The whole world can now clearly see that the fragmented and deranged leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran thinks that the war that it lost to the United States and Israel by the most one-sided margin in modern history —at least $1 trillion of devastating damage and the total destruction of Tehran’s navy and air defenses and of its nuclear program except for the uranium itself, at a loss of approximately 15 Israeli and American servicemen and 35 Israeli civilians, was in fact an Iranian victory.
The Iranian leaders now apparently think that they can continue unabated their nuclear program and promotion of terrorism and in addition can now assert authority over the Hormuz Strait — collect tolls and determine what oil is exported to the world. Not since the last days of Hitler, when the mad German leader was commanding divisions that had long since ceased to exist, has the government of a significant country engaged in war been so profoundly deluded.
President Trump’s address to the nation on Thursday suggests an opportunity to use the most persuasive method for an American president to rouse public opinion. He should speak in a nonpartisan and unhistrionic manner from his office in the highest traditions of the presidents of the broadcast and television era. When President Franklin Roosevelt originated the fireside chats in March 1933 and explained how he had reinforced the banking system, the crisis ended: the banks and stock and commodity exchanges which had been closed sine die reopened and the recovery from the Great Depression began.
On December 29, 1940, after having been elected to a third term, he came on the radio to denounce “the pious frauds“ of the dictators and said that “No dictator, no combination of dictators,” would deter or distract the people and government of the United States from serving the clear national interest and unmistakable duty of America: “We must be the great arsenal of democracy.” The country followed him.
The country followed President Truman when he spoke of repelling the aggression against West Berlin, Greece, and South Korea. It followed President Eisenhower when he spoke impartially of the need to enforce the requirement of the Supreme Court of the integration of the schools of Arkansas.
The nation and the world followed President Kennedy when he outlined the Cuban missile crisis and the United States followed President Lyndon Johnson when he said that the institutional mistreatment of African-Americans had to end. Perhaps most apposite to the present was President Nixon’s address in November 1969 on Vietnam, a war that had not been properly explained, adequately authorized, or pursued with the best strategic direction by his predecessors.
Nixon explained that he was training the South Vietnamese and handing it over to them but retaining comprehensive air support and concluded: “This is my policy and I take responsibility for it. If it is successful, what my critics say now will not matter, if it is not, what I say then won’t matter… But let us be united for peace. North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States; no power on earth can do that, except the United States.” The nation followed him and his job approval rating jumped 16 points.
It is simple to explain that Iran has a barbarous and criminal regime that never honors its word and is impossible for any civilized country to conciliate effectively. It is implacably determined to develop the nuclear military potential to intimidate its neighbors and reduce them to vassal states. It is an evil and violent regime whose leaders affect to believe that they have a heavenly mandate to massacre whom they wish and destroy what they will.
The president has oscillated between predictions of an imminent effective peace based on the tremendous damage that the United States and Israel have inflicted on Iran with almost no casualties of their own, and dire threats to “finish the job,” which as he undoubtedly correctly states, will not take long or be very hazardous for the United States. The correlation of forces between Iran and the United States and its allies is so overwhelmingly negative to Iran, a solution would not be long in coming. Reimpose the blockade on Iranian sales of oil, return to comprehensive strategic bombing of remaining targets in Iran, bring down the power grid and the bridges connecting the different regions, and begin helicoptering in military equipment to identifiable centers of rebellion, while destroying every Revolutionary Guard Corps barracks or other installation in the country, and complete the task of destroying Iran’s entire missile and drone firing capability.
Our Navy is perfectly able to keep the Strait open for the export of oil. This would maintain a sustainable price of oil and gasoline while Iran was economically strangled and pummelled from the air into submission, while the anti-regime majority of Iranians were materially assisted in overthrowing their ghastly regime. The Iranian regime (for which we largely have President Carter to thank) will be disposed of without undue delay, and so will Hamas and Hezbollah, (for whose eminence we have largely President George W. Bush to thank).
There will be no implacable obstacle to the establishment of peace throughout the Middle East with the Arab countries recognizing that their collective interest is strengthened by good relations with Israel. The ancient enemies of the Arabs, the Turks and the Persians, might then be persuaded to approach the Arab world in a more supportive and constructive way that has been their recent habit.
It is time to drive a stake through this nonsense that America can be intimidated by the price of gasoline and that Trump is in cold terror of the mid-term elections. The Democrats are on suicide watch with their insane policies and lunatic candidates and every two-term president since 1912, except FDR, has survived a hostile Congress in his last two years without significant problems. The president is in a position to achieve all this, and he should get on with it; the country and the world will support him.
https://www.newenglishreview.org/iran-apparently-thinks-it-can-resume-unabated-its-nuclear-program/