Re: Is this finally the End of the War on Terror?
April 11, 2026: Why didn’t the Gulf countries build an oil pipeline around the Strait of Hormuz? We’ve known the Iranians would close the Strait of Hormuz since the 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War. I’m sure it’s come up in the Pentagon’s war games - perhaps the Navy said they could keep the Strait open militarily, but now can’t guarantee safe traffic from drones hitting targets in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The Navy recently kept the Suez Canal open by shooting down missiles and drones from the Houthi, an Iranian proxy in South Yemen, so why can’t the Navy reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia built an above-ground pipeline from their eastern oilfields to the Red Sea, which is vulnerable to drone and rocket attack and may be Iran’s next target. The Gulf countries should bury a pipeline from Bahrain to Muscat, Oman. If they hired Elon Musk’s The Boring Company it would take 9 years but who says we won’t be in this predicament again in a decade. The conflict with Iran goes back 47 years.
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.
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-tech 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?.
Islamic Republic of Iran flag (left) vs pre-1979 Iranian flag (right)
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.
End of the War on Terror
I know our track record on regime changes has not been good, but the U.S. attack on the Iranian regime today including the assassination of Ayotollah Khameni and 40 Revolutionary Guard leadership is morally justified.
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.
