Credibility at the Plate in the WWIII Series

It’s the third game of the World War III Series semifinals. The joint United States–Israel team is already up 2–0 against the Islamic State and its proxies. One side represents open societies full of music, dancing, and color. The other represents a gray world where even sports would disappear under repression and violence.

This series has been strange. Only one team seems to take the rulebook seriously. It’s costing them time and injuring players.

Throughout the round, the Islamic State team keeps sending out balls that split into three or more in midair. They even pitch at teams not playing! The referees stay quiet. Miraculously, the better trained U.S.–Israel lineup keeps knocking most of them out of the park anyway, despite the absurd challenge.

Now the bases are loaded and the pitcher has just hung an easy one over the middle of the plate. Whether the game ends soon or drags into extra innings is still unclear.

One thing we do know: this is no Curveball.

Before returning to my metaphor, here are facts for those who don’t follow baseball:

• “Curveball” was the codename of an Iraqi informant whose false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction helped shape the case for the 2003 Iraq War, severely damaging Western credibility.
• Today, there is no serious dispute that Iran is enriching uranium. The evidence does not come from a mysterious informant, Curveball, or classified information. It comes from Iran’s own nuclear activity and from inspectors measuring it.
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed that Iran has enriched uranium to 60 percent purity, far beyond civilian energy needs and dangerously close to weapons-grade material. U.S. intelligence assessments have reached the same conclusion about Iran’s expanding nuclear capability.

Back to the game.

Curveball, the infamous pitch from a previous series that changed the game forever, still has team morale way down. Since that moment, many fans stopped trusting either team entirely. Many now root against their own side.

Distrust is all around, despite one team representing diversity, and the other resembling The Handmaid’s Tale. On the American-Israel side, the distrust comes from too many tied games and half-finished innings, not to mention that damned Curveball. On the Islamic State-Proxxy side, the distrust comes from the regime’s own brutal treatment of its players and fans, especially off season.

In this semifinal, the historically favored U.S.–Israel team has two ways to advance. They can settle for a draw or a narrow win, but that risks hurting their credibility going into the final round, where Ukraine faces Russia on the other side of the bracket.

Trust in the United States, Israel, and their allies is already under strain. Credibility matters. A team that once dominated the World War II Finals as a late entry now needs to prove it can still close out a series.

Our team now faces two options:

• The first is the home run: regime change in Iran, a decisive swing that resets the entire scoreboard.
• The second is a safer but less satisfying hit: secure the enriched uranium buried in the diamond, bring it home, show the evidence to every skeptic in the stands. Win our fans back.

Some analysts doubt the latter can be done without players getting hurt. But this league has tools we haven’t yet seen. Robotic systems, remote equipment, and specialized technology could reduce the risk to our patriotic players who would otherwise have to step onto the field in hostile territory. And if it ultimately requires brave players to run the bases themselves, that is the role they signed up for.

In baseball terms, this moment looks less like a tricky curveball and more like bases loaded with an easy pitch right down the middle.

I still pray for a home run. I’m still rooting for the home team. But a safe hit will do. And a tie will lead to a rematch, so that’s the worst possible outcome.

The bases are loaded. Now bring it home.