The question is, why is the U.S., after delivering an unprecedented military victory against the regime, allowing the mullahs to make demands as if they were on equal footing? And why does President Donald Trump keep giving in to those demands? 

We don’t need a deal with Iran. We need the regime to surrender or collapse. If the president isn’t willing to accomplish that goal, walking away would be far preferable to striking another Barack Obama-esque deal, which seems to be where we’re headed. Not only would such a deal end up empowering clerics to restart their nuclear weapons program, retrench, and rearm, but it would restrain Israel and the Gulf States from acting. 

The fact that Democrats and isolationists have successfully demoralized the American public doesn’t change the fact that U.S. and Israel decapitated leadership and institutional knowledge within the Islamic regime, set back its nuclear program, vastly degraded its ballistic missile capabilities, and stunted its ability to prop up proxy militias. 

Iran will never be in a weaker position. We will never have more leverage. If clerics refuse to strike a suitable deal while their economy is being pounded by a U.S. blockade, what in the history of the regime makes anyone believe they’ll be more amenable when given an economic lifeline?

Though you never know what our mercurial president will do tomorrow, right now it feels like he’s being hoodwinked. The Iranian strategy for survival has always been clear. They’ve employed the same delaying tactics through four administrations. 

In the long term, clerics believe they can eke out survival until a Democrat or “non-interventionist” Republican becomes president in 2028. 

In the short term, they’re counting on the president not having the courage to resume widespread military engagement. Iran understands that American domestic patience is negatively correlated to high gas prices. They understand that Trump is under political pressure with the midterm elections coming. 

This is the reason Iran keeps insisting that a narco-terrorist army in a third country be protected under any ceasefire agreement. Every time the sides are allegedly approaching an agreement, Iran instructs its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, to launch missiles and drones at Israel. When Israel inevitably responds, as any nation would, the clerics break off negotiations temporarily to stretch the timeline even further. 

Worse, on Monday, Trump announced that after a “very good” call with Hezbollah, a Justice Department-designated terrorist group that’s murdered hundreds of Americans, he’d convinced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call off planned strikes in Beirut. 

In other words, the president saved Hezbollah to placate the mullahs. So much for Netanyahu controlling the U.S. Indeed, Israel is the only country on the planet compelled by its friends to live with non-state terrorist armies on its borders. 

Do the president and his advisers really believe this capitulation is going to be construed by the Revolutionary Guard as a good-faith effort? No, it will be seen as a sign of weakness and embolden it. 

It’s possible that Trump has either been convinced by non-interventionists in his administration that any deal is better than sticking it out, and/or that the political price of victory isn’t worth it. 

Higher gas prices certainly aren’t helping the Republicans domestically. But it’s quite likely that opposition to the Iranian conflict is already baked into Trump’s approval numbers. The president owns the conflict. Striking a bad agreement now is only going to demoralize MAGA supporters who support his efforts. It would be disastrous for American prestige. If you get into a war, fight to win. 

Negotiations should have ended a long time ago, because the foundations of a deal aren’t that complicated. 

Yes, Iran should be compelled to suspend its ballistic program. Yes, it should be compelled to cease funding and assisting terrorist organizations in the region. But if Trump enters an agreement that doesn’t compel the regime to once and for all dismantle its nuclear facilities and hand over its existing stockpiles of all enriched uranium — which the regime reportedly admitted to Trump envoy Steve Witkoff could make 11 bombs — then the war was largely a waste of time. The bombings of Natanz, Isfahan, and Fordow by Trump last summer were obviously a major setback for Iran, but it won’t take much for it to be on the cusp again.

As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, enriching up to 3.67% already has Iran 70% of the way to weapons-grade uranium. From there, it would only take a matter of weeks if Iran decided to sprint to a bomb. Iran apologists like to mock Netanyahu and others who have warned for decades that the clerics were on the cusp of a breakout. This, they contend, is proof that mendacious warmongers are intent on attacking the peace-loving Iranians. But a nuclear program isn’t constantly propelling forward. All Iran needs to do is shrink the breakout time for large-scale enrichment and nuclear weaponization to months or weeks. 

MAMDANI TROLLS REAGAN AND THATCHER BUT PROVES THEM RIGHT

Moreover, without anytime-anywhere inspections, which were not part of Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal would be worse than worthless. Any realist understands that Iran is forever lying about its intentions. It has been caught numerous times. Such a deal would allow the clerics to act with impunity, benefitting from sanctions relief all the while building a ballistic shield under the cover of a deal.

“What can we do?” people have asked me. Well, Trump can keep pounding Iranian military and government infrastructure until it reaches a tier of leadership that will talk — or better yet, collapse. With a high-impact, low-casualty war, Trump can devastate our enemy’s military and bring back credible deterrence. 

If not, we should bring everyone home now.