Commentary
Since 1979, when Islamic radicals seized power in Iran, the ruling mullahs there have attacked, harassed, and insulted the United States and our allies. On Feb. 16, the Iranian military began drills in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening U.S. naval ships in the area and a complete shutdown of the strait’s commercial transits. About a quarter of the global seaborne oil trade travels through the strait.
In response to this and other provocations, the United States is building up an armada near Iran and asking for some reasonable concessions by the regime. These include, most importantly, an end to Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Regime change is also on the table.
Many Iranians welcome the prospect of U.S. military action to remove the regime, which over the past weeks has killed as many as 33,000 protesters in the country. The international response is overwhelming. In Toronto, approximately 350,000 protesters rallied against the mullahs on Feb. 14. Another 350,000 in Los Angeles, and 250,000 in Munich protested on the same day.
The mullahs have proven irresponsible through attacks not only on their own people but also on neighboring countries. They fund terrorists who directly threaten the United States and some of our most important allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia. Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, all of which are terrorists supported by the regime, have terrorized Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen for decades. All are anti-U.S. and anti-Israel.
The Houthi flag is clear when it says, “God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.” These are not the kind of people, nor are their supporters, whom anyone should consider allowing to acquire nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles.
As usual, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is not far from the problem. The mullahs purchase military parts from China, assemble them into missiles and armed drones, and sell some of that to Russia for its war against Ukraine.
China purchases about 80 percent of Iran’s oil exports, empowering its regime. Beijing flouts global sanctions on Iran to support an ally and get discounted oil. In return, this empowers the CCP. All of this is reason enough for the U.S. military to remove the regime in Tehran in the same way it removed the likes of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Osama bin Laden of al-Qaeda, and Manuel Noriega of Panama.
At the same time, the U.S. military can achieve other important objectives in the Middle East. Increasingly, the United States and allies are capturing shadow fleet tankers used by rogue regimes such as Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China to move oil between their countries.
The United States has captured Venezuelan cargoes, France has captured Russian ships, and in the first half of February, India captured three Iran-linked ships. Shadow fleet ships and their cargoes, along with Iranian navy ships, could be captured and sold for as much as $100 million each and at a discount to U.S. allies. Revenues could pay for the considerable sums required to police the seas around Iran until it democratizes.
The same methods could be imposed on Iran’s pipelines. Democratize, or they will be disabled. If the U.S. military more fully extended its policing in this way, it would be a new source of revenue for the United States while deterring the mullahs from continuing their self-destructive path of repressing and killing the Iranian people.
Tehran is lying about who killed the protesters, and those lies are major vulnerabilities for the regime. Many were apparently executed, and some were buried in mass graves. In addition to the tens of thousands dead, more than 52,000 were arrested. Even moderate politicians in Tehran are now being arrested.
The protests were sparked by inflation and depressed real incomes in Iran. Inflation was then exacerbated when the regime shut down the internet to hide the killing of protesters. Online workers lost about 80 percent of their income due to the outages.
After the protests, inflation is still rising. The regime has still not cracked its Economics 101 textbook, as it plans to give away more free cash to address what has now become 60 percent inflation. It should know better. The more money a government prints, the higher prices go.
In addition to the other U.S. demands noted above, the United States could also publicly ask the mullahs to admit their part in the killing of the protesters, apologize for their deaths, and free the country’s political prisoners. This would be a crowd-pleaser in Iran, increase transparency in the country, improve the position of the reformists relative to the hardliners, and significantly improve the prospects for long-term peace in the region.
