In late 2003, if you’d sat across the table from a team of negotiators from Al Qaeda to work out some kind of deal to end hostilities, what could have possibly come from it? The answer is nothing, because there is no compromise with someone whose position is that they want you dead. Where’s the middle ground with that – can you be half-dead? Are you willing to lose a limb or two to get peace?
Of course not, that’s stupid. Al Qaeda wanted all Americans dead, so the only “solution” to their existence was to either work to contain them so attacking us would be harder and less frequent, or to kill them all. Thankfully, President George W. Bush opted to kill them all, then set about killing as many of them as humanly possible. He ignored the whining of Democrats who wanted to arrest them, give them lawyers and trials, and (for the most part) left the sorting them out part to God.
Iran is pretty much the same situation, with the only differences breaking down to them having some semblance of a government, their own currency, and sympathetic client states who want to keep them afloat because of the way they are a disruptive force in the world and a thorn in the side of civilization.
Whatever remains of a government in Iran has no interest in cutting a “deal” with the United States. They don’t need us; they make money and gain power by poking us. Their “demand” that for no peache negotiations rang hollow as their weeks-long funeral for the dead former leader was punctuated by their launching drones against ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Radical Islamists always demand “holy days” and “holy months” off from fighting, and every other day or month seems to have some kind of “holy” designation to it. But it never stops terrorist attacks. Weird, isn’t it?
Iran has no interest in a deal because they don’t need one. The appeals to a “booming economy” Iran could have if they chose peace mean nothing, as the leaders of the country are fine and always will be – they take what they want, and the average Iranian suffers. If there’s less in the country, as there has been for decades, they still get theirs. No Mafia don ever told their underlings to be understanding if someone paying “protection” was a little short sometimes, as downturns happen. No, they’d break the guy’s arm and take everything he had, leaving him with nothing and charging him interest on the difference he couldn’t cover. That’s how Iran works internally.
There is no carrot on a stick that will change their behavior because they’re lousy with carrots. The people are the ones without vegetables, and they don’t care about the people.
The only options are to bomb the hell out of them, leaving not a stone unbombed, or leave them alone. You either have to kill them, or they stay the way they’ve always been.
The only other option, the one I believe might change the path of Iranian history, is to tell our allies in the area that they are free to take as big or small a piece of Iran as they want – Persia is a region and has always existed; the country of Iran has not and does not need to. Let its neighbors take pieces and rule them.
They’d go for the oil and the ports; we’d provide air cover, and that would really choke off the government.
It would also have the benefit of scaring the hell out of these leaders. They know we won’t torture them; we’d give them three hot meals and a cot and access to a jury of Democrats who’d likely cheer them for 47 years of killing Americans. Their neighbors, against whom they’ve funded terror for five decades, wouldn’t be so nice. The Iranian leadership would know what being captured by them would likely mean, and it isn’t pretty.
Maybe THAT would get them to negotiate in good faith, because nothing else will. Drop guns to the freedom-minded, too, and level anywhere a government official might be hiding, unleash the region, or cut bait.
These aren’t rational people; they aren’t motivated by things that motivate normal people. It’s time to recognize that and choose a path forward based on that reality.
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.