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For decades, the United States has had a reactive approach to the Middle East, scrambling to contain conflicts instigated by Iran and its proxies while ignoring the source of the region’s war and terrorism – the theocratic regime in Tehran.
Instead of confronting regime’s aggression head-on, successive American administrations have resorted to a futile policy of appeasement – epitomized by the Obama and Biden administrations’ policies of accommodation through sanctions relief and nuclear negotiations. America’s indecisiveness and weakness has emboldened Tehran to escalate its campaign of terror and destabilization with impunity.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the regime’s survival has relied on two related pillars: the suppression of dissent at home and the export of terrorism and warfare abroad. The latter objective has been pursued by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which bankrolls, arms, and directs proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and sectarian militias in Iraq.
The IRGC and its proxies have unleashed a campaign of violence which has terrorized the people of the region and facilitated Tehran’s hegemonic ambitions. Indeed, the head of the snake of war and suffering in the Middle East lies in Tehran, and lasting peace and stability will remain unattainable until the Islamic Republic is removed from power.
For decades, the mullahs in Iran have compensated for their internal weakness through asymmetric proxy warfare, relying on the hope that terrorism and instability would deter a conflict-fatigued United States from confronting the IRGC’s imperialism. However, a slew of military and security failures have shattered Tehran’s façade of invulnerability.
Most recently, the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, who led the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah for three decades, marked a critical turning point in Iran’s regional influence. The strike that killed Nasrallah came just two months after the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was eliminated in the heart of Tehran by a bomb planted in his guesthouse.
These men were more than terrorist figureheads; they were mission-critical executioners in Iran’s most valuable regional proxies, and their assassinations have created a key moment of vulnerability in Tehran. Nasrallah notably had a decades-long relationship with Tehran dating back to the early days of the Islamic Revolution, when then-Supreme Leader Khomeini helped establish Hezbollah as tentacle of Iran’s terror apparatus in Lebanon.
Since its founding, Hezbollah has played an instrumental role in executing Supreme Leader Khamenei’s bloody crusades in Syria, Gaza, and elsewhere. With Nasrallah’s demise, the bridge of influence that connected Tehran to Beirut is weaker than ever.
Similarly, Haniyeh’s assassination was a humiliating blow to the IRGC, which is so incompetent and vulnerable that it could not even protect one of its vital allies while he was on Iranian soil. The terror group that Haniyeh led, Hamas, has played a critical role in Khamenei’s efforts to maintain a perpetual conflict between Israel and Gaza, feeding on Palestinian oppression and bloodshed to justify terrorism.
Nasrallah and Haniyeh’s deaths follow a chain of key military losses that began with the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020. Before his death, Soleimani spent decades as commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force architecting nearly every modern conflict in the Middle East – from the bloody civil wars in Syria and Yemen to constant attacks on America and its allies in Iraq and elsewhere.
The assassinations of Soleimani, Nasrallah, and Haniyeh were existential blows to the institutions that have sustained Iran’s terror and military apparatus since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The inability of the regime to protect its most vital assets – and its failure to mount any substantive retaliation – exposes a fragile and crumbling system that is incapable of securing either its influence abroad or its survival at home.
The collapse of Iran’s regional hegemony comes at a time of unprecedented levels of dissent at home. Emboldened by the regime’s corruption and criminality, ordinary Iranians have bravely challenged the mullahs in several rounds of nationwide uprisings, undeterred by the security forces’ lethal crackdowns on protesters.
The ubiquitous rallying cry of the uprisings in Iran –“death to the dictator” – reflects a defiant people who are determined to free their nation from the shackles of tyranny. As chaos and uncertainty mounts for Khamenei and his inner circle, the opportunity for lasting political change is increasingly within reach for the people of Iran.
Iran’s losses both at home and abroad have exposed an existential vulnerability in the strategy of intimidation and brutality that the regime’s survival relies on. As the Islamic Republic’s house of cards collapses under the weight of its own evil, it may lash out with threats of retaliation and symbolic strikes against America and its allies, but the IRGC’s provocations are nothing more than desperate attempts to delay the regime’s looming demise by projecting an illusion of strength.
