The principal weakness of Western policy has been not an excess of diplomacy or pressure, but a misunderstanding of what keeps the Islamic Republic in power.

Hamid Enayat | July 31, 2026

For decades, Western policy toward Iran has been shaped primarily by concerns over nuclear proliferation, missile capabilities, sanctions, and regional deterrence. These issues have dominated diplomatic engagement with Tehran.

Human-rights abuses—including executions, political imprisonment, internet shutdowns, and the systematic suppression of dissent—were repeatedly condemned, particularly through United Nations resolutions. Yet they rarely became a determining factor in shaping Western strategy toward Tehran.

That was not simply a moral failure. It became a strategic miscalculation, because it overlooked the central role that domestic repression plays in sustaining the Islamic Republic’s regional behaviour.

By treating domestic repression as peripheral rather than central, Western governments underestimated one of the principal foundations of the Islamic Republic’s regional behaviour.

The Islamic Republic has never treated domestic control and foreign policy as separate spheres. Executions, censorship, and the suppression of organised opposition are not merely internal practices. They are among the principal instruments through which the regime preserves the political stability necessary to sustain its regional ambitions.

By underestimating this relationship, Western governments also underestimated one of the political foundations of Iran’s regional behaviour. The consequences have extended well beyond Iran, contributing to repeated cycles of regional instability, growing geopolitical risk, threats to maritime security, and persistent uncertainty in global energy markets.

Military pressure has sought to alter Tehran’s external behaviour, while diplomatic engagement has attempted to moderate it through negotiation and economic incentives. Yet neither approach has fundamentally challenged the mechanisms that enable the regime to preserve power, because its greatest strategic asset is not simply its missile arsenal, proxy networks, or nuclear programme—it is its ability to maintain political control over its own society.

The Islamic Republic does not separate domestic control from foreign policy. Its regional posture and internal repression reinforce one another. Executions intimidate potential dissent. Internet shutdowns prevent citizens from organizing. Regional confrontation helps justify both. This relationship is neither accidental nor temporary; it lies at the heart of the regime’s strategy of survival.

Authoritarian governments often invoke external threats to consolidate power at home. The Islamic Republic has elevated this logic into a governing strategy in which domestic repression and regional confrontation reinforce one another. Periods of heightened regional tension have repeatedly coincided with intensified domestic repression, creating a political climate in which broader repression can be justified as a matter of national necessity. That is why Iran’s human-rights record cannot be understood separately from its regional behaviour.

Executions are not simply judicial punishments. They are political signals. Internet blackouts are not merely technical restrictions. They are instruments designed to prevent collective action. Together, they reduce society’s capacity to organize against the state.

That internal architecture matters well beyond Iran’s borders. A government that governs through fear at home enjoys greater freedom to pursue confrontational policies abroad. Conversely, a government that finds it increasingly difficult to repress its own society also faces growing constraints on its regional ambitions.

Seen in this light, domestic repression is not simply a human-rights concern. It is a strategic variable—and one of the missing links in Western policy toward Iran.

By treating regional security and domestic repression as separate issues, Western governments have underestimated the extent to which each reinforces the other. A strategy that addresses one while neglecting the other is unlikely to achieve lasting results.

Executions as an Instrument of Governance

If domestic repression is central to the Islamic Republic’s strategy of survival, then one instrument deserves particular attention: the death penalty.

Iran does not merely execute more people than most countries. According to Amnesty International, it accounted for roughly 80 percent of all recorded executions worldwide in 2025. That is not only a disturbing human-right statistic. It also offers an important clue to how the regime maintains political control.

Executions in the Islamic Republic serve a broader political function than criminal punishment alone. They reinforce fear, discourage collective action, and signal that organized resistance carries the highest possible cost. For that reason, the gallows are not only an Iranian human-rights issue; they are also a strategic issue.

A government’s heavy reliance on executions reveals a fundamental vulnerability: coercion remains indispensable to maintaining political control.

The same logic applies to information. During major nationwide protests, the authorities have repeatedly slowed or shut down internet access—not simply to censor information, but to disrupt collective action. Like executions, internet shutdowns have become one of the regime’s principal instruments of domestic control.

Understanding this relationship leads to a different policy conclusion. Western governments have generally treated executions as a humanitarian issue to be condemned after they occur.

But if executions are also one of the regime’s principal instruments of governance, then limiting its ability to rely on them should become not only a moral objective but a strategic one.

That does not require abandoning diplomacy. It requires integrating domestic repression into diplomacy, rather than treating it as a separate issue.

A government that pays a tangible diplomatic, political, and economic price for every politically motivated execution will find it increasingly difficult to rely on executions as a low-cost instrument of political control.

That is where a more effective Western strategy toward Iran begins.

Why the West Misread Iran

If this analysis is correct, then one conclusion follows: The principal weakness of Western policy has been not an excess of diplomacy or pressure, but a misunderstanding of what keeps the Islamic Republic in power.

For decades, engagement with Tehran has largely separated diplomatic relations from the regime’s domestic repression. Executions, political prisoners, and internet shutdowns were frequently condemned through resolutions, public statements, and targeted sanctions, yet they rarely became decisive factors in shaping the broader relationship with the Islamic Republic. As a result, a government that pays little international price for governing through fear has little incentive to abandon one of its most effective instruments of control.

This is the real meaning of appeasement.

Appeasement is not diplomacy. Diplomacy remains an indispensable instrument of statecraft. Appeasement begins when engagement treats domestic repression as peripheral rather than central to the relationship.

The result is a strategic contradiction: governments seek greater regional stability while leaving largely untouched one of the principal mechanisms that enables the regime to pursue confrontation abroad.

The question, therefore, is not whether governments should negotiate with Tehran, but what those negotiations are intended to change.

If domestic repression remains disconnected from diplomacy, the central mechanisms sustaining the regime will remain intact. A durable strategy cannot separate the regime’s internal methods of survival from its external behaviour. They are parts of the same political system.

Image generated by ChatGPT.

Related Topics: Iran War, Iran, Foreign Affairs

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About the Author

Hamid Enayat

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Judge them not by the color of their skin, but the contents of their crack pipes.”

The Atlantic, the last liberal magazine, which still occasionally runs good articles questioning leftist insanity, has an article that touches on the consequences of leftist pro-crime policies and features insane moments like this one.

Nelson also asked pointed questions about what had become the received wisdom in Seattle, such as why the county government paid millions of dollars to supply kits to addicts with tinfoil, pipes, and instructions on how to smoke fentanyl. (Incongruously, these kits came emblazoned with an image of Martin Luther King Jr., the namesake of King County.) What harm was reduced, Nelson asked at a 2023 council hearing, by helping addicts get high? Amber Tejada, an employee of a health nonprofit that had partnered with the city, raised her hand to answer. “I know it can be a little controversial,” she told the councilwoman, “but one of the key tenets of harm reduction that I see is that we want to be able to facilitate and champion autonomy of people who use drugs.” Tejada added, “There are folks for whom abstinence is not something by which they measure their success in life.”

Nothing says progress like crack pipes with King’s picture on them. Somehow I don’t think he would have been thrilled.

Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine

Republicans and Democrats used to have a grand tradition of presidential candidates heading up to New Hampshire, putting on LL Bean jackets and trying to talk down to small groups of skeptical senior citizens in diners. It was a stupid way to choose leaders, but, like democracy itself, it was also the least bad option because it forced national candidates to get out of their comfort zones and talk to random people in a state that they would have otherwise ignored.

Then the Democrats decided to run a senile presidential candidate in 2024 and to make sure that he had no possible competition, the DNC conspired to rig the primary calendar by starting the season off with South Carolina: a state whose political virtue was that political boss Rep. James Clyburn could deliver the black vote to anyone dead or alive, or, like Joe Biden, somewhere in between.

The DNC claimed that it was urgent to replace New Hampshire with South Carolina for the sake of diversity, because nothing epitomizes diversity like rigging an election for an old white man.

New Hampshire was ordered to move its primary back. New Hampshire Dems explained that the primary dates were set by state law and that they had to proceed with the primary on the usual schedule. The DNC told Democrats not to vote in the primary and then launched a write-in campaign that Biden somehow won, despite barely being able to remember his name on a good day, testifying to either the complete mindlessness or fraudulence of the party.

Once Biden had been ousted, the DNC could have put back the old primary calendar, instead it decided to host a showdown between South Carolina and Nevada to replace New Hampshire.

Nevada and South Carolina were at the top because unlike New Hampshire they had fewer white people, at least who voted Democrat, because most of those had decamped from a party that made a special point of hating them . The best argument for Nevada was that it was full of Latinos and the best argument for South Carolina was that it was full of black people.

And not picking South Carolina would be racist. The only question was whether not picking Nevada would be just as racist, more racist or slightly less racist.

“If South Carolina gets quietly bumped after one cycle of convenient praise, that sends a message louder than any speech at a Democratic dinner: the gratitude was performance, not policy,” Al Sharpton warned.

The DNC juggled two races until it decided that black people were the most important and so South Carolina will host the first state primary, Latinos were the second most important and so Nevada will go second, and white people were the least important, so New Hampshire would go third. Latinos however get a consolation prize with a fourth place spot for New Mexico, while fifth place goes to the all-important demographic of Hamas supporters in Michigan.

(New Hampshire Democrats still can’t move their primary, which means that if 2024 repeats itself, they’ll just conduct the primary on schedule and Biden will again win the write-in vote.)

Apart from potentially setting up an AOC presidency (as the most high-profile Latina and leftist candidate, she could potentially win 4 out of the first 5 primary states, and seal the deal), the primary calendar is a useful metric for