Monday, March 30, 2026

Op-ed: 
Truths Untold...A Reality Check
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor
The article is the author's opinion alone, and does not necessarily represent the views of blogspot.com or Google
  
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”                   
- SunTzu, ancient Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher, best known as the author of The Art of War, a foundational text on strategy and tactics of war.

We all know that war itself is expensive not just in lives lost, injuries incurred, and of course dollars and cents spent, but also in the public relations aspect of each side spewing what they consider to be their own personal version of morality driven truths, with said truths...actually said lies...being pushed ever forward courtesy of both vocal and media written propaganda. In fact, the very nature of war if not sold to the public as being both rightful and just can actually undermine a given nation's pre-war claim of having attained global leadership, or at the very least being in said leadership's top tier pecking order.

And no matter how hard the behind the scenes second tier players try to hide behind ambiguity and/or selectively chosen silence, the fact remains that in war there never really are actual winners no matter if one side concedes to the other or not. Why so...because while the physical fighting might finally end, the mental anguish and pain over the multitude of blood lost remains long after peace is made and the rebuilding of what once was commences yet again.

And to the leaders of countries too afraid to fight what is a just fight...to the loudest of those leaders who still sit posturing on the sidelines of the war we now find ourselves in out of fear of muddying their hands and/or sullying their reputations...those same sorts who put faux numbers driven economics, feigned neutrality, and the aforementioned ambiguity...in actuality blatant cowardliness...may well find that what will eventually be the spoils of this war...the war with Iran...will never touch their or their countries hands for payback in this case will indeed be a rightful bitch slap across the faces of allies who proved to be anything but.

And while this particular war, at times, does seem to sit on the precipice of possibly becoming a dirty (as in nuclear or biological) played war...it is also a war whose ramifications go well beyond just the obvious dollars and cents cost of missiles and aircraft, or even that of lives currently being lost.

Why and how so? Simply, because not only does this particular war touch not just the three main players... the United States, Israel, and Iran...but it has serious worldwide economic consequences that are being felt far beyond the war's bloodied battle scared fields... consequences that find not only fuel prices in general rising, which in turn disrupts the global energy markets, but because this war also sees a disruption of many key shipping and trade routes which, also in turn, slows down much needed global economic growth. And that itself tends to lead to not only an overall rise in inflation as the cost of goods and services naturally rises, but it now also sees a shift in key Arab nations...nations who if not directly aligned with Iran still had somewhat friendly economic ties with Iran...now changing sides in what could end up being the laying of a foundation for a new power shift in the Middle East.

The only way to win World War III is to prevent it.” 
 – Dwight D. Eisenhower, former U.S. president and famed World War II general.

And to that effect President Trump has stated on more than one occasion that one of the main objectives of our going to war with Iran was and still is to prevent them from ever developing a nuclear weapon. And here it's important to remember, as I previously stated in this article, that we might well now be balancing on the shaky precipice of what could well become a dirty war played. In fact, the threat of a nuclear driven War III has never been as great as it is right now, for the caged animal that is Iran still has friends in both Russia and China...two nuclear armed countries that not only depend on Iran for their oil, but are indeed two countries that don't really like us at all.

So as military actions on all sides seems to escalate almost by the day...especially with Iran's now overtly being in direct violation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) international treaty...the May 2008 treaty that prohibited all use, transfer, production, and stockpiling of cluster munitions... for Iran is now using “cluster bombs” to specifically target Israeli civilian areas...meaning there are now two additional things not to be ignored. First, is the fact that while Iran's military has basically been decimated along with its political hierarchy being in more than a bit of a shambles, Iran's extremist religious clerics do seem to continue to hold more than just a bit of sway over a large, and still somewhat hard-line segment of the Iranian population.

And second is the all important fact that Iran’s stockpile of 972 pounds of highly enriched uranium...uranium enriched at 60% weapons grade which is enough for at least 11 nuclear bombs...still has not been physically secured by either us or by Israel. And that remains a key touch point in the scope of how this war will eventually play out.

Why so...because not only has our intel community said with “high confidence” that they know where said uranium is, but on March 18th, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified and said to the Senate “Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence” that not only had Iran's nuclear enrichment programs been “obliterated as a result of Operation Midnight Hammer,” but that there has been “no efforts by Iran” since then in regards to their trying to rebuild, let alone salvage, what was their previous nuclear enrichment capability.

In fact, in addition to Tulsi Gabbard's words, one Oded Ailam, a former head of the Mussad's Counter-terrorism Division stated that, “the uranium might well be effectively trapped beneath one of last summer's collapsed underground facilities infrastructure.” In other words, as per Ailam, the uranium is and will probably permanently remain trapped in sealed vaults of rubble and heavily reinforced concrete...adding that,“Extracting enriched uranium is an engineering, logistical and chemical nightmare that makes even the most complex operations in history look like a school field trip.”

Makes perfect sense now doesn't it, except for the fact that what appears to be Iran's truth on the surface can never be trusted to actually be the truth, which is exactly why President Trump's prime objective of preventing Iran from ever possessing nuclear weapons is indeed rightful justification for us having gone to war with Iran...and the naysayers...the Democrats and wayward Republicans be damned.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” 
- Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist whose equation E = mc2 made the atomic bomb theoretically possible.

Simply, this war has never really been about the economics of oil no matter the naysayers whining, nor is it a religious war of attrition against islam, for this war at its crux has always been about the threat a nuclear armed Iran poses not just to Middle East peace but to us all. And while some still say that this war is evolving into but a test of economic endurance coupled with a show of military muscle and strength, I say this war is actually an exercise in how “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

How so? Before this war even started...before the first bomb was even dropped...the Iranian government was bearing witness to internal power struggles of its own... struggles which had little to do with the now growing number of protests against Khamenei and his regime's iron fist grip on the people. Instead, this infighting was between the government's internal factions... factions who lobbed serious accusations of long term financial mismanagement, corruption, growing economic failures coupled with escalating energy shortages, along with seemingly overt foreign policy blunders directly at Khamenei himself.

And said accusations, at times, saw these rival factions actually engaging in publicly displayed attacks against each other as the country was sinking into ever deepening instability as the protests were not only continuing to grow in number, but were being viewed worldwide as they were happening.

In fact, as the protesters...as the Iranian people...were begging both for help and for freedom, we on the outside were actually bearing witness to how “absolute power” not only “corrupts absolutely,” but how “absolute” Khamenei's power was in his not just in trying to merely silence dissenting voices, but in his and his regime's power to murder...to execute...those voices as well.

Remember, the demanding of “absolute power” can only truly succeed in its governance when the people's voices are permanently silenced, which thanks to both President Donald J. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only were the Iranian people's voices not silenced, but the voices of the ones thinking they had “absolute power” were.

War is what happens when language fails.”
- These were the words of Canadian author Margaret Atwood. And while there is a modicum of truth to those words, the fact remains that Iran actually wanted this war as the regime thought itself invincible. But the language of war...as in the bombings, the blood shed, the lives lost, coupled with the promise of more bombings to come if and when actual words and overtures of peace fails...is itself the very language that rarely if ever fails, especially now that Tehran has officially rejected Trump's ceasefire plan. Case closed. 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, Bombs, Boots or Both.

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE! 
Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31st from 7 to 8:30pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'Truths Untold...A Reality Check'; 'Bombs, Boots or Booth'; and important news of the day. Tune in to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on https://rspradio1.com Click 'LISTEN LIVE.'