Please Click LIKE at the bottom of this commentary, and share it everywhere!! By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot – Commentary
Enough already with the virtue-signaling from those who disagree with the current strategy being employed against Iran, and the constant blaming of President Trump for mishandling the war, or making promises he hasn’t kept, or the claims that if Trump won’t finish the job, Israel will finish it for him.
And what happens when someone disagrees with the virtue signaling sorts? They will quickly proclaim that those who disagree with their opinions are “up Trump’s butt,” “brown nosers,” “Trump can do no wrong sorts” or “liars.”
Personally, I believe there have been mistakes made. For instance, I believe Trump was wrong to say, as he did in early March, 2026, that defeating the Iranian regime would only take 4-5 weeks, something he repeated several times before eventually dropping that line for a more non-descript timeline. What I believe he should have said from the jump was – “We’ll remain in this fight until the Iranian regime and the IRGC no longer hold the world hostage to their tyranny, brutality and terrorism.” Here’s another mistake I believe Trump has made – saying he will not stop until Iran unconditionally surrenders. That’s not ever going to happen and I made that very clear in my commentary, “The Mullah’s Madness Unmasked” back on May 10th, 2026. More on that later in this commentary.
With regard to this war – Negotiating with terrorists is never a good idea if you think they will suddenly exhibit rational thoughts, but if while you’re doing it, the terrorists expose more and more of their hidden weapons and you use that to target and destroy said weapons…it does have a bit of legitimacy to it. That said, I believe Trump made a huge mistake sending in Witkoff and Kushner to “negotiate” with anybody connected to the Iranian regime, and I made that crystal clear near the end of my commentary, “Hormuz and Beyond,” on July 19th.
Further to that point, in my April 11th commentary, “Brute Force and Common Sense,” less than 2 weeks into the war, I clearly stated who should be at any table where talks were being held. If you go back and read that commentary, you will notice one name that is not on my list…VP J.D. Vance…and that was on purpose.
Another continually repeated complaint I’ve seen is that Trump completely misjudged the number of drones and missiles Iran had in their stockpiles, and I have agreed with the virtue signalers on that point, but what they conveniently omit from that statement is that it wasn’t just the U.S. that came up wrong on that estimate, it was also Israel. The two most powerful intel agencies on the planet, the CIA and Mossad TOGETHER underestimated the scope of the Iranian regime’s stockpiles – stockpiles Iran spent better than 40 years amassing and hiding…and yet the blame game is being directly aimed at President Trump.
Here is yet another mistake I believe President Trump made, and it is again often brought up by those who claim I’m a brown-noser with my head up Trump’s butt because I think he can do no wrong. President Trump clearly told the Iranian people, “Help is on the way.” That was exactly what he posted on Truth Social on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. This was also roughly when the CIA attempted to get arms for the Iranian people into Iran using Turkey as a go-between with the Kurds who would deliver said arms, but the weapons disappeared. Trump said the Kurds were responsible, but the Kurds flatly denied it. My money, if I were a betting man, would be on Turkey.
Unless President Trump had an air-tight delivery mechanism in place, which he didn’t, he never should have told the Iranian people “Help is on the way.” That said…President Trump is not alone in making that mistake. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Tuesday, March 10th, posted to the Iranian people on X that Israel would, in the coming days “create the conditions for you to grasp your destiny.” In that post, Netanyahu went on to state, “When the time is right, and that time is fast approaching, we will pass the torch to you.”
I only bring this up to illustrate that if President Trump lied to, misled the Iranian people or failed to follow through on his promise to them, it would be much more honest to include Prime Minister Netanyahu in that equation. The fact is, both leaders felt confident enough at the time to make those statements and neither deserves to be condemned for it. Here’s the proof, not from a right-leaning “up Trump’s butt” source, but directly from The Jerusalem Post, that Netanyahu did indeed make that promise nearly two months after President Trump issued his statement.
Funny how the Iran war TDS folks completely ignore Netanyahu’s statement to solely focus their discontent on President Trump.
Now then, let me address the emotionally charged claim that “if Trump won’t finish the job, Israel will do it for him,” obviously meant to deride President Trump and paint him as both a loser and a fool. That is where virtue-signaling meets Stage 3 TDS, and here’s why. Israel can’t “finish the job” of regime change in Iran on their own. That’s not my opinion. That is what Israeli Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar said when interviewed by the Times of Israel , on March 12th, 2026. In that interview, Sa’ar said, “Ultimately, we cannot topple the regime, only the Iranian people can. At the same time, we must say that without external assistance they have no chance to topple the regime.”
Here is Sa’ar actually saying it during a press briefing.
Simply put, neither the U.S. nor Israel alone, even with our combined military and intel communities, can topple the Iranian regime, but we can, and are severely weakening the Iranian regimes power structure and remaining military capabilities thus creating an internal dynamic within the Iranian system that is crushing them economically. As the U.S. military blockade has taken virtual control of Hormuz while systematically destroying Iranian IRGC missile and drone launching apparatus’ every time Iran exposed a hiding place, and later combined those tactics with Operation Economic Outcast to literally cut Iran off from what they need the most – money – we weren’t acting alone.
For the better part of at least a decade, the Iranian regime has publicly crowed about their proxy Islamist militant military and bragged that Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis were so formidable that Israel would never be able to effectively challenge Iran. So how’s that working out? Gaza is a massive pile of rubble and there’s not much left of Hamas thanks to the IDF, and Hezbollah, based in Lebanon has lost not only most of their key leaders, but now also their most strategic high-ground replete with an underground network of tunnels, command centers and both drone and missile cities – again, thanks to the IDF.
Let me put the puzzle pieces together.
After Netanyahu met with Trump in December, 2025, the Prime Minister reported to the Israeli Cabinet that Trump had given the “green-light” to go after and eliminate Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that was further confirmed by international media outlets just a week or so later. Trump, in March, 2026, pointedly approved a ground incursion by Israel into Lebanon as reported by Israel Haynom on March 12th, 2026.
After Israel successfully targeted Iranian officials in Beirut (and I say good for Israel) prompting a brief exchange of missile launches in both directions, President Trump, on June 8th, 2026, told both Iran and Israel to “immediately stop shooting” which both parties agreed to do, but what never seems to get mentioned by the TDS war critics is that Trump never told Israel to stop their military operations against either Hamas in Gaza, or against Hezbollah in Lebanon and here is why that is a very important point – With the U.S. military engaged in kinetic action related to Hormuz coupled with the blockade and strangulating economic sanctions, Israel was free to put an end to the Iranian regime’s heavily relied upon proxies.
It should also be noted that within the DIME construct which I detailed in my commentary, “The U.S. War Strategy vs. Iran – -A Textbook Masterclass,” it was made clear to Iran that should they fire at Israel, the Israeli response would be unrestricted, and so too would be our response.
So, let me now address the arming of the Iranian people who seek freedom. While I agree that the freedom fighters inside of Iran need to be armed, doing so is a logistical nightmare. From the right side of our own political aisle, we have often been regaled by what is, in my opinion, ad nauseam virtue-signaling every time more innocent Iranian people are murdered by the Iranian regime. Those murders/executions are the acts of barbarians plain and simple, but they are nothing new. The Iranian regime has been doing exactly that for the whole of the past 47 years but only cursory mentions of it by the same people now virtue-signaling it for the purpose of deriding President Trump were made until recently.
For the record, not that President Trump’s critics with regard to this war care, the freedom seeking Iranian people ARE reportedly being armed, albeit slowly and methodically, by the Immortal Guard, a Reza Pahlavi loyalist Iranian covert group inside of Iran, and members of the Immortal Guard have also been reportedly doxing and attacking IRGC members and checkpoints for the past several weeks.
Now let me address the rhetoric from Trump’s war critics regarding one of the most consistent, grossly false allegations that the stage 3 TDS squakers from the right side of our political aisle are so fond of making – that “Trump has made this war all about oil and the Strait of Hormuz.” As I have stated many times, and included in several commentaries, Trump isn’t responsible for making this war all about oil and the Strait of Hormuz…IRAN did that…and here comes the receipt.
Back in the Iran/Iraq war, Iraq started using Hormuz as leverage by targeting Iranian oil tankers to prevent Iran from exporting oil. Roughly two years later, Iran began striking commercial oil tankers belonging to regional allies of Iraq and deployed sea mines in the strait which signaled the first historical instance of Tehran using the disruption of oil shipping as a direct military and political tool. For the next four decades the Iranian regime, time and time again threatened to completely close the Strait in response to Western sanctions, nuclear disputes, or military posturing, which immediately spiked global oil prices and shipping insurance costs.
Below is a short video from 1983 that proves exactly what I have said regarding the Strait, and I’m sure, much to the angst of the TDS perpetrators of the consistent false claims, near the end of the video, the notion of President Reagan using the U.S. Navy to prevent Iran from shutting down the Strait looks exactly like what President Trump is doing right now.
And finally, the oft repeated and as it turns out edited to match the anti-Trump war narrative that Trump said the war would only last 2 weeks. Yes, he said it but to end the statement there requires willful omission of the full context of the statement. In March of 2026, President Trump said of the Strait of Hormuz situation, “That’ll be for France, that’ll be for whoever’s using the Strait…” Obviously, France and whoever uses the Strait declined to engage which then left it to the U.S. to deal with it. Here’s the receipt.
To be fair, Trump gave several predictions in those early days ranging from a couple of weeks to 4-5 weeks, but about a month into it, he also said something else which has been conveniently omitted from the TDS war narrative…that we were prepared to go longer than that…and here’s that receipt.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but a narrative that ignores context, omit facts and disregards historical timelines is a one sided coin. The other side of that coin is found in the receipts I have provided in this, and other commentaries.
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,
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RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…LIVE!
Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 15th from 7 to 8:30pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss ‘‘’; “Anti Trump War Rhetoric vs. Reality’s Receipts”and important news of the day. Tune in to RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS on https://rspradio1.com Click ‘LISTEN LIVE.’
