Where’s Waldo and Weapons of War

By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot – Commentary

Over the past couple of weeks, and over the past several months, two questions regarding certain aspects of the war with Iran have continued to crop up. Both are rather interesting questions, and both seem to have complex answers.

No, I’m not talking about why we’re doing this, that or the other thing, or for that matter, why we’re not doing this, that or the other thing. These questions are a bit more eclectic…perhaps more on the ethereal side of things but one thing is certain, both involve conspiracies…and corresponding theorists.

Let’s just be honest, if it’s in the news, its fodder for conspiracy theorists and that’s nothing new. Conspiracy theories have been around since ancient times and have been centerpieces of civil, and not so civil debate from watering holes to water coolers. Anything that’s unknown automatically lends itself to unending chatter, and even some things that are verifiable facts become the subject of those who simply refuse to accept facts as facts.

In the latter category – the Earth is round. It is NOT flat, but that hasn’t stopped the Reynolds Wrap cap crowd from proclaiming we round Earthers and full of beans. Here’s the question they just can’t answer…IF the Earth IS flat, what’s on the underneath side of it? I ask because regardless of how flat one makes a pancake, it still has two sides.

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The Iran War – Options vs. Alternatives Part 2

Please Click LIKE at the bottom of this commentary, and share it everywhere!! By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot – Commentary

The strategy employed by the U.S. against the Iranian regime should be pretty clear by now except to some critics of President Trump who are getting close to stage 3 TDS. The strategy, as I have said many times, is to use our military to cut the Iranian regime off from the one thing they need the most…money…while systematically eliminating remaining targets that threaten not only our military, but Iran’s Arab State neighbors, shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, and potential ground operations that may well be coming soon against the IRGC.

Evidence that the strategy is working can easily be found if one pays attention to reports, not only from our military, CENTCOM or our media, but also from more unlikely sources like Iran itself.

Sure, there are those who are fit to be tied over pauses in the action, and over “negotiating” with the enemy, but I believe that those who have adopted the talking points of the IRGC, in that “The U.S. is losing the war,” or that “Trump is a fool and doesn’t know what he’s doing,” would rather continue to virtue-signal their own personal armchair quarterback belief that they could do better if they, not President Trump were running the show.

As for the most recent “pause” for so-called “negotiations,” just over a week ago, it wasn’t President Trump, nor was it Steve Witkoff or Jared Kushner who suggested it, rather it was Admiral Bradley Cooper, Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) who advised it and for a very interesting reason…the U.S. military had run out of targets related to the Strait of Hormuz. This isn’t to suggest that Iran has nothing remaining with which to threaten shipping, just that the IRGC hasn’t exposed any of what they may have left or where they’ve been hiding it for about a week.

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The Iran War – Options vs. Alternatives Part 1

Please Click LIKE at the bottom of this commentary, and share it everywhere!! By Craig Andresen – The National Patriot – Commentary

Political analysts, think-tank sorts, some religious and/or theocratic scholars, and various other critics have been quick to argue that President Trump is “mismanaging the war” because he simply “does not understand radical Islam or the Iranian regime’s death-cult mindset.” Some on the right side of the aisle also claim that “Trump is losing the war.” Everybody is entitled to their own opinion. I believe our president has a much better understanding of the radical Islamic mindset than do some of his critics, I believe he has a much deeper understanding of the broader Middle East mindset than his critics claim he has, and I know that there is no easy way to fight ANY war, especially one with so many moving pieces as this one.

While President Trump’s primary stated purpose for this war is to prevent Iran from ever having a nuclear weapon, we all know that the only way to ensure that is to create regime change in Iran. Here’s the problem with the U.S. engineering regime change – we have a terrible success rate in doing that. Viet Nam, Korea, and several recent attempts in the Middle East…including in Iran in 1979 leap to mind. But that’s not the only issue we face. Go too fast and you create a vacuum of power. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, don’t want to do that again.

Go too slow, you wind up as a tourist in Hanoi pretending it was an adventure on your bucket list for decades.

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Hormuz and Beyond

Far too many people, even some on the right side of the political aisle have a narrow view regarding the Strait of Hormuz and are far too quick to condemn Trump for “mishandling the war.”

They claim that President Trump has made the war against Iran “all about oil” and “all about the Strait of Hormuz” proclaiming over and over again that “we don’t get any oil from Hormuz, and we should have left the Hormuz situation to those that do get their oil from it.” To suggest, or believe that the U.S. doesn’t benefit from shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, or that others should have been left to deal with it because we don’t benefit from it is myopic and in some cases, hypocritical.

It’s time to set the record straight, especially for those who have complained that the war is all about oil, and everything else has been ignored.

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