Please Click LIKE at the bottom of this commentary, and share it everywhere!! By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot – Commentary
On April, 8th, 2026, President Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran which was initially supposed to last two weeks. Pakistan, working as the middleman introduced a framework for a ten point “peace agreement plan,” which has now, in various forms, been on the table for the past month. Up until now, all “negotiations” have failed, and while I strongly disagree with “negotiating” with terrorists, and make no mistake, Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, the “negotiations” have been pretty limited to President Trump telling Iran what to do, and Iran saying, “no.”
If we go back to the end of the first week of military operations, President Trump demanded “unconditional surrender” from Iran to halt US and Israeli air strikes, stating he would accept no deal otherwise. He asserted that Iran’s military was ineffective and called for the nation to “wave the white flag” To be crystal clear, while some Republicans are clinging to that statement and are expressing dismay that President Trump has seemingly backed away from it, “unconditional surrender” was never the reason for going to war with Iran, it was but a suggested off-ramp for the Iranian regime to bring the devastating bombardment to a halt quickly.
Whatever was left of the Iranian regime at that point, and whatever comprises the Iranian regime today didn’t want to take that off-ramp which has led to the U.S. Navy blockading the Strait of Hormuz. I understand that we don’t get much of any oil from that particular shipping lane, and I can see where many don’t believe we should be engaged in what matters much more to other countries and not much to us, but because that Strait is crucial to oil shipments for the rest of the world, and because, at least for now, OPEC regulates oil prices and markets react to oil futures rather than oil realities, the Strait of Hormuz must be opened, and unrestricted by Iran.
Before the U.S. blockade of the Strait, Iran was blockading it and extorting any country that tried to go through it. If Iran couldn’t finance their terrorist regime and terrorist proxies by selling their own oil and moving it through the Strait of Hormuz, they would collect extortion ransoms from the rest of the world instead. President Trump wisely said “nope.”
The U.S. blockade, for the past two weeks has choked the Iranian regime’s economy. By not allowing Iranian oil shipments out, and because their ability to store already pumped oil is at, or near capacity, a situation that is about to force the shutdown of Iranian wells thus damaging many of those wells beyond repair, the Iranian regime, such as it is, would be wise to surrender…but they won’t and to understand why, allow me to unmask the Mullah’s madness.
Iran’s strategy has shifted from “terrorize the world, hold the world hostage and demand a ransom until we have nuclear weapons and then we’ll kill you anyway,” to “surrender isn’t an option but our version of the apocalypse is.” In other words, to surrender wouldn’t just mean losing face, it would mean failure of the ultimate theological mission of their chosen brand of Islam…Twelver Shi’ism.
Twelver Shi’ism is the largest, and arguably the most radicalized branch of Shia Islam, centered on the belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders (Imams) from the family of the Prophet Muhammad. It emphasizes the infallibility of these Imams, and the occultation of the 12th Imam al-Mahdi. Twelver Shi’ism (12 Shia) holds a deeply embedded apocalyptic and messianic theology focused on the return of the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi. He is believed to be in hiding since the 9th century and will return at the end of times.
It appears to me that what the cleric class, (the Mullahs) the most radical of Iran’s “leadership” along with whatever remains of their most radical leaders of the IRGC, now that they can no longer hold the world hostage via their military and global terrorism, was doing was trying to goad the U.S. and Israel into what would amount to Iran’s self-imposed apocalyptic demise.
Waving the white flag and turning a country ideologically deemed to be the instrument of death and destruction upon all who refuse to submit over to its people, who would rather live in peace with their neighbors and return to western ideals just wouldn’t do in the eyes of the 12th Imam, but goading “the great and little Satans” into genocidal attacks against not only the regime but the good people of Iran via collateral damage…well…that’s something the 12th Imam would appreciate.
Last Wednesday, May, 6th, President Trump, at the request of Pakistan, ordered a pause in the operation that just a day before sent six Iranian fast-boats to the bottom of the sea regarding the possibility of the Iranian regime agreeing to terms that would end the war. For those who view this as a capitulation to the Iranian regime, or a retreat by President Trump, they would be wrong. The U.S. blockade remained in full effect, the economic chokehold did not ease off, the U.S. military in the region remained at full readiness, and Trump’s conditions remained clear.
