VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Our Long Road To War With Iran

Daily Caller ^ | 3/12/26 | Victor David Hanson

[Roman_War_Criminal]

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?

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.

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TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Military/Veterans; Society
KEYWORDS: cartersfolly; carterslegacy; iran; jihadistkeywordtroll; middleeast; notawar; specialmilitaryop; vdh; vickyhanson; victordavishanson; war

[Roman_War_Criminal]

[Roman_War_Criminal]

This article is posted and directed to all the FReetards who claim the following:

1. Iran was never an enemy of the USA
2. Iran was never a threat nor ever attacked the USA
3. We’re doing this on behalf of Israel
4. The economy will ‘sink’ 🙄
5. This is not our fight

Furthermore, you Antisemitic Jew haters out there need to be put on notice. Especially those who claim Jesus Christ is their “Savior” (HE WAS A JEW BTW....)

1. God is watching
2. God knows who are truly His Children
3. If God can revoke His Promises to Israel (as you ignorantly suggest) what makes you think He can’t do the same to you Goyim?

For True Christians, now is the time to Stand with Israel.
Now is the time to Pray for Her People.
Now is the time to Pray that many Iranians and people throughout the world come to Salvation through Christ.

I know where I stand.
May The Lord be Gloried in all of this!

[sauropod]

I also stand with Israel. For God’s glory!

[Roman_War_Criminal]

🙏

Thank you sauropod! God Bless You!

[goodnesswins]

VDH lays it all out there...let us pray that the Trump admin DOES finally decimate the mullahs...so that western idiots do not allow another 47 years of their terror.

[odawg]

“Especially those who claim Jesus Christ is their “Savior” (HE WAS A JEW BTW....)

Jesus is my “Savior” because he is the Son of God, not because he was Jewish.

“...what makes you think He can’t do the same to you Goyim?”

What a viciously hate-filled remark. Yes, God is watching and you are certainly not our judge. You can shove that remark sideways up your ass.

[John O]

Excellently stated. And great post.

[No name given]

Amen!

[No name given]

So do I.

[subterfuge]

FReetards? Sorry, you lose all credibility when you say that.

[Sequoyah101]

Who and how many Iranians do we have to destroy to end their radical shiite islamist ambitions?

We seem to be able to easily systematically destroy their weapons but will we destroy their people? There sure seem to be a lot out in the streets in seeming support of the current regime. Killing all of them, their associates and relatives doesn’t even insure prevention of a revival of their madness for long but it is the only hope for that.

Will we?

[Kleon]

We seem to be able to easily systematically destroy their weapons but will we destroy their people?

We already have.

[Biblebelter]

At first glance I misread the title.

I thought it was along the lines the long road to victory.

VDH does lay out the foundation for the war.

But he is not a military man.

The weakness of their military means little.

Wars are won by CONVENTIONAL military means and by formulating achievable military objectives and accomplishing them.

That is of course unless you want to go the full Harry Truman and drop a nuke or two.

The lessons of Vietnam were NEVER learned.

Geography matters and it favored the Viet Cong.

South Vietnam was mostly a jungle disguised as a nation-state.

Wars are won by capturing territory and capturing a jungle was not achievable.

Afghanistan has really never been conquered because of its geography and terrain which is the opposite of jungle but just as formidable to capture and secure.

Iran is a huge country and mountainous as well.

In that sense it is much like Afghanistan although the Persians are much more modern than the Afghanis ever were.

And the Persians have used a theocracy to centrally organize themselves as the Afghanis were always organized locally by tribes.

My point is a military victory was never achievable in Vietnam even fighting by conventional warfare and by bombing, bombing, and more bombing.

A victory in Iran is more achievable than Vietnam or Afghanistan, but the will and the duration necessary are not going to be available to the Trump administration.

The MYTH that you can quickly win a war by bombing, bombing, and more bombing is once again being CONFIRMED as PURE MYTH.

[spintreebob]

“My point is a military victory was never achievable in Vietnam”

You lose credibility with statements like this.

When the CIA ousted the popular elected president of S Vietnam we lost credibility (apparently because he was friendly toward Goldwater).
The LBJ strategy of sending 500,000 untrained grunts lost credibility.
S Vietnam would have been quite different without the above 2 stupid blunders.

[Sequoyah101]

Not nearly enough. It is said that at least 10% of the 90 million are Shiite adherents loyal to the theocracy. 9,000,000 people out of 90 million.

[Big Red Badger]

The God of Abraham,Issac and Jacob
Be Glorified Forever More!
.
Pray for The Peace of Jerusalem!
.
Maranatha!

[rlmorel]

Amazing. As an American, how could I know Iran was waging war on us for the last 47 years?

How was I to know?

• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they took over our embassy in their country 47 years ago.
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States they drove a truck bomb at a Marine compound in Beirut, killing 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley in Beirut, subsequently torturing and ultimately killing him in 1985?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 on its way from Kuwait to Pakistan and divert it to Tehran, killing two American officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they hijacked TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome and dumped the body of Navy Diver Robert Stethem onto the tarmac after shooting him in the head?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they murdered U.S. Marine Corps Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while on a UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they drove a truck of explosives into a bus near Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip, killing one American and seven Israelis?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they blew up a bus in the Ramat Eshkol neighborhood of Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers and wounding more than 100?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they blew up a Jerusalem bus, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans. A total of 26 people die in the attack?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they blew up the Dizengoff shopping center in Tel Aviv, wounding two Americans. Twenty people die and 75 others are injured in the attack?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they murdered an American-Israeli dual citizen in the community of Beit El in the West Bank. Another U.S. citizen and three Israelis are wounded?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they drove a truck with 5,000 pounds of explosives into the Khobar Towers, a U.S. Air Force housing complex in the Saudi Arabian town of Khobar. Nineteen Americans died and some 500 people were injured?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when three of their suicide bombers blow themselves up at the Ben Yehuda shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens killing 4 and wounding more than 200?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they simultaneously blew up the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people, including 12 Americans, and wounding thousands?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they blew up the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, killing a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen and two other Americans. A total of 15 people die in the attack?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when Iran denied having foreknowledge of al-Qaeda’s attacks on the World Trade Center, the report indicates that Tehran facilitated the travel of some of the terrorists and that “there is strong evidence that Iran facilitated the transit of al Qaeda members into and out of Afghanistan before 9/11, and that some of these were future 9/11 hijackers.”?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they killed a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen and wound another individual in the West Bank community of Beit Sahur.
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they murdered five American students at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, including an American-Israeli dual citizen and an American-French dual citizen, killing a total of nine?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they blew up a bus in Jerusalem killing one American citizen, along with 16 other people?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when, during Gulf War II and after, they killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan not only with the sophisticated IED ordnance they supplied, but with Iranian boots on the ground who may have even pulled the triggers?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American. A total of 24 people die in the attack?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they killed American citizen Michael Levin, a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), during the Second Lebanon War. He is the only American to die in the conflict?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when twelve men affiliated with the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) disguised themselves as U.S. soldiers, entered the Provincial Joint Coordination Center in the Iraqi city of Karbala, and killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded 3 more?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they killed two Americans serving in the IDF during fighting between the terrorist group and Israel in Gaza as part of Operation Protective Edge?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they murdered in cold blood an American citizen and his wife, residents of the West Bank community of Neria, in their car in a drive-by shooting?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they fired rockets into the K1 military base in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk killing an American security contractor and wounding several U.S. service members?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they attacked the Ain al-Asad Airbase in Iraq with ballistic missiles causing traumatic brain injuries to more than 100 U.S. troops?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they murdered FBI agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran in 2007?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they planned to assassinate U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they fired a rocket at coalition forces in the Iraqi city of Erbil, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they conducted at least three rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in 24 hours in Iraq and Syria, wounding two U.S. service members?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they launched a rocket attack that killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they orchestrated the killing of an American citizen living in Baghdad who worked at an English language institute?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they killed an American contractor, wounded another, and also wounded five service members when it struck a coalition base near the Syrian city of Hasakah?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they heinously and brutally slaughtered, maimed, disfigured, tortured, and raped at least 48 Americans and kidnaped at least 12 Americans in a massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they launched an attack against U.S. forces in Erbil wounding three American soldiers, including one critically injured with shrapnel to the head, which placed him in a coma?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they launched a drone that killed three U.S. soldiers at a U.S. military base in Jordan and wounded more than 40 other service members?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they executed German-Iranian national and U.S. permanent resident Jamshid Sharmahd on fraudulent terrorism charges?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when a report released by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies indicates that Iran and its proxies have conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East between October 17, 2023, and November 19, 2024, resulting in more than 180 wounded and three killed U.S. service members?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when they sent one of their operatives to work with two American accomplices to assassinate President Trump?
  
  
• How was I to know that Iran wasn't waging war on the United States when a U.S. jury convicted two of their agents for plotting to assassinate Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad in New York in 2022?

Note that I didn't say "proxy", "Islamic jihad", "Hezbollah", or "Hamas". I said "Them". Meaning Iran. Because that is who they are. Anyone who doesn't know this has no business even participating in discourse on this.

[Alberta's Child]

The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran had its roots in 1953 when the U.S. and U.K. toppled the elected Mossadegh government. VDH discredits himself as a historian when he only traces current events in Iran back 47 years.

[DownInFlames]

We have been at war with iran for 47 years! No U.S. president has had the gonads to do anything until now. By taking out Venezuela and Iran, Trump has checkmated China. When Cuba falls, it will be a trifecta event.

[goodnesswins]

Maybe that would have been too many words for the publication...so he left out what most people don’t know.