As a kid, I remember the old saying, “Never let your mouth write a check your butt can’t cash.” Many a nose has been bloodied over a bounced check of this sort. That doesn’t stop the vast majority of people from continuing to write checks that, at a minimum, could bring their account balance unsettlingly close to the negative. One such person, I hate to say, is President Donald Trump on Iran.
The President has promised a lot of “hell” would be unleashed if Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz…and then they did all they could muster to close it. Nothing.
Ships are afraid to navigate the narrow waterway, as Iran still sends kamikaze drones at tankers randomly. And the “hell” promised has not come.
I want to make clear that I don’t care what happens with Iran, I am very happy their military is about worthless when it comes to anything but these drone attacks. And I would like to see the people rise up and cast off their Islamo-fascists oppressors, but if they don’t…well, you can’t force freedom on people, you can only give them the chance to grasp it for themselves. We have.
If thugs are going to maintain control of the government in Persia, why not invite other friendlier nations in the region to take a bite, if you will?
Iran knows we aren’t about to bomb their energy infrastructure and bridges – not because it’s “a violation of international law,” and the left whines, but because President Trump doesn’t want the people of Iran to suffer. You can’t really win a military action if you’re afraid of the prospect of bad outcomes, you just can’t – think Dresden.
Since the threat was never really real, allow for a threat that is all too real to the powers in Iran: their other victims.
While Iran has been killing Americans for almost 50 years, they’ve also been killing people across the Middle East over that same time. Encourage Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE – whoever – to bust off a piece or two of Persia for themselves. It would be hard to argue that the world wouldn’t be a better place with Saudi Arabia controlling more of the Persian Gulf than Iran now does.
We can offer whatever air cover would be needed to get the job done, and there isn’t much military left to speak of, so unleash the hounds.
This would actually scare the hell out of the Iranian power structure, as they all have blood on their hands of citizens of these countries, either directly or through their proxies. If you want to motivate Iran into reopening the Strait, make clear to them it will be open season on their leaders from people unencumbered by negative polling and Democrats.
Mortality and the will to bring it into play is a powerful motivator. That’s what has been missing from President Trump’s ultimatums. Once you move a deadline in exchange for nothing, you’ve lost your leverage. It can be restored by involving people who’ve been waiting a couple of generations for payback.
This may not be ideal, but the objective matters more than the means, at this point. And a threat made by proxy is still a threat; even more of one if it involves people actually willing to act on it.
If anything is going to motivate the remaining Iranian power structure to act in the best interest of the Iranian people and the world, you need to make those actions in the best interest of themselves first. The threat of countries they’ve terrorized for decades coming after them, relentlessly and with vengeance on their minds, is probably the best way to do it.
Democrats will be outraged by this idea, of course, because it serves the best interest of the United States. But the best interest of the United States is not always served by being the nicest doormat – just look at how that’s working out in Europe – sometimes you’ve got to unleash hell. When you’ve got allies willing to be that hell, and all you’ve got to do to help it along has already been done, why not let them cover the check your mouth wrote?
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, DC, and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
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