STRATEGY OR FOOLISHNESS
We now see President Trump has agreed to a self-declared “great deal” with Iran. While Israel and America are far better off than they were post the Obama-Biden presidencies, the cold, hard facts point to the Islamic Republic of Iran surviving, managing a stalemate, and still bent on our annihilation. To underestimate their malevolence is foolishness and done at one’s peril. To have missed the opportunity to engineer a regime change is tragic.
Any word uttered by Iran’s leaders is shaped by taqiyya, the principle that lying for Islam’s sake is holy work. Their grinding muqawama resistance, the doctrine of timeless struggle, has shaped the bloody Middle East history for the past many decades. The “death to America or Israel” chant isn’t just trash talking; it is a religious principle, it is an anthem, it is a martyr’s rationale, it is a way of life.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has deceived and lied their way to near nuclear capability. They developed a missile arsenal that can deliver a warhead thousands of miles. They have funded proxies that attack Israel and destabilize the world. Despite the UN, the IAEA, and all prior American administrations deferring to their subterfuge, President Trump needs to proceed with extreme caution and not to defer to midterm
midterm political jeopardy and gas pump popularity.
But we can pray President Trump knows deep down that democratic America and the theocratic, fundamentalist Islamic Republic of Iran are as different as night and day. We can hope he is pursuing a strategy of forcing the Iranians to surrender their nuclear weapons, missiles and proxy empowerment. He has the muscle and will to do this.
Yes, President Trump has stood by Israel with the move of the Embassy, the Abraham Accords, military alignment, B-2 attacks on the most lethal sites, and much more. But everything we have learned since 1979 is that Americans trying to reason with the mullahs is as sensible as a fish and a bird trying to live together. We must believe that President Trump is proceeding with extreme caution and that he doesn’t want his legacy to be that he was Obama 2.0. Given our recent military dominance, deployment of a vast armada, and airspace superiority, anything less than a full surrender by Iran is underwhelming.
Iran’s leaders are on a jihad, a holy war waged against us on behalf of Islam as a religious duty. Too many Americans don’t see the intractability of the situation and look for a softer, more familiar landing. They imagine that it is like the bargaining at the local car dealership. They sound like they are living on a small island of cannibals and readied to be cooked in a pot, and someone progressive rationalizes their tenuous situation as a justifiable impact of “culture” or “ideology.”
Sophocles, a Greek playwright, 2500 years ago, counseled, “Foolishness is indeed the sister of wickedness, and leads to destructive outcomes.” Today, Iran has successfully played very weak hand and bluffed foolish America into protracted negotiations and a yet to be completed contract. They somehow survived and are surely going to return to building nuclear bombs and fulfill their wicked promise to destroy American and Israel. Iran’s skills at deception, delay and bargaining are being deployed following kinetic defeat on the battlefield by brave troops. Israel feels abandoned and Americans should feel embarrassed.
Who knows if the war between Iran and the American-Israel military alliance will reignite, or if the negotiations will limp on towards a completed “deal”? And it is a mystery if Iran’s proxies from will ever give up their hostilities? And will the Iranian people overthrow the IRGC and take back their country? And what will happen on January 20, 2029? Lots of questions.
The best thing all sensible Americans can do now is press President Trump to stand strong and demand Islamic Republic of Iran to fulfill on their commitments.