The United States should respond to Tehran’s barbarism with strength, and not allow its policymaking to be paralyzed by a medieval despot’s empty threats. Strength, to be clear, does not entail armed conflict, but rather a calculated set of policies to weaken the regime through economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation.
Forty-five years of appeasement and diplomacy with Iran’s mullahs have only produced greater suffering and instability in the region. The only hope for a stable and prosperous Middle East is for the theocratic regime in Iran to be overthrown and replaced by a secular, democratic republic. Tehran’s current moment of weakness is an opportunity for the United States to help the Iranian people deliver the final blow to the regime from within.
The Islamic Republic will ultimately be toppled by the Iranian people, but the next American administration should support their quest for freedom by applying maximum pressure on Tehran while providing recognition and support to the democratic opposition inside the country. Regime change will be an opportunity to secure lasting peace and prosperity in Iran and the broader Middle East. It is time for the United States to embrace the Iranian opposition’s noble fight by confronting the regime with strength and resolve.
Oh, let us pray!
The US has the answer=Donald Trump! He proved himself 4 years ago. Oh ye disbelievers. He’s itching to get back to
work. To save America! He did it 4 years ago and he’ll do it again. Only this time he’s smarter and understands
politics and who he can trust and not trust. Unfortunately we have 20+million illegal aliens waiting to vote-to vote
for the party that let them in!
This should never have happened! I never understood why President Reagan did not order the complete destruction of the mullahs after the hostages were released! We should have had a POLICY of ONE DAY OF BOMBARDMENT for EACH DAY the HOSTAGES WERE HELD! I look forward to Israel’s next move and hope that it is the blow that enables the Iranian People to be FREE of their tormenters!
I don’t think Iran was ever as close to collapse as they were before 2020 was STOLEN and the spigots turned back on! You can, as I say when anything is a disaster, THANK A DEMOcrat!!
While the hostages were held, I suggested that it should have been announced that they must be released. For example, today is Sunday and they must be released by Thursday. If not, on Friday a specific city in Iran will be bombed. Then if the hostages were not released, a different city, not the one named, would be bombed.
Biden like Clinton and Obama just prefer to cow-tow to them instead of facing the problem
You’re talking about effeminate males who lack a spine and a pair of balls. It would be a lie to call them “men” because neither of the three fit definition of a man. The only thing they’ve ever fought for in their miserable lives is VIP seating on the government gravy train.
That horrendously brutal, cruel oppressive malicious and murderous Islamic regime of Iran, denies the Iranian, people their basic natural human rights.
Therefore, the Iranian people are right and righteous by engaging in bitter and strong protests against those cruel malicious and murderous tyrants in power of that cruel and oppressive Sharia based dictatorship of that Islamic regime of Iran.
In other words, those vicious despots of that horrendously horrific Islamic regime have provoked the people excessively too far.
In addition, some of the people who trapped in and forced to exist in the Islamic dictatorship of Iran might not know about the intellect philosopher John Locke, but his ideas do apply to them. For Mr. Locke taught that any good government has the duty to ensure the security and safety of its citizens. Yet when a tyranny is the people in the tyrannical government do have every natural and ethical right to overthrow that terrible and oppressive tyranny/ government.
Way before that justified and righteous revolt started in the year 2022 by the Iranian people against that oppressive and brutally murderous tyrannical Islamic regime of Iran knowledge of just how horrendously cruel vicious and horrifically evil that “mullah tyranny” of Iran actually was and still is.
For example, back in time with President Trump and his administration on the date of 4/22/19 the US Secretary of State ,Michael Pompeo spoke of that brutal and oppressive tyranny which oppresses the people of Iran and said “We will not appease their oppressors as that last administration did .” Pompeo then stated “We will support the Iranian people.”
As far back as on Tuesday, 2/5/ 19 in his second State on the Union a speech President Trump ,wisely, spoke of that Islamic tyranny of Iran as well as those in total power and complete of that tyrannical rogue state. For the President declared “It is a radical regime, they do bad, bad things.”
Moreover, an author of an article on a Freedom Site, Dariush Afshar, had explained the reality of the situation well when he wrote that the “People of Iran who fight for freedom in Iran and abroad put a huge gap and draw a prominent line between Iran and the Islamic regime in Tehran.”
