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 World 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.

 

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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Op-ed:
The Trump Effect x Three
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

Recently some of my readers have asked me what exactly do I think the “Trump Effect” is, and that I can answer in one simple word, “patriotism.” Unabashed “patriotism” to such a degree that now under Trump's stewardship America sees herself, “We the People,” and the Constitution coming first unlike that of the previous president. And while the left will always say the “Trump Effect” is a bad thing, that judgment is colored by their inability to define or even access his presidency fairly...their emotions always get the best of them. And that's sad as the lefts hatred of Donald Trump the man will never allow them to see let alone acknowledge all the good he has done for our country.

So let's start with but three most recent “good things” courtesy of the “Trump Effect.”

Read entire article here: https://thepatriotfactor.blogspot.com/2019/05/op-ed-trump-effect-x-three-by-diane.html

Op-ed:

The Trump Effect x Three
By: Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / Right Side Patriots on American Political Radio

Recently some of my readers have asked me what exactly do I think the “Trump Effect” is, and that I can answer in one simple word, “patriotism.” Unabashed “patriotism” to such a degree that now under Trump's stewardship America sees herself, “We the People,” and the Constitution coming first unlike that of the previous president. And while the left will always say the “Trump Effect” is a bad thing, that judgment is colored by their inability to define or even access his presidency fairly...their emotions always get the best of them. And that's sad as the lefts hatred of Donald Trump the man will never allow them to see let alone acknowledge all the good he has done for our country.

So let's start with but three most recent “good things” courtesy of the “Trump Effect.”

“Good thing” number one: the Trump economic juggernaut keeps rolling along and when a country's economy is strong that equates to said country being able to successfully flex its muscle in every other aspect as well. Without a strong economy nothing else really matters, and under Donald Trump's leadership America's economy is booming no matter what the Democrats say.

Take the newest jobs numbers for example...the Department of Labor's April 2019 jobs report shows that the U.S. added 263,000 new hires in April with the unemployment rate falling to 3.6%...the lowest it's been in 50 years. And this easily beats Wall Street's projection of 190,000 jobs being created and an unemployment rate of 3.8%.

Also, with wage growth being above three percent for the past nine consecutive months, we now see the average hourly pay rate reaching $27.77 no matter that the average work week dropped 0.1 hours to 34.4 hours. And with business services, construction, and health care jobs gaining the most in new hires...all key economic indicators now point towards both a robust and sustainable economic growth pattern being in place for quite a few years...enough years so to become the longest in U.S. history.

Not too shabby is it...and it's all thanks to President Donald Trump.

Now here's something else not a bit too shabby...the all-important GDP increased by 3.2% during the first quarter of this year, while productivity jumped 3.6%...its best gain in five years. Even pending home sales rose by 3.8% in March leading into April, leaving open the possibility that interest rates will either be held in check or cut by up to a full percentage point...something President Trump would like to see.

So much for Pelosi and crew's doom and gloom economic scenario for the good news continues on with economic data showing that during the first quarter of 2019, the U.S. Treasury showed an almost mind-blowing $160.3 billion surplus in April alone.

And what's led to this economic success story...the “Trump Effect” called "tax cuts." And yet many Democrat presidential wannabees...including so-called moderate Democrat Joe Biden and socialist proponent Bernie Sanders say they will repeal Trump's tax cuts if they should become president.

Nothing like the Democrats wanting to replace what works with what doesn't work.

And Democrats are also unhappy over President Trump's doubling U.S. tariffs from 10% to 25% on $200 billion in Chinese imports into our country. Saying that this move, which took affect last Friday at 12:01 EST, will escalate a trade war between China and the U.S., what most of the Democrats don't see is the big picture and the fact that tariffs work. How so...tariffs force U.S. businesses to shift away from Chinese to American suppliers thus hurting China's economy which in turn forces the Chinese to make needed concessions... concessions benefiting our country which right now spends four times more on Chinese goods than China spends on our goods. And isn't this what these tariffs are all about... making “Made in America” goal number one.. I know it is for our president...it should be for Democrats too.

"Good thing” number two: America is flexing her military muscle once again, something long overdo thanks to our previous president. Last week President Trump approved the deployment of a Patriot missile defense battery and yet another warship to the Middle East due to what he rightfully said was "heightened Iranian readiness to conduct offensive operations" against both our and our allied countries...Israel most specifically. In fact, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) had previously stated that since early May there has been an increased possibility of Iran or its regional proxies taking action against U.S. and partner interests. One just has to look to May 4th and 5th when 700 Iranian-supplied Hamas rockets reigned down on Israeli civilian population centers to see Trump's words as truth.

And soon after MARAD's announcement the Pentagon released its own statement that “the U.S. is postured and ready to defend U.S. forces and interests in the region" and that the USS Arlington...already scheduled to go to the region...would see its date being moved up so as to provide “enhanced command and control capabilities”... "capabilities" including said Patriot missiles...for the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, already in position in the Red Sea. Also, a U.S. air force bomber task force, including B-52 bombers, recently arrived at the U.S. airbase Al Udeid in Qatar.

And Iran's response to this show of force...Iran dismissed these moves as nothing but "psychological warfare" on Trump's part designed to intimidate its government while Iran's semi-official Isna news agency quoted senior Iranian cleric, Yousef Tabatabai-Nejad, as saying that the U.S. military fleet could be "destroyed with one missile.”

And so the chess game begins again but this time Iran is up against a chess master not an islamic condoner.

