The brutal Hamas attack on Israel once again shows that the world is a very dangerous place.
We need strong American leadership to protect our freedom.
And we need smart American leadership to recognize who our enemies really are — and how they’re working together.
Everyone knows who’s behind Hamas.
Iran owns Hamas. It calls the shots, cuts the checks and supplies the material to make the missiles Hamas launched against civilians.
Those terrorists never would have invaded Israel if Iran hadn’t given the green light.
The blood of innocent Americans and Israelis is on the ayatollah’s hands.
But Iran isn’t acting alone either.
In the same way that Hamas does Iran’s bidding, Iran is the junior partner to Communist China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Iran supplies weapons for Russia to use in Ukraine, and China is Iran’s biggest oil customer.
While Communist China is the ringleader, all three regimes are on the same team.
And they all share the same goal.
They threaten America’s friends and allies because they ultimately want to destroy us.
This is no wild conspiracy theory. The leaders of all three countries loudly proclaim their hatred of America and hope to see us collapse.
Iran’s proxy attacks against Israel are part of this agenda. So is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
China, Russia and Iran are testing America’s resolve however they can.
Iran wants to kill all the Jews. Russia wants to conquer Eastern Europe and reinstate the Soviet empire. China has infiltrated America and wants to control the Pacific.
This evil alliance is more advanced and coordinated than many people realize.
Can we stop them?
Of course we can, and we can do it without going to war.
We need to rebuild the kind of strength that China, Russia and Iran can never match.
We can overcome any threat through the power of our free economy and the pride of our people. The past century has proven that.
But we won’t rebuild our strength or defend our way of life without moral clarity.
Right now, many of our leaders and would-be leaders — on both sides of the aisle — are deeply confused.
They don’t recognize the danger we face or the steps we must take.
America is fighting one evil monster with three heads: China, Russia and Iran.
President Joe Biden doesn’t realize it. He’s cozied up to Iran, giving it billions of dollars and easing sanctions.
It responded by helping to orchestrate the biggest murder of Jews since the Holocaust.
Biden talks a big game on Russia, but he was too slow and too weak in providing Ukraine with the weapons to beat Russia quickly.
Biden’s weakness on Moscow and Tehran has strengthened Beijing — which is hosting Putin as I write — and endangered America.
America is strong enough to hold China, Russia and Iran accountable at the same time.
We can do it without putting American soldiers on the battlefield.
We can do it without writing blank checks.
And most of all, we could do it immediately, if we had the will.
We could give Ukraine the weapons to beat Russia tomorrow.
We could stand with Israel to stop Iran tomorrow.
And we could ensure Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Australia and all our friends and allies in the Pacific are safe from Communist China — not 10 years from now, not two years from now, but tomorrow.
When China, Russia and Iran win, America loses. We need to keep our people safe by standing strong across the world.
I stood with our friends every day as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.
China, Russia and Iran tried to divide our attention and distract us from their schemes.
It didn’t work. We backed Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel. We put China, Russia and Iran on their heels.
And America moved forward in peace and prosperity.
Now that evil alliance has the momentum.
Iran’s proxy war against Israel is the latest proof.
It’s another inevitable result of America failing to lead. Without a strong America, the world will collapse into chaos and endanger our freedom.
For the sake of our people’s safety and our nation’s security, I promise America will lead again.
Nikki Haley is a Republican candidate for president. She was governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations.