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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – General Douglas MacArthur’s great comment about war is that “there is no substitute for victory.”
Stale-mates bleed the stronger side dry. Endless negotiations for peace gives the losing side time to regroup. Anything that prolongs the fighting needlessly costs lives. General MacArthur’s timeless advice is to pummel your adversary into unquestionable defeat, and then impose your terms of surrender. It’s advice worth following in Iran.
Does anyone actually believe that Iran will follow through on any negotiated end to the war? Of course not. A democrat who opposes the current war might be next in the White House. Would they hold Iran to terms? Maybe not.
Instead of protracted negotiations, let’s test Iran right now. Put an oil tanker, bound for the United States, through the Straits of Hormuz tomorrow. Let it be under a U.S. Navy escort. If it’s attacked, we should indeed blow up Iran’s electricity and water infrastructure. If it isn’t we should announce a new policy. The straits are international waters. Any interference from Iran will have military consequences.
Let’s begin talking amongst ourselves about what victory looks like. First, a non-nuclear Iran. Not just for nuclear weapons… but no centrifuges, no untruthful talk about commercial enrichment. Iran is out of the atomic energy business – period. Iran is to be so weakened that they have no resources left to fund terror proxies like Hamas or Hezbollah. The U.S. and Israel should make it clear that those terror groups will be treated no differently than if there were an attack by Iran’s military proper. The Straits of Hormuz will no longer be under Iranian control. They will no longer decide if the straits are open or closed, and to which ships. Regime change? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t care who runs Iran. I care that the nation is so de-fanged that they can’t be an international mischief maker.
Those are the goals I’d like to see. The faster we get there, the better off the world will be.
Chris Conley
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