & Co are wrong. For decades Iran has behaved as a belligerent adversary and a suppressor of its own people. France and Germany were right to say that if Iran invaded Israel, as they planned to do in the coming months, they would come to their aid. 

Stop playing the barrister purveying the role that best suits the day. The nation’s security is at stake; no more time left for political game playing this is for real, not a legal submission exercise.

Being a political leader is extremely challenging, leaders in the commercial world don’t normally have to consider lives at risk but sometimes there are exceptions.

Do the right thing and trust your people and it tends to work out well.