{"id":1489,"date":"2026-08-17T04:40:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:40:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:40:49","slug":"the-iran-war-trump-must-choose-between-victory-and-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationallogisticspost.com\/?p=1489","title":{"rendered":"The Iran War: Trump Must Choose Between Victory and Defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I<\/span>t\u2019s not always easy to tell when President Trump is making a joke. What started as his claim to the \u201cGulf of America\u201d turned out to be entirely serious, though not many map makers have signed on.<\/p>\n

Read more The Demonic Possession of Liberal Women<\/a><\/p>\n

Now Mr. Trump is going on about the Strait of Hormuz, saying that he may eventually declare the Strait to be American territory. Iran, to say the least, is not amused. It claims the Strait as its own territorial waters and has effectively closed the Strait for several months. Only a few ships go through it and Iran demands that they pay a toll amounting to millions of dollars per ship. U.S. naval vessels have attacked ships going into Iran.<\/p>\n

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As Gen. Keith Kellogg wrote in the\u2019 Washington Times,\u2019 we should be fighting to win the war, not to maneuver Iran into negotiations.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi\u00a0said, \u201cThis strait will only be closed and opened under Iran\u2019s command.\u201d He added that Tehran would maintain the Strait\u2019s closure blockade until the U.S. accepts what he characterized as the \u201creality of defeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, Iran used drones to attack two UAE-flagged tankers. Iran has said that its missile and drone arsenals still contained about 75 percent of their capability. That seems unlikely given the hard U.S. and Israeli bombing attacks \u2014 and Mr. Trump\u2019s claims that they have been mostly destroyed \u2014 but those capabilities can be rebuilt quickly by Chinese (and possibly Russian) shipments. The New York Times<\/em>, eternally a harsh Trump critic and citing \u201cclassified intelligence,\u201d wrote that the Iranian arsenal was at about seventy percent of its capacity.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Iran\u2019s missile and drone arsenal seems to be functioning as well as the ayatollahs require it to. Neither we or any of our \u201callies\u201d are prepared to force the issue.<\/p>\n

Three of those \u201callies\u201d \u2014 Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan \u2014 as I have written elsewhere, are betting against the result of the Iran war by entering into a mutual defense pact. Pakistan, one of the supposed negotiators with Iran on our behalf is, with the other two nations, bringing three Sunni Islamic nations against Iran, a Shiite nation. All are frightened of Iran and, through their mutual defense treaty, are betting that the war will be ended not on American terms.<\/p>\n

As I wrote last week, we are expending Patriot PAC-3MSE missiles far too fast as well as the Army\u2019s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile system. The Pentagon is increasing purchases of both by almost ten times the amount that were purchased last year. That won\u2019t solve the immediate problem because it takes a significantly long time to both expand production capabilities and obtain vital supplies to produce them.<\/p>\n

We need to find cheaper, less complex, defensive systems both to defeat Iran and to counter Chinese aggression against Taiwan. Those will take years, at least, to produce. The Israelis have already produced laser weapons to down drones and missiles but our people have lagged behind the Israelis. The Israelis are helping us catch up.<\/p>\n

Read more Gas Usage \u2026 How Patriots Can Help<\/a><\/p>\n

The issues of defeating Iran and reopening the Strait of Hormuz are of no interest to our supposed NATO allies. They, too, are suffering energy shortages (far more than we are) but to reopen the Strait is of no interest to them because they don\u2019t want to fight Iran.<\/p>\n

As this column has stated, the Strait of Hormuz should not be the focal point of the war against Iran. As Gen. Keith Kellogg wrote in the Washington Times<\/em>, we should be fighting to win the war, not to maneuver Iran into negotiations.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump finally seems to realize that the Iranians won\u2019t abide by any diplomatic deal. He has said that he is \u201closing faith\u201d in the negotiations with Iran because they agree to one thing and then do another. It is that realization that should lead him to renew the bombing campaign.<\/p>\n

War is a binary function: either you win or you lose. It\u2019s as simple as that. By getting Iran to the negotiating table, we are not winning the war. We are losing.<\/p>\n

America appears to have forgotten how to win wars. The Korean War began that trend, leading to an armistice but not a victory. We lost the Vietnam War. We mostly pulled out of Iraq and when we left Afghanistan we had our tail between our legs. Iran has to be different.<\/p>\n

As this column has said, perhaps too often, the Tehran regime only understands military force applied relentlessly to achieve an objective that is within our goals. If we don\u2019t apply that force with no end in sight, Iran won\u2019t concede anything, especially its nuclear weapons program.<\/p>\n

American military leaders, especially Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, need to come up with options to win the war with Iran and present them to the president. He may or may not go along with their advice but as soon as he realizes that we cannot win without going much further, Mr. Trump will either concede the war or travel the path to winning it.<\/p>\n

Read more Cuba\u2019s Hidden Proxy Network: The War Against America<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE from Jed Babbin:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The War With Iran Is Exposing America\u2019s Missile Production Problem\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran Is the Key to Trump\u2019s Gaza Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mamdani Warning<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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