Last
week I wrote about the “maybe
or maybe not” of today's war with Iran possibly
becoming a war not unlike Vietnam...a war we lost back in 1975 when
we pulled out of the country minus what should have been an easy and
overwhelming military victory.
And it was a defeat that still has a haunting degree of political ramifications even today, for the fact remains that misplaced diplomacy was chosen as the path to try and end the Vietnam War, just as still failed diplomacy was chosen to end the war in Afghanistan, and now is still what President Trump hopes will succeed in regards to Iran.
And while diplomacy is altruistic by its very nature, the fact remains that when ones enemy continues to fight back...to engage militarily while talks...whether they be in the open or via back channels...are ongoing, the enemy wins in the “court of public opinion” for they look strong while we look weak. This was the case in both Vietnam and Afghanistan, and as long as Iran has the ability to keep lobbing missiles and drones at their fellow Gulf neighbors and of course at our U.S. military bases and interests, it's Iran that looks strong no matter our newly intensified bombings. Why so...simply because President Trump has not yet stricken the words “diplomatic solution” from his vocabulary.
Remember,
in Afghanistan...President George W. Bush's initiated war...we saw
our military needing but mere weeks to oust the Taliban from the
country, yet twenty years later on August 30, 2021 thanks to then
President Joe Biden...whose entire presidency was really a joke at
best...we left Afghanistan in humiliating defeat, Why so, because
Biden chose to ignore what was then obvious Afghan government
corruption along with the fact that the Taliban were still being able
to cause massive havoc from what was their safe haven in
Pakistan...the very same Pakistan now involved in the ever dubious
still somewhat ongoing Iran negotiations. Seems President Trump and
his advisors did not learn a lesson in what was then
Afghanistan/Pakistan betrayal.
And when all Biden's fence-sitting diplomatic efforts failed to win even a modicum of U.S. political legitimacy amongst the Afghan people...people who saw Biden's withdrawal efforts as being both a betrayal and an outright abandonment of the Afghan people...the Taliban quickly moved back into Afghanistan to again rule the country sending the people back to the sixth century while they got to keep all our foolishly left behind advanced weaponry. And again, this was no matter the limited diplomatic efforts the Biden administration put forward to at least try to recoup some of that equipment.
“Diplomacy”
and
“deals”...two
words that infuriate me when it comes to Iran because for years
numerous presidents and their administrations...including that of
Trump during his first term in office...told us that Iran was the
world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and that they had to be
dealt with before another 9/11 type scenario were to occur. Yes,
numerous administrations “talked
the talk” yet
no real actions were taken not even after Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu...the man whose very country was deemed to be
Iran's arch enemy number one...we were number two...addressed a joint
session of Congress during Trump's first term in office, and came
replete with charts and graphs which laid out the ugly truth for the
whole world to see.
But did we listen then...no...are we listening now...yes...while at the same time a certain individual within the current administration publicly stabbed the messenger and his country in the back, and continues to do so albeit trying to choose his words a bit more politically correct and cautiously.
Yet the bottom line is that it took until last summer when Iran was literally on the verge of finalizing construction of a nuclear weapon that we, together with Israel, sprung into action and turned Iran's nuclear facilities into rubble while at the same time Israel sent numerous key members of the regime on a one way trip to allah. And it seems that it was at this high point when things started to “go south” with talks of “negotiations and deals” entering into and dominating the discourse.
Simply,
“negotiations
and deals” with
those infamously famous for making “deals”
with
fingers crossed behind their backs is something Trump, and his
people, have yet to learn go nowhere, because Trump had again put his
reinstated bombings on temporary hold, as he once again wanted to
negotiate a deal...this time to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
And so while President Trump's intentions and ensuing military actions taken at the beginning of this war, and again now in the war's later stages, were done for all the right reasons and should not as such come into question, what should come into question...and it's long overdo...is why both our president and his advisors do not understand...or simply chose not to accept as fact... that “negotiations and deals” made with the enemy actually do fail more times than they are successful. And why...because not only do these scenarios give both sides time to regroup, rearm, and re-strategize, but what physical actions said deals temporarily stop Iran from doing see their proxies picking up the slack and doing.
Gives new and quite dubious meaning to these six ever truthful words, “with fingers crossed behind their backs,” I'd say.
And
then there's this...the difficult balance between compromise and
demands, which both sides tend to look at differently...as in
non-negotiable demands (Iran demands to be a nuclear power), vs. what
are deemed to be transitional time-framed demands (if Iran is still
behaving in a decade or so we'll revisit the issue of Iran enriching
uranium for peaceful uses alone... meaning if Iran meets our carved
in stone demanded time frame, then maybe in time we'll give them one
of their lesser demands...you give us this, maybe we'll give you
that.
Not a good way to win a war I'd say for all negotiating for deals does...and remember they usually do fail...is prolong the inevitable defeat for one side or the other whether the inevitable is the “good guy” or not. And here let's remember that when he ran for office...all three times that is...that Trump actually pledged to keep our beloved America out of what seemed to be “forever wars”...wars like Vietnam and Afghanistan...and yet now here we are in what could turn Iran into just such a war if we don't figure out a way to end this war with us being the victor, with that sadly meaning having to send in ground troops if that be the case.
And whether some like it or not...no matter which side of the political aisle one is currently on...previous wars both won and lost have shown that when wars are fought minus ground troops peace is usually not achieved. Why so... because airstrikes, missiles, and drones can do only so much. Yes, they do blow things up thus making certain needed things unavailable to the enemy., but bombings alone cannot secure areas, control the population, or secure a war's much needed objective of the enemy completely and “unconditionally surrendering.”
Simply,
for Iran not to have yet officially surrendered (which was Trump's
original objective that he foolishly strayed away from)...whether it
be unconditionally or otherwise... in spite of our overwhelming
military victories Iran has incurred...still means that we...that the
United States of America...has yet to win this war. Why so...because
Iran and its regime has outlasted and outmaneuvered President Trump
courtesy of its simple ability to endure, and shift the war
outward to encompass its fellow Arab neighbors while also now
starting to move outward from there...outward even into the Red Sea
at last report.
In fact, when I started writing this article...the bombings were back on again do to Iran's not only having launched a targeted missile attack against U.S. troops stationed in Jordan which resulted in three American deaths... to which President Trump then rightfully vowed to,“beat the f-king s-t out of” Iran...but the bombing attacks continued on as we and Saudi Arabia jointly struck Iran's proxy-aligned terrorists in Iraq...terrorists who had launched 30 drone attacks on U.S. aligned forces and assets in the region included Saudi's oil fields.
But now those “payback” attacks have ended...at least as I finish writing this...for we did what needed to be done while Trump remains caught up in a cycle that hoped for negotiations and deals can still end this war, which in my opinion it cannot. Why so...because right from the beginning President Trump and his people underestimated Iran's military arsenal as witnessed by the fact that they're still fighting back which has helped in the destabilizing of global energy markets, while at the same time putting some long held U.S. alliances in jeopardy.
And while I really don't see that happening anytime soon...unless Israel is allowed to do our job for us...I ask with all due respect that President Trump rejoin together with Israel...but leave JD Vance at home...and together finish the job that you started together. We as a nation do not need or want another Vietnam let alone another Afghanistan, most especially with not just the midterms fast approaching, but the 2028 presidential election only two years away. President Trump, it really does all rest on your shoulders...do what needs to be done, and please do it soon for there really might not be a later. Case closed.
************************************************************************************************** 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 2.
RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!
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