This is sadly and tragically the terrible reality of this Islamic tyrannical regime of Iran. This Islamic tyranny has been well nicknamed “the mullahs regime” in which them mullahs and ayatollahs as well as other fiendish and fanatical Muslims in power have a strong and awful control of the Islamic regime of Iran and through their band of Islamic state “police” , who are called the “Revolutionary Guards “come down hard human rights of the Iranian people .
Therefore, the Iranian people who are trapped and forced to exist in this Islamic tyranny live in terrible fear of the mullahs and others in power in Iran. This is a tragic and sad reminder of the wisdom that was printed in the periodical of Benjamin Franklin which is entitled POOR RICHARDS’ ALMANAC that reads “Those who are feared are also hated.”
The many arrest and imprisonment of people , repeatedly, who had peacefully protested that “mullah tyranny” of Iran only further exposes the weak ,fearful and intolerant nature of those in power in the oppressive and brutal “mullah regime “ of Iran.
As a former Muslim revealed an important reality when he wrote “The Islamic republic of Iran exists and operates as what every fundamentalist dreams of, an Islamic state ruled by sharia …” He further exposes that “What followed its establishment was the inevitable consequence and inexorable logic of its Islamic premise; state terrorism, a merciless tyranny.” [1]
Furthermore, in the book entitled HOW ISLAM PLANS TO CHANGE THE WORLD, by William Wagner on page 208 the reader is informed that “The creation of the Islamic republic in Iran has had the effect that many from that country have become disillusioned with Islam and are looking to leave Iran. ” This is a point worth pondering.
[1] THE ISLAM IN ISLAMIC TERRORISM by Ibn Warraq page 347.
Those Islamic savages are going to inflict a lot more murder, mayhem and misery on the world for some time to come until the world says enough and deal with them with a sense of purpose and finality (e.g., mass extermination/genocide.)
“Death by a thousand cuts”, was a form of torture and execution used in China from around the 10th century until recent times. The Islamic savages have been killing their enemies using that tactic and thus far, it has been successful.
The longer we tolerate it, the long it it goes on, the weaker the western world becomes until there’s no choice but to surrender to them and accept their religion or die.
What the rest of the world doesn’t see (because Islam makes very sure that they don’t) is that they are a spiritual Ponzi scheme that is haemorrhaging adherents. We may find that they collapse from within, even whilst their terrorists are continuing to try to establish a Caliphate.
There will be no peace until “The Prince of Peace” comes
Very little is discussed about Hezbollah operations in South America’s “Tri-Border Area” between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, and what if any part Hezbollahand or iran is playing in the illegal migration (including known terrorists) into the US.
While everybody talks, Israel is on the frontlines doing more to eliminate key Iranian personnel who are the architects of this multi-pronged Iranian Islamic terror. The United States has facilitated this current war Israel is fighting thanks to Biden lifting the sanctions Trump put in place. While these Democratic hypocrites bend over to this terrorist regime they are also promulgating hatred against the Jewish people. When one considers the relative size of Israel vs the United States and we are “supposedly” allies, it makes it critically clear who is really supportive of Israel: Donald Trump. We have many Iranians who fled Iran and came to the US after the Shah of Iran was deposed and Khomeini became the Islamic tyrant setting this beautiful, cosmopolitan, cultured people back into the seventh century and subjugated everyone!.
I hope that these Iranians, many of whom I suspect can never return to their homeland and any family remaining there, will vote for Trump.
We have a tremendous opportunity to rightly capitalize on these blows to Iran by Israel and the US working together to free both the long suffering people of Iran and eliminate Hamas from Gaza and Hezbollah from Lebanon and demolish the Houthis, allowing people to responsibly rebuild communities based on the intrinsic value of every human life. Israel and our Jewish people prefer to put our resources into building, innovating, discovering and start-ups and uplifting our people and nation. Doing so capitalizes on using our many gifts and talents for Tikkun Olam (healing the world) and living harmoniously with our middle eastern neighbors. We will always value our nation’s right to live securely and therefore will continue to be a strong and militarily ready nation.
Our hopes are for a Middle East free of terror and to respect and value each nation for a much brighter tomorrow and longterm future.
These people yell “Nazi” at anyone who disagrees with them, idol worship FDR and Winston Churchill, and yet, what is their policy towards Iran? Appeasement!