Over the last week, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, additional F-15 fighter planes and naval vessels carrying sea-launched cruise missiles have been making their way to the Middle East in what can only be described as a bid by President Trump to squeeze Iran into submission. In case anybody doubted this is what Trump was after, he took to Truth Social early in the morning to send the Iranians a message: give me what I want or face bombing the likes of which you’ve never seen. “A massive Armada is heading to Iran. It is moving quickly, with great power, enthusiasm, and purpose,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully Iran will quickly “Come to the Table” and negotiate a fair and equitable deal—NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS—one that is good for all parties.”
What deal is Trump referring to? In short: surrender. It’s less a deal per se and more straight-up capitulation, whereby the Iranians hand over their nuclear and missile programs on a silver platter to the Americans. According to some reports, the Trump administration is aiming for a masterstroke: Iran destroys its nuclear program, moves all of its enriched uranium out of the country, agrees not to enrich again, caps its long-range ballistic missile stockpile and cuts ties with the very proxy groups—Lebanese Hezbollah, Iraqi Shia militias, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis—it has spent decades supporting. If some of this sounds familiar, that’s because it is—during nuclear negotiations last spring between Washington and Tehran, the White House resisted any arrangement that provided Iran with even a cursory uranium enrichment program on Iranian soil. The Iranians kept pushing time and time again, Trump got frustrated with talking and eventually decided to support Israel’s 12-day war.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn’t appear any more amenable to Trump’s demands now than he was back in June. “Last time the U.S. blundered into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it squandered over $7 trillion and lost more than 7,000 American lives,” Iran’s UN Mission blasted out in response to Trump’s post. “Iran stands ready for dialogue based on mutual respect and interests—BUT IF PUSHED, IT WILL DEFEND ITSELF AND RESPOND LIKE NEVER BEFORE!” Translation: if you expect us to submit, you will be sadly mistaken.
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