But if truth be told ever since Trump rightfully removed the U.S. from Obama's very bad nuclear deal...thank you President Trump...and reimposed even stricter sanctions on Iran...it was all but a given that Iran would eventually threaten to cut off all shipments of oil to the U.K., China, France, Germany and Russia if they didn't help to “shield” Iran from said sanctions. And this showdown and show of force was not only destined to happen but had actually been escalating in the weeks prior to Trump's now taking military action.

So as Iran continues to claim that its current actions are solely in response to what they call Trump's “economically crippling sanctions,” and with Iran's continuing bloviations to close the vital Strait of Hormuz through which almost a fifth of all the oil consumed globally passes...they now are threatening to target for reprisal commercial vessels, oil tankers, and U.S. military vessels in both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. This leaves one to wonder if the mullahs really are stupid enough to believe that a man like President Trump will just sit back and do nothing...not a chance as Iran is clearly bating the U.S. for war... with Israel of course being target number one.

But Iran best not play this game with President Trump for it will not end well for them as we and the military “Trump Effect” will see to that. Bye-bye mullahs...enjoy your 72 virgins... enjoy them all in hell.

“Good thing” number three: has the “Trump Effect” now seeing a rightful Republican backlash...a backlash that would never dare be seen when Barack HUSSEIN Obama was president...a backlash against none other than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who, on the request of Texas Democrat Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, had the unmitigated gall to allow a well-known radical anti-Semite and an avowed Hamas supporter, an imam by the name of Omar Suleiman, to deliver the daily prayer before the House of Representatives late last week.

delivered the daily prayer at the House of Representatives onRead more: https://forward.com/fast-forward/424100/imam-omar-suleiman-israel-nazis-bds-prayer-house-congress/

delivered the daily prayer at the House of Representatives onRead more: https://forward.com/fast-forward/424100/imam-omar-suleiman-israel-nazis-bds-prayer-house-congress/deliver the daily prayer before the House of Representatives last week.

Claiming her decision regarding Suleiman came after being “dismayed” about the controversy surrounding Ilhan Omar's anti-Semitic comments, pray tell how does a prayer by Palestinian activist Omar Suleiman...founder and president of the radical Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, a supporter of the anti-Israel “Boycott, Divest and Sanction” (BDS) movement who also aligns himself with the Muslim Brotherhood and its American “front group” CAIR...exactly how does that or any prayer right any wrong spewed from Ilhan Omar's mouth...simply it does not nor were Suliman's words ever meant to.

In fact, Suleiman's words were planned to make things worse, which was obviously Nancy Pelosi's goal as her recent actions or lack thereof are proving that she herself is an anti-Semite. Why else would she allow the very man who relishes in not only pushing anti-Semitic tropes about how Israel controls U.S. foreign policy...which it does not...and who continuously whines that Israel is the 51st state of the U.S...foolhardy words indeed...yet words I cannot find being condemned by House Speaker Pelosi.

And even though it's after the fact, some prominent muslims are now questioning Pelosi's decision including muslim reformer Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, who stated that Omar Suleiman “represents the Islamist establishment,” adding, “This ‘scholar’ is not a moderate…” and that, “It is absurd if not bigotry to think a man who holds these positions represents most American Muslims.”

Well Dr, Jasser, while Omar Suleiman might not represent most American muslims he surely does represent Pelosi and the other anti-Semitic sorts in Congress who, like him, hate both Israel and the Jewish people. And in her allowing this slap in the face to American Jews and our ally Israel, Pelosi has willingly allowed the halls of Congress to be forever stained.

I think New York Rep. Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) said it best when he tweeted that it was, “Totally unacceptable that @SpeakerPelosi had Omar Suleiman give the opening prayer yesterday in the House. He compares Israel to the Nazis & calls them terrorists, supports Muslim Brotherhood, incites violence calling for a Palestinian antifada & the end of zionism, etc. Bad call pic.twitter.com/bZakjQVwsJ.”

Bad call Ms. Pelosi...very bad call indeed.

And as we knew would happen when anyone dare call a Democrat or a muslim to task, when Suleimen was questioned by the media regarding those now speaking out against his giving the invocation, he blamed the brouhaha not on his own radical islamist and anti-Semitic views, but on a campaign waged by “creepy obscure right wing sites [designed] to flood the internet with vicious smears.”

And know it's only a matter of time before the Democrats twist the truth and blame Trump himself for the backlash against both Pelosi and Suleiman. It always seems to be that way when Democrats and muslims get knocked down by the steamroller known as the "Trump Effect."

And so these are but three of the current “good things” courtesy of the “Trump Effect.” It really is sad that most Democrats cannot see all the “good things” President Trump has done, but then again maybe some Democrats can...maybe it's just that their blindly followed political ideologies will not allow them to publicly acknowledge it. There's always the privacy of the 2020 voting booth...we can only hope that those Democrats acknowledge Trump's “good things” in the end.

Copyright @ 2019 Diane Sori / The Patriot Factor / All Rights Reserved.

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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Craig Andresen's blog The National Patriot to read his latest article, One Man Alone is Jordan's Future.

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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS...LIVE!

Friday, May 17th, from 7 to 9pm EST on American Political Radio, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss 'The Trump Effect x Three'; 'One Man Alone is Jordan's Future'; and important news of the day.

Hope you can tune in at: http://listen.samcloud.com/w/73891/American-Political-Radio#history...or on Tune-In at: https://tunein.com/radio/American-Political-Radio-s273246/