Is Iran the final War on Terror?
On the 25th anniversary of 9/11, until we defeat the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, there will continue to be terrorism in the Middle East. If we allow reopening of Iran’s oil exports, the IRGC will use the proceeds to rebuild Hezbollah, Houthis, and Hamas. There is no way Iran can be allowed develop a nuclear weapon, and they’ve successfully hidden 400 kgs of 60% enriched uranium as they told Steve Witkoff early in the negotiations.
Why haven’t Gulf countries buried oil pipelines around the Strait of Hormuz?
April 11, 2026: Iran’s negotiating leverage is entirely based on closing the Strait of Hormuz, increasing gas prices by $1.30/gallon. We’ve known the Iranians would close the Strait of Hormuz since the 1980s Iran-Iraq War. It’s a scenario in Pentagon war games. The Navy kept the Suez Canal open in 2024-25 by shooting down missiles and drones from the Houthi, an Iranian proxy in South Yemen. The Navy has quietly reopened routes for tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia built an above-ground pipeline from their eastern oilfields to the Red Sea that’s vulnerable to drone and missile attack and may have been damaged by the Houthis. The Gulf countries should bury a pipeline to the Indian Ocean through Oman. If the Gulf states hired Elon Musk’s The Boring Company it might take 9 years but who says we won’t be in this predicament again in a decade.
Is a non-nuclear Iran worth an extra $1.30/gal. gas?
March 1, 2026: Imagine a peaceful, modern Iran integrated into the world’s economy - an Iran that not only doesn’t make a nuclear bomb, but also ends support of terrorist proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthis, stops making ballistic missiles, and ends Sharia Law.
The Strait of Hormuz
Remember
“Death to America, Death to Israel” was not just a slogan of the Iranian regime, it was a foreign policy choice and its excuse for economic failure made by Ayotollah Khameni and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard for 47 years.
I remember watching ABC’s Nightline during the 444 days of captivity of U.S. embassy hostages in 1980, followed by Hezbollah’s bombing that killed 241 marines in 1983, and the Iranian-designed IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) that killed 1,790 American troops in Iraq, Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, and at least 7,000 Iranian protestors recently killed by the Islamic Republic. Read more on the Middle East in Are you Oppressed or an Oppressor?.
Why Now?
Iran is militarily weak after Israel destroyed Iran’s air defense and enrichment facilities last summer, decapitated Hezbollah, and eliminated Hamas in Gaza after the Oct 7 attack. The Abraham accords between Israel and many Arab countries have diplomatically isolated Iran since 2016. Iran’s negotiating strategy for decades is to delay any agreement limiting it’s nuclear program. Even last week, Iran reportedly refused free uranium fuel for peaceful nuclear power, instead of giving up on enrichment.
Could this be the final War on Terror?
For America 9/11/2001 was the start of the War on Terror, but the true start began when Iran’s proxy Hezbollah killed 241 U.S. marines in Beirut deployed as peacekeepers to stop the Lebanese Civil War in 1983.
Our track record on regime change has not been good, but 7,000 American solders died in the War on Terror fighting Al Qaeda and ISIS in Iraq and Afganistan. If the next regime in Iran ends support of Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi, stops producing ballistic missiles, and renounces developing a nuclear bomb lifting sanctions, it would mark the End of the War on Terror.
Lessons for our other Adversaries
To China: American military superiority is no paper tiger. Complete air superiority combined with a strategy of decapitation in Iran should seriously deter Chinese Communist Party ambitions for Taiwan, especially after President Xi’s recent purge of People’s Liberation Army generals. China has been getting cheap oil from Iran and Venezuela for decades.
To Russia: America will give Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense technology, a NATO No-Fly Zone and peacekeepers to defend Ukraine. America will give Ukraine what it needs to destroy your plant manufacturing the Iranian-designed Shahed drones, roughly 600 miles east of Moscow. Iran fired 900 Shahed drones in the last 48-hours toward the Gulf states hitting the U.S. embassy in Riyadh.
Read more in Cold War 2.0.
