“You can just put out tweets and statements to support peace, but to actually create real peace, you have to do these kinds of actions, just like happened,” said PA’s John Fetterman as the senator made clear that he saw no contradiction between being a Democrat and supporting Donald Trump’s Iran intervention.

There’s been a fierce counterattack from Democrats on America’s military attack on Iran.

• From Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer: “Iran must never be allowed to attain a nuclear weapon, but the American people do not want another endless and costly war in the Middle East when there are so many problems at home.”

• From House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries: “Presidents are supposed to act to increase the safety of the American people and improve national security. What Donald Trump has done is put us in greater danger.”

• From Ilhan Omar: “When we abandon diplomacy,” the Minnesota congresswoman said, “we choose destruction.”

No surprise is there that Washington’s Democratic establishment is condemning President Trump either for not getting congressional authorization before striking Iran or for simply striking Iran, or, in Ms. Omar’s case, both? In the WSJ, William McGurn writes of the irony that many Democrats imply what would be done but would never do themselves.

Whether a follower or foe, to many, Donald Trump is the latest version of a Republican hawk – a president eager to drop bombs. Yet Trump doesn’t fit the old profile.

Among Trump’s oddity is his path: from a NY real estate magnate directly to the White House, and since Teddy Roosevelt, a born and bred New Yorker.

Before Mr. Trump entered politics, writes McGurn, he wasn’t only a wealthy real-estate developer but a celebrity businessman.

His views were broadly pro-business and conventionally liberal on social issues such as abortion and gun control. As a New Yorker and someone in show business, he was surrounded by people who thought like he did, from both parties. But he wasn’t the first Republican president to have made his way in a Democratic milieu. Ronald Reagan started out as a New Deal Democrat.

Donald Trump has never been a standard GOP hawk. His views have evolved since he first sought the White House in 2016.

But there’s nothing inherently Republican about his comfort with using military force against foreign foes. In most ways, Mr. Trump is carrying out what Democrats say is their foreign policy. How many times has the president offered enemies talks and touted his ability to make deals? The difference between the president and his Democratic critics is that Mr. Trump isn’t afraid to follow through with the stick when enemies don’t respond to carrots.

McGurn asks readers to remember back to Barack Obama.

(Obama) intervened in Libya against Moammar Gadhafi’s military to prevent a massacre in Benghazi. His administration argued that the War Powers Act wasn’t violated because U.S. activities in Libya didn’t meet the law’s definition of “hostilities,” but Democrats weren’t as upset then as they purport to be now.

When Obama came under pressure to prevent Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from using chemical weapons on his own people in a bitter civil war, the president warned Mr. Assad that using chemical weapons would cross a “red line” and change the “equation” on U.S. military intervention. Then what happened? The Assad regime responded with a sarin gas attack that killed more than 1,400 people, including many children, in a Damascus suburb. Mr. Obama blinked.

A key weakness of Democrats is the use of force. Threats sound tough, but are just words. Worse, writes McGurn, this is a feature, not a bug.

Like Mr. Obama and his infamous red line, they rely on talking points to get through the news cycle—and fail to deliver consequences for hostile acts.

When was the last time a Democratic president followed through on a direct threat against a foreign adversary? Or when do Democrats hold a Democrat leader accountable for a lack of follow-through?

Mr. Biden’s hard line with Iran and its proxies, writes Mr. McGurn, largely came down to a one-word warning: “Don’t.”

“Not taking him seriously, Tehran did. As with Democratic statements suggesting they too recognize the Iran threat and would now be with President Trump had he only sought congressional approval, no one believes it.”