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our long road to war with iran

saturday, march 21st, 2026

Until last year, for some 46 years, Iran enjoyed a North Korea-like reputation in the heart of the Middle East: always unpredictable, reckless, dangerous, inevitably to be nuclear, self-destructive, and nihilistic.

All that said, was it really ever all that formidable? Pretending Iran doesn’t pose a problem is not peace.

The mullahs came into power after the removal of the Shah and, subsequently, the interim secular socialists. They did so by taking American hostages, murdering opponents, executing former supporters, and transforming the most secular and modern of the Middle East Muslim nations into the most medieval that routinely hung homosexuals, adulterers, and almost anyone who questioned the authority of the ayatollahs. In other words, these were gruesome people, but they didn’t necessarily have a competent military.

The theocracy’s only constant with the prior monarchical Iran was that it inherited near limitless oil and natural gas reserves, sophisticated arms, and the Shah’s modernized cities. It controlled the key strategic chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz and enjoyed a geostrategically critical location between Asia and the Middle East. It fueled Iran’s historical chauvinism and pique that the millennia-long historical preeminence of Middle Eastern Persia was not fully appreciated by its Arab neighbors. So there were lots of natural advantages—and all for the most part squandered.

Under the camouflage of Shiite puritanism and otherworldliness, the ayatollahs proved even more corrupt (and far more incompetent) than the Shah’s entourage. They fought a destructive eight-year war with Saddam Hussein’s overrated Iraqi dictatorship and showed they were mostly just as militarily incompetent.

Over decades, they killed and wounded thousands of Americans by bombing U.S. embassies, barracks, and bases in the Middle East—without directly confronting the American military. For years, they sent lethal shaped charge IEDs to the Shiite insurgents to slaughter and maim thousands of Americans in Iraq and to the Taliban to do the same in Afghanistan.

At the first sign of popular protests, the regime never hesitated to gun down thousands of unarmed protesters. And, of course, they were abject hypocrites—hating the West, damning the Great Satan—and sending their pampered children to universities in America. The apparat proved quite earthly in its desire for money, estates, foreign travel, and the good life.

Their general strategies were never hard to follow.

One, the theocrats’ prior familiarity with Americans under the Shah and in exile in Europe bred an irrational fixation with and hatred of the West in general that made them useful proxies for the grand designs of communist and then later oligarchic Russia, and later ascendant communist China.

Iranian realpolitik alliances with secular communists were based on the quid pro quo of granting Russia and China access to the Gulf, selling oil to China, and buying arms from both.

Two, they were endlessly chagrined that the Persian Shiites had been overshadowed by more populous Sunni Arab neighbors that supposedly lacked their own historical sophistication and more legitimate claims of embodying and speaking for global Islam.

So they would correct that historical travesty by doing their best to mobilize their clients and proxies to bully, isolate, and weaken Arab autocracies, especially those that are pro-Western.

Three, their planned eventual destruction of Israel would ensure that theocratic and Shiite Iran regained its lost prestige and honor by finally accomplishing what the Sunni world had failed to do. By arming murderous clients in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, the West Bank, and Yemen, they fashioned a global network of death that compromised European foreign policy toward the Middle East and terrified Western leaders and many of their Arab neighbors.

Fourth and finally, they sought to diminish the role of the United States in the Muslim world, drive it from the Middle East, and wage a virtual 47-year opportunistic war against American citizens and soldiers, with help from their terrorist surrogates.

Iran’s zenith in power and prestige came during Obama’s presidency (2009–17), and the so-called “Iran Deal” that they believed would guarantee them eventual nuclear power status.

But far more importantly, their massive acquisitions of air, land, and sea weapons and the empowering of terrorists, coupled with their passive-aggressive claims to victimhood, both scared and enticed President Obama into dropping sanctions. Soon, he was apologizing for supposed past sins and nocturnally sending them millions of dollars in Danegeld.

