OPINION:
In “The Godfather,” after Virgil Sollozzo fails to kill the don at the hospital, Sonny Corleone, who is temporarily in charge of the family, says the drug kingpin now wants to negotiate a truce and “the deal is so good, we can’t refuse.”
Michael Corleone, the don’s youngest son, isn’t convinced. A steely-eyed realist, Michael declares: “I don’t care what Sollozzo says about a deal, he’s gonna kill Pop. That’s it. That’s the key for him. Gotta get Sollozzo.”
This leads to the famous two-in-the-head scene in the Italian restaurant.
For the Islamic Republic of Iran, the key is getting nuclear weapons. It doesn’t matter what the deal is, what the regime agrees to in negotiations. Nuclear weapons will remain the goal as long as the regime exists.
It can’t dominate the region without nuclear blackmail, and there is always the chance that it will use nukes to bring about its Islamic apocalypse.
What happens in Islamabad is irrelevant. The Iranian regime is notorious for broken promises. The concept of taqiyya, lying to deceive one’s enemies, is part of Shiite Islam.
Negotiate with the ayatollahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps? We might as well have negotiated with Adolf Hitler in 1945. Try to imagine Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower telling the Germans: “We’ll stop fighting if you promise to stop building V-2 rockets and park your Tiger tanks.”
After six weeks of being bombed on a massive scale, Iran’s military is significantly degraded. As President Trump never tires of telling us, Iran’s navy lies at the bottom of the sea. It has no air force left. We control the skies. Its missile stockpile is almost gone.
Yet over time, Iran can get it all back. We thought Germany was defeated in 1918. By 1940, it had conquered most of Europe.
When the fighting ends, China and Russia will rush in with new supplies of military hardware and whatever the Islamic republic needs to resume its nuclear program.
Intelligence sources say Beijing is preparing to transfer shoulder-fired anti-air missile systems to Tehran. Moscow will replenish its supply of drones.
At the 1943 Casablanca Conference, the Allies demanded unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan. That was reinforced by Eisenhower’s visit to the Buchenwald death camp after it was liberated by American forces.
Iran has the equivalent of death camps everywhere.
It is preparing to execute its first female prisoner, one of an estimated 1,600 Iranians sentenced to death in the past year. Sometimes, it hangs its victims from cranes to maximize the terror.
Whatever deal is negotiated will depend on the integrity of a gang that murdered at least 30,000 protesters in January. It will depend on a regime whose mobs have been shouting, “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” since it seized power.
As Ayatollah Ali Khamenei explained: “When you chant, ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan — it is a policy.”
A deal will depend on the sincerity of a regime that funds every terrorist group in the region, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iraqi militias — a monstrosity that financed the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel with its gut-wrenching atrocities.
How do we get all of Iran’s fissionable material? How do we make sure we have all of its intercontinental ballistic missiles? Iran is as large as Alaska (636,000 square miles). Even with satellite imaging and reconnaissance flights, that’s a lot of space to hide a lot of stuff.
Mr. Trump said he extended the ceasefire indefinitely because Iran’s government is fractured and we’re waiting to see if the hard-liners or moderates come out on top. Newsflash: The last moderate died in 1979.
If we stop now, then the Islamic state will believe it has won and that in the end Mr. Trump will bow to domestic considerations: the price of oil and midterm elections.
This is Mr. Trump’s Churchill moment.
When he became prime minister in May 1940 and Britain stood alone against the German juggernaut, Winston Churchill declared that his policy was “to wage war by sea, land, and air … against a monstrous tyranny.” His aim was “victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.”
Anything less is defeat — now as it was then. The war with the Islamic republic will be over when the horse’s head is in the bed and the last ayatollah wakes up screaming, covered in blood.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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