Although most treat the invasion of Poland in 1939 as the beginning of World War II, it was really the beginning of the Allies challenging the hostilities of the Nazi Government.

Prior to that momentous invasion, Hitler had violated the Treaty of Versailles on numerous occasions. This included expansion of his military over and above treaty specifications, and more blatantly he actually demonstrated hostilities to adjoining territories and took over certain territories whilst the allied powers sat back and did nothing. All, as I said before, were blatant violations of the Treaty of Versailles.

Austria was annexed by Germany, part of Czechoslovakia known as the Sudentenland was annexed by Germany and the Memel Territory was annexed from Lithuania, all before the Allies, which included England and France, responded.

Had the Allies reacted to Hitler’s above noted hostilities the same way they reacted to his invasion of Poland, World War II may have been prevented, or at least been a much shorter conflict.

This brings me to the recent bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites. When a country like Iran, which has been involved in State-sponsored terrorism for decades, acquires a nuclear weapon it is too late to control them again. Threats like that need to be nipped in the bud. One could say this should have applied to North Korea. That is correct, but North Korea has the protection of China, so love, like, or dislike it you really can’t do anything about it. That being said, North Korea’s nuclear programme remain somewhat of a mystery.

Iran does not have the type of support from Russia or China that North Korea does. Also, despite North Korea being a totalitarian dictatorship, it is not actively involved in State-sponsored terrorism at Iran’s level.

You don’t wait on threats to reach the point where you can do nothing to mitigate them, you act decisively and do what is necessary. That is what you call leadership. I don’t agree with much of the things President Trump says. His rhetoric in relation to immigration, immigrants and the countries that they come from can only be described as offensive. However, I don’t allow myself to be so narrow-minded to condemn everything he does because I don’t like his rhetoric.

If the raids being conducted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are targeting illegal immigrants, what is so wrong? If you are there illegally or you have overstayed, you are breaking the law. If you are sending members of an organised crime gang back to their country of origin or to a prison colony, who cares? They are criminals. They are the enemy. They belong in the prison that President Nayib Bukele built.

If, however, innocent people are sent by accident then that should be addressed. If guilty people are sent by accident, I frankly couldn’t give a damn. The world has its back against the wall in this part of our history, not because of totalitarianism, communism or capitalism. The enemy of the people, of the innocent and of peace and harmony, is the organised crime street gangs, and anything that brings them to their knees is OK with me.

Many will disagree with me, I understand that, but not one of them will be the victim of human trafficking, the parent of an addict or the wife of a murdered police officer.

Leadership comes with a great responsibility — to protect the innocent of the future. Leaders spend too much time worrying about the critics of the present.

We are fortunate enough to live in an era without the daily fear of a nuclear holocaust like our grandparents did in the post-World War II years. This is largely because we have ensured that tyrants like Saddam Hussein and rogue countries like Iran do not acquire nuclear weapons.

The Iraqi invasion has been condemned because weapons of mass destruction were not found in Iraq. Few people have ever mentioned the fact that Saddam Hussein refused to allow weapons inspectors into his country in violation of the treaty he signed after losing the war that he started. He is as responsible as anyone else for the invasion. So as far as I’m concerned, there were several reasons to invade Iraq and remove his leadership.

This is not limited to his possession of weapons of mass destruction. He was involved in State-sponsored terrorism, he used chemical weapons against his own people, and he invaded Kuwait without provocation. Anything that takes down a tyrant like that is fine with me.

We in Jamaica have faced the threat of gang domination for decades. The few of us who fight it and the many who are victims of it understand it in a way that differs from the multitudes who fear it and the minority who support it.

There are more conversations about the rights of killers than the victims of murder; too much living room experts who criticise without contributing, too much human rights activists who benefit without suffering.

The mass importation of weapons is the latest threat against our way of life and our sovereignty. We need drastic action.

We are hoping that the no-nonsense leadership that just did what was necessary in Iran will be replicated in the assembling of a gallows in Spanish Town next year when mass importation of weapons becomes a capital offence.

Feedback: drjasonamckay@gmail.com