Op-ed:
Iran...Vietnam Revisited...Maybe, Maybe Not
By:
Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor
This opinion piece is my opinion alone, and does not necessarily
represent the views of blogspot.or google.com
Last
summer when our “Operation
Epic Fury”
joined together with Israel's “Operation
Roaring Lion”
to successfully take out Iran's nuclear facilities we basked in the
glory of an operation well done. And so too did the people of
Iran...both the freedom fighters and protesters...who saw this as a long
awaited sign that their decades long nightmare courtesy of an
islamic regime run amok would soon be coming to an end, and that soon
freedom coupled with free and fair elections would be returning to
Iran in a relatively short period of time.And
so they patiently waited and watched as Israel “took
out”
most of the top tier of Iran's terrorist driven regime one-by-one
until little was left of their tormentors, just the son of the now
finally buried Ayatollah Khomeini...the son who still has yet to be
physically seen...a man likely more dead than alive whose persona
might well just be the face of the IRGC in disguise.
But
sadly, what the Iranian people saw as last summer's victories being a
true harbinger of freedom and peace has yet to be seen even after
they had literally begged President Trump for help with Trump telling
them that, “help
is on the way.”
But to this day, as I write this, said help, except for the bombs
that go “boom,”
has yet to arrive, now leading a growing number of folks to ask the
question, “How
did last summer's victories turn into the mess we now seem to be
mired down in?”
Simply,
once Iran's nuclear facilities were left being but deep craters in
the sand; once the head of the snake that is the terrorist regime was
removed from its body; the fact is that not only did freedom for the
Iranian people get knocked down a peg or two on Trump's “to
do list,”
but we and they saw their plight actually being replaced by what
turned this war into Iran vs. the U.S. for control of the oil
shipping corridor know as the Strait of Hormuz.
And
here might I add that this, for the most part, unwanted war has a
consequence few ever wanted to see in that not only has Iran not yet
lost this
war, but that we have not won said war either.
A
very sad commentary on the war itself in that “We
the People” were
originally told by our president that the war would last but four to
five weeks...a “short
term excursion” he
said...and yet this what still is a justifiable war is now actually
expanding to one degree or another throughout countries in the Middle
East. A time frame promised yet a time frame far from being adhered
to no matter that Israel...that Netanyahu...wanted to finish this
war...as in get the job done...last summer, but Trump emphatically
told Israel “no,”
that
he wanted to give diplomacy a chance first, no matter his originally
saying that Iran must “unconditionally
surrender.”
And
here was Trump's first big mistake for in his saying “no”
to Israel he either forgot, simply ignored, or was misinformed to the fact
that wars must be either won or lost...there is no middle
ground...and that diplomatic attempts at making deals with the enemy
only prolongs a war even longer than it had to be. And such is indeed the
case with Iran for not only did President Trump play the diplomacy game with
avowed terrorists...a cardinal rule he so foolishly
broke...but he actually gave these terrorists “extension
after extension”
even as they did laughingly cross his numerous “red
lines”
given...“red
lines”
they knew Trump never really had the courage to follow up on what
with with “extensions”
being seen by the enemy as a form of
“capitulation”... “capitulation”
unseen since the days of the highly unpopular Vietnam War.And
so in this still ongoing war with Iran, to put it in quite simplistic
terms, we are right now in a stalemate of sorts with Iran for while
we still see Trump...even after he ordered the bombings of Iran to
continue in both scope and intensity after the recent Iranian caused
deaths of three American service members stationed in Jordan and one
in Iraq...not having ceased in his desire for a deal to be made to
end this war...which again draws parallels to the last ditch attempts
made to end the above stated Vietnam War back in the 1970's.
How
so...because just like in Vietnam, Iran continues to militarily be able to
fight back no matter what we throw at them or for how long.Right
from day one Trump misread the enemy...as in the islamic
regime...just like we did with Vietnam back in the 1960's and '70's. How so...because in both wars we truly expected a very quick and
easy “asymmetric”
military victory. We thought we could “outgun” them, if you will, but instead the enemy's armies prevailed, and we ending up having to leave...to withdraw from Vietnam...in what
was truly defeat in 1975. And now in Iran, and much to our surprise,
we seem to have underestimated the sum total of their
military equipment, hence Iran's ability to not just fight back, but to
escalate the scope of the war itself.
And
while the Iran war is not an actual protracted war of attrition per
se...a war where victory is achieved solely by outlasting one's enemy
as did happen in Vietnam with we being the enemy...we now as did
Johnson and Nixon back then...never expected to be fighting against an
enemy so dedicated to their cause...in Iran's case to an islamic
ideology and mindset...that they were then just as Iran is now
willing to give up everything if need be. And this includes down to
the last man, woman, and child forfeiting their lives if need
be...better that than to surrender or agree to make a deal just to be
able to
“save face” in
the eyes of a now war weary world.
So
here the question becomes two-fold, first can we prevent this war
with Iran from turning into Vietnam revisited; and second can we see
the war's end before this November's midterm elections or at least
before the all-important 2028 presidential election?
To
answer both parts of that question requires a five step answer, because we cannot allow Iran to claim any sort of victory by
still being able to militarily cause havoc to Israel or its U.S.
aligned Arab neighbors.
First:
In my opinion, President Trump needs to publicly state
that regime change is an absolute must along with the total
dismantling of the IRGC, for without either action being taken we
might find ourselves revisiting Iran sometime in the very
near future.
Second:
I
believe
the
only way to prevent this war from becoming another Vietnam both
logistically and time wise is by us securing a total, complete, and
unquestionable military victory over Iran. We must no longer respond
to Iran's still continuing military actions by just intensifying
of our bombing raids, because while we are busy focusing on
bombing, Iran is busy planning their next tactical move. And this
matters because while Iran just might be buying time in an effort to
take our focus
off
what are now their remaining military vulnerabilities, it could just
as well be a “back
channel”
timed maneuver to secure more weapons through negotiations with
countries that don't like us very much. And here I do not mean Russia
or China, but Pakistan and North Korea.
Third:
A conclusive end-game
time frame must be put into place for us to be leaving Iran as the victor, because
the last thing we want is another long drawn out war...read Vietnam
and Afghanistan here...or to be deemed “military occupiers.”
Fourth:
I strongly believe that we cannot and must not allow Iran to win the
always ongoing PR war simply by their “winning
by not actually surrendering.”
A formal surrender is a must for to allow Iran to bypass that
formality shows great weakness on our part...“capitulating”
to the enemy even if it's just so that the enemy can garner some
semblance of “saving
face.” The
optics of that on the world stage would for us be absolutely
humiliating, as well as being a slap in the face to our military.
Fifth:
I
seriously doubt we will see the war with Iran being over before the
midterm elections being less than four months away. Logistics and the
war now extending into Iran's neighboring Gulf States has seen to
that as it helps to bolster Iran's image of standing strong against
the U.S. And as far as 2028 is concerned as long as JD Vance
continues on in his defaming of Israel, as long as President Trump
keeps spouting the words “
negotiation” or
“deal,”
we just might see not only two elections lost but Vietnam revisited.
Case closed.
Copyright @ 2026 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.
************************************************************************************************** For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, The Iran War – Options vs. Alternatives Part 1.
**************************************************************************************************************************
RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 21st from 7 to 8:30pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Iran...Vietnam Revisited...Maybe, Maybe Not'; 'The Iran War – Options vs. Alternatives Part 1'; and important news of the day. Tune in to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on https://rspradio1.com Click 'LISTEN LIVE.'
