We watch. You know first.
Trump says the U.S. could hit every power plant in Iran, and the hand-wringing started right on cue. Let me ask the people clutching their pearls a simple thing. What choice are we left with? What do you do with a regime that signs a peace deal and then goes right back on it?
Because that's exactly what happened. We made the deal this past week. Days later they were firing on civilian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. That's not a misunderstanding. That's a choice they made.
So spare me the lecture about escalation. When one side keeps its word and the other side lights it on fire, you're not left with many options. You're left with force. That's the truth whether it's comfortable or not.
And let's not pretend we haven't already shown restraint. We've decimated most of their military. Most of their Navy is gone, sitting at the bottom or rusting in port. We backed off. We gave diplomacy the room to work. They fired anyway.
Here's what I think is really going on.
1. There's a new Iranian government that at least says it wants peace. 2. The hardliners never wanted any such thing. 3. Those hardliners are actively working against their own government to make sure real peace never happens.
You can't negotiate your way past people who need the war more than they need their own country to prosper. They aren't looking for a deal. They're looking for a reason.
Now, I'm not an all in or all out guy. I've criticized plenty of what Trump has said and done, and I'll do it again when he earns it. This isn't that. Threatening the infrastructure of a regime that keeps breaking its word after we already gutted its ability to fight? That's not recklessness. That's leverage. It's the one language the hardliners have shown they actually understand.
Ask yourself what the alternative is. Another deal? We tried that. More patience while our ships take fire in international waters? No thanks. You don't reward a broken promise with a fresh one.
Peace is the goal. It has always been the goal. But peace with a partner who keeps stabbing you between handshakes was never peace. It was a setup, and everybody watching this play out knows it.
Fix your hardliner problem, Tehran. Get your own house in order before your own people do it for you. Because the patience you keep spending is not endless, and the bill for firing on civilians in the Strait always comes due.
Enough is enough.