If Iran failed to agree to the terms, the bombs would again rain down upon them. The U.S. remained in control, and the Iranian regime’s fate was theirs to decide.
So desperate for revenue and relevance was Iran last Wednesday that they tried to run the blockade with one of their oil tankers. It didn’t end well, as a U.S. fighter jet shot out the rudder of the tanker in the Gulf of Oman. The irony isn’t lost on anyone paying attention. Their desperate attempt to run the blockade ended up as rudderless as is Iran’s tattered regime, and it has gotten to the point that France, the world leading state sponsor of war-time surrender, sent one of their aircraft carriers towards the Strait of Hormuz, obviously feeling no real threat from the world’s FORMER leading state sponsor of terrorism.
It is now quite clear that the U.S., under the leadership of President Trump can exert as much military, economic and strategic pain as we want on Iran’s military and their ability to conduct business be it oil or the funding of their proxies at will, and yet, Iran remains…rhetorically defiant.
One thing has been clear to me since the first week of this unprecedentedly successful military strategy…while the leadership of a nation that cares at all about the future of their country and/or their people CAN be bombed or choked into a war-time surrender, the leadership of a theocratic death-cult that only cares about sating the apocalyptic ideology of a barbaric prophet without giving a damn about the ability of their own people to breathe…can’t.
I fully believe that President Trump understands that reality, which is why he’s willing to seek some sort of agreement…on HIS terms..no nuclear weapons, no enriched uranium, no more support to terrorist proxies and no more terrorist actions against Iran’s neighbors or U.S. assets and the American people…as part of a bigger strategy.
For the 12 Shia regime in Iran to accept President Trump’s conditions, it would mean admitting, even if temporarily, that their apocalyptic vision is not 20/20, and I don’t think they will agree to any verifiable conditions which means that the beatings of their ability to even turn on the lights or move about their country will continue.
I fully believe that the Iranian terrorist regime MUST go, and yet I realize two very important aspects, as I believe President Trump does as well, that 1) Armies and political ideologies CAN be blown to bits, and 2) apocalyptic ideologies masquerading as 7th century theocracies, as ideas, are like the wind…they are always blowing somewhere.
I am sure that President Trump knows that the true regime change necessary in Iran cannot simply fall out of the clear blue sky but must come up in the form of grass roots actions taken by the people themselves.
Finally, allow me to address one last thing. Israel has been 100% correct about the Iranian regime all along, and everything they’ve told the world about the Iranian regime has been spot-on, but far too many who knew the truth, like the U.N. and even our European allies, consumed by anti Semitism, turned blind eyes, and deaf ears at their own peril. Imagine, had Israel gone it alone, and they damned well could have, how most of the hypocritical “civilized” world would have reacted. It took a U.S. President, with more resolve and more intestinal fortitude than any of his seven predecessors over the past 47 years, to prove Israel was right, expose the barbaric Iranian death-cult regime for what it truly is, and FORCE the rest of the world to see it.
If an “agreement” is reached, both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu know that the Iranian regime’s signatures can NOT be trusted, but the 12Shia death-cult’s leadership now also knows that THEY no longer operate in a vacuum. The U.N. must be locked OUT of the verification process with only U.S. and Israeli entities conducting those operations.
ANY deception by the Iranian regime should restart the pounding but, and this is THE most important aspect of all of this…NOW is the time for the Arab nations, with their eyes wide open, to step up, and step in to launch a freedom movement from within Iran itself.
The rest of the world owes Prime Minister Netanyahu an apology, and President Trump a debt of gratitude.
Copyright © 2026 Craig Andresen / thenationalpatriot.com all rights reserved
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For more political commentary please visit my RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS partner Diane Sori’s latest Op-Ed at The Patriot Factor, Channeling Reagan…A Maybe Solution
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Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 26th from 7 to 8:30pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss ‘Channeling Reagan…A Maybe Solution‘; The Mullah’s Madness Unmasked‘’; and important news of the day. Tune in to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on https://rspradio1.com Click ‘LISTEN LIVE.’