But worse by far, Obama thought he had squared the circle of neutralizing the supposed Middle Eastern Iranian juggernaut by envisioning it as an empathetic victim—and eventual friend if not ally.

Iran was to be rebooted as the Persian and Shiite righteously aggrieved underdog—bullied unfairly by Western imperialists and their surrogate corrupt Arab petro-kingdom clients for its asceticism and courage in fighting the West since its own birth in 1979.

Obama would remedy this “injustice” by bolstering Iran as a counterweight to not just the Sunni Arab world but to Israel itself. The reset would include an American détente with the murderous pro-Iranian Assad regime in Syria, the supposedly benign neglect of Hezbollah’s takeover of Lebanon, and the championing of the “Palestinians,” which de facto had insidiously become indistinct from Hamas terrorists.

Such creative tension between the Iranian Shiite crescent and a diminished Arab world would be adjudicated from time to time by Obama himself, whose America would go from oppressor to ally of the oppressed.

So by 2017, Iran, for some reason, was considered all-powerful in the Middle East with its missiles, soon-to-be nuclear status, and Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthi killers who would murder Westerners and Israelis year after year. For the last seven American presidents, the very thought of challenging Iran militarily had been considered taboo, all the more so after the American misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.

No one, perhaps not even the Israelis, actually calibrated the true status of Iranian arms or diplomacy. Despite its huge advantages in population, Iran could not defeat Iraq and was reduced to sending 10-year-olds as human pawns to clear minefields. It never directly confronted Israel but always used surrogates to murder Jews, either abroad, as in the slaughter in Argentina, or through its “ring of fire” terrorist cliques that surrounded the borders of the Jewish state.

In sum, no one apparently realized—with the exception of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu—that beneath its rough, ugly shell, theocratic Iran was rotten and decayed inside. Its corruption and the hatred of its own people ensured that even its huge revenues and sophisticated Chinese and Russian weapons could never translate into a modern, lethal military.

And in summer 2025, the Israelis and Americans first proved that Iran was indeed hollow.

Its Arab partner in Syria imploded in weeks. The supposedly goose-stepping Hezbollah shock troops were decimated.

The scary subterranean Hamas may have proved deadly in surprise attacks against unarmed women, children, and the aged, but they were nearly obliterated by the IDF.

The Houthis mimicked Iran’s madness as they sent drones and missiles to shut down the Red Sea and hit Israel. But the U.S. and Israel finally taught them that while the Houthis had no power to harm their enemies’ interior, their Western opponents easily could destroy their airports, ports, power generation, and modern economy in days, and would happily do so if the terror continued.

So here we are, in March 2026, watching the systematic destruction of the entire five-decade façade of a supposedly invincible Iranian military, the systematic elimination of its theocratic leaders, and the dismantling of the Iranian military and Revolutionary Guard terrorists.

The regime has no military ability to ensure its survival. Instead, its rope-a-dope strategy assumes that the U.S. will be attuned to domestic criticism, the looming midterms, the price of gas, and pressure from allies to end the war before the global economy sinks into recession.

We are left somewhat confused. Why did prior presidents not hold Iran accountable for its killing, thus nourishing the myth of Iranian invincibility? Why did Israel not respond earlier to Iran itself rather than just its terrorist clients?

And what now are the surviving theocrats thinking? What is their strategy of survival?

The remnants of the theocracy intend to ride out the bombings and, at some point in extremis, expect an armistice from “negotiations.” Their ultimate strategy is to wait out the tenures of both Trump and Netanyahu and hope for another sympathetic president like Obama, or a non compos mentis Biden, or someone ideologically akin to Mamdani or AOC.

When Trump and Netanyahu are out of office, they dream of using their oil to rearm and resume their role as Chinese and Russian proxies, eventually getting the bomb, and the second time around, perhaps using it.

Theocratic Iran, in its fantasies, still believes that if it ever destroyed Israel with a bomb or two, the world, especially given the recrudescence of Western antisemitism, would be appalled—for a day or two.

Then it would resume business with it. And with a dozen or so deterrent nuclear-tipped missiles, the Iranian ritual boilerplate of crazed pronouncements would follow of supposedly welcoming a nuclear pathway to an eternal virginal Paradise.

And thus, we would go full circle back again to a “crazy” Iran, its murderous clients, and its unhinged—but effective—threats.

© 3.10.2026 by Victor Davis Hanson, "The Blade of Perseus".

A Day In The Life.

Up at 8:45a on Saturday, a mild 44°F, sunny, very windy morning, I upped the heat, made coffee, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let its 32 million lines of code load -- it had a start-up problem, so I had to shut down and restart -- had breakfast, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. Clear. Sherry would be stopping by around 1p. I scanned the weather -- cold temps coming for a few days -- and the rapidly-breaking news, and relaxed for the rest of the morning.

I’d like to know why intelligent life is so rare on earth.

I had a couple condo chores to do and got one done before Sherry arrived around 2p. We had a great time in the 3hrs together, and she left to get an errand done before going home. I had dinner, watched the news and switched to Discovery's "Expedition FILES" and "History's Greatest Mysteries" until 1a, and unplugged.

Up at 8a on Sunday, a cloudy, 41°, VERY windy morning, upped the heat, and made coffee. I scanned the news and weather, and began to organize the day. After watching the Chinese F1 GP Race, I got ready for the day, started a load of laundry, had lunch, finished the (damned) laundry, and took a very late 1½hr snooze on the LR couch.

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★★★ TORNADO WATCH! ★★★

• WHEN... From 12:15pm EST, Feb 16 2026 until 10:00Pm EST, Feb 16 2026.

• WHAT... RADAR INDICATED AND OBSERVED TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE.

• WHERE... Much of south central Pennsylvania. PA. PENNSYLVANIA COUNTIES INCLUDED ARE ADAMS BERKS BUCKS CARBON CHESTER COLUMBIA CUMBERLAND DAUPHIN DELAWARE FRANKLIN JUNIATA LANCASTER LEBANON LEHIGH MIFFLIN MONROE MONTGOMERY MONTOUR NORTHAMPTON NORTHUMBERLAND PERRY PHILADELPHIA SCHUYLKILL SNYDER UNION YORK.

I still can't get 'motivated' to get the 2025 taxes prep work done for my CPA, though I know I'll have to real darned soon. I watched the evening news, had dinner, then switched to History's "American Picker", Discovery's "Filthy Fortunes" and The Weather Channel's forecasts for tomorrow's severe storms and tornados. I bagged it around 1:30a.

Up around 7:30a on Monday, upped the heat, made coffee and scanned the weather maps. ***SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING*** and a ***TORNADO WATCH*** were indicated, along with LARGE HAIL and 50-70mph WINDS. Crap. I left at 12noon, did the first 2 nearby errands, and aborted the trip down to Dallastown, due to large and medium hail forecasts. The possible damage to my Jeep Grand Cherokee's Panoramic Sunroof alone, would be a mess, not to mention the hood, windows and roof. Not worth it. I got back home, unloaded some stuff, and the rain and wind hit the area. The light snow came overnight. I kept checking the weather radar maps all afternoon and into the night..

I had dinner, watched the news, and switched to Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" until 12:30a, and bagged it for the night. My cleaning lady's here at 8:30, so I'll be getting up early.

Up at 0-DARK-THIRTY (6a w/ alarm), on Tuesday, to a cold 26° morning, I upped the heat, made coffee and scanned the weather and news. Storms all gone, but snow squalls are forecast. The past 7-8 days were Spring-like, but Winter's back. I got ready for the day, JoAnne arrived at 8:30a, and finished around 11:30. I just stay out of her way, as she works. Sherry called to remind me that she'd be over at 1p,

I had lunch and around 12:30p, Sherry's Daughter Hollie called to tell me that she'd had a bad fall doing an errand, and that she was now taking Sherry to the UPMC Medical Center's ER. Hollie called back to say they found no concussion, but an egg-sized knot on her head, and a badly gashed elbow which needed 9 stitches. DAMN, girl! You'll be hurting tomorrow.

I closed the condo as temps dropped, had dinner, watched the evening news and switched to History's "Curse of Oak Island", until 1a, and unplugged.

Up at 8a on Wednesday, a sunny, breezy, cold 25° morning. I upped the heat, made coffee and checked the news and weather. I tuned into the "CP Show", already in progress, called Sherry to see how she was doing after her bad fall, and planned the day. The R/S pain was bad, so I used my cane most all day. I drove to the nearby Weis Pharmacy to p/u 4 waiting Rxs, and did a little food shopping. Back home by 2p, I unloaded, had some lunch and after some lunch, grabbed a 2hr nap. I watched the evening news, closed the condo around 7p as it got dark, and watched Discovery's "Expedition Unknown" until 12midnight. Lights out.

As I read thru the headlines on FNC's website, there are so many people I've never heard of, and don't know. Too many to look-up on Google -- it's the coming generation after us "Boomers" making news, after my generation is continually dying-off. And so it goes.

Up at 8:45a on Thursday, a cloudy, cold 33° morning. I fired-up he furnace, made coffee, and tuned into the ongoing "CP Show". After lunch, I worked on the 2025 Tax Prep for several hours, tabulating the 6 stacks of receipts, working thru my CPA's 6pg checklist's questions, and making some serious progress. I should finish this annual tax crap up, over the weekend, and drive it down to Dallastown, next Monday, when I do the weekly 3-4 stop trip at points south of York.

I spent the afternoon on the taxes, closed the condo around 6:45p -- it's staying light until 7p -- had dinner, watched the evening news and switched to History's "UnXplained Mysteries" and MT/Discovery's "Roadworthy Rescues" until 12:30a, and bagged it for the night.

Awake and up at around 7:30a on Friday, bright, sunny 34° morning. I upped the heat, made coffee and scanned the news and weather sites. After tuning into the "CP Show" from 9-12, I had a few smokes in the cold garage, and planned the day. I worked on the taxes, did 2 nearby errands, take a short hour's nap and enjoyed the nice weather on the back patio, until the rain arrived around 5p. I closed the condo, fired-up the furnace as temps dropped, had dinner and watched the evening news. I switched to Discovery's "Gold Rush" and "Gold Rush: Mine Rescue" until 11:30, and quit for the night.

Today starts a new week, here in the "Journal", and it's a clear week for me. I'll wrap-up the taxes and drop the package off at my CPA's offices, in Dallastown on Monday, on my usual multi-stop round trip on Monday. Convenient. I'm in touch with Sherry daily, but until her badly bruised face heals, and she gets the stitches out of her arm. She's beiung well cared for, and knows I'm here for her.

The 'Holy Month' of Ramadan Is Ending, and Here's the Death Toll.

It's the Islamic holy month, when it's a terrible insult to Muslims who are praying and fasting to bomb a rogue state that threatens the U.S. and its allies, right? Ilhan Omar said that. Yet as Ramadan draws to a close this year, the jihad death toll worldwide is 499 infidels murdered in 133 jihad attacks. No adherents of any other religion, or even any “right-wing extremists,” committed any terror attacks during this period.

Those who are confused as to how all this killing could take place during what is supposed to be a holy month should remember a key fact that the political and media establishment routinely ignores: because Ramadan is the month in which Muslims redouble their efforts to obey Allah, Ramadan is also quintessentially the month of jihad. That doesn’t just mean the month in which Muslims engage in a spiritual struggle to improve their fidelity to Allah’s commands. It means jihad violence.

This is because fighting against and killing infidels is commanded in the Qur’an (cf. 2:191. 4:89, 9:5, 9:289, 47:4, etc.). As a result, killing infidels during Ramadan is, for the killers, a holy and sacred act. A jihad group explained it back in 2012: "The month of Ramadan is a month of holy war and death for Allah. It is a month for fighting the enemies of Allah and Allah’s messenger, the Jews and their American facilitators."

This is not the prevailing view among non-Muslims in the West. Even President Donald Trump, in his 2026 Ramadan message, stated:

Every Ramadan stands as a reverent season of spiritual renewal, reflective meditation, and appreciation for God’s countless blessings. This sacred time for many Americans emphasizes prayer and fasting, strengthens familial and community ties, and affirms our shared values of compassion, charity, mercy, and humility.

Trump was right. Ramadan is indeed “a reverent season of spiritual renewal, reflective meditation, and appreciation for God’s countless blessings.” Yet for that very reason, given the contents of the Qur’an and Sunnah, Ramadan is also “is a month of holy war and death for Allah.”

During Ramadan, Muslims are exhorted to renew and deepen their devotion to Allah. Hence it is a time when they read commands such as this one, and many look for ways to put them into practice: “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Those who follow him are ruthless to unbelievers, and merciful to one another.” (48:29) The imperative during Ramadan is to grow more devout. The Muslim who applies himself diligently to the observance of Ramadan will thus become both more merciful to his fellow Muslims and more ruthless toward non-Muslims.

Throughout the history of Islam, we can see jihad being waged with extra ferocity during Ramadan. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS recounts the story of the centuries-long and excruciatingly devastating Islamic jihad against India. During Ramadan in 1504, the Delhi sultan Sikandar Lodi, in the words of the contemporary Muslim historian Niamatullah, “raised the standard of war for the reduction of the fort of Mandrail; but the garrison capitulating, and delivering up the citadel, the Sultan ordered the temples and idols to be demolished, and mosques to be constructed.”

Then the sultan “moved out on a plundering expedition into the surrounding country, where he butchered many people, took many prisoners, and devoted to utter destruction all the groves and habitations; and after gratifying and honouring himself by this exhibition of holy zeal he returned to his capital Bayana.”

Plundering, butchering, and destroying temples was, as far as Niamatullah was concerned, an “exhibition of holy zeal.” Niamatullah wrote admiringly of Sikandar Lodi:

[T]he Islamic sentiment [in him] was so strong that he demolished all temples in his kingdom and left no trace of them. He constructed sarais, bazars, madrasas and mosques in Mathura, which is a holy place of the Hindus and where they go for bathing. He appointed government officials in order to make sure that no Hindu could bathe in Mathura. No barber was permitted to shave the head of any Hindu with his razor. That is how he completely curtailed the public celebration of infidel customs. If a Hindu went there for bathing even by mistake, he was made to lose his limbs and punished severely. No Hindu could get shaved at that place. No barber would go near a Hindu, whatever be the payment offered.

Murdering infidels thus doesn’t contradict the spirit of Ramadan. It embodies it. The Kavkaz Center, a website operated by Chechen jihadists, explained in a 2010 article that the idea of Ramadan as a time for warfare against infidels went back to Muhammad’s time: "The month of Ramadan in the life of the Prophet (pbuh) and the righteous ancestors was a month of forthcoming. The greatest battles during the lifetime of the Prophet (pbuh) occurred in this blessed month, the month of jihad, zeal and enthusiasm."

It is, therefore, an annual occurrence: there is more jihad terrorism during every Ramadan. We saw four jihad attacks in the U.S. during the month of March, with which Ramadan largely coincided this year.

It is dangerous, suicidal folly for infidels to pretend that Ramadan is simply a month for renewing one’s piety, and that it is not the month of jihad. It is because Ramadan is a time for renewing one’s Islamic piety that the jihad rages even more fiercely during this month, which mercifully is now drawing to a close, than it usually does.

© 3.19.2026 by Robert Spencer, "PJ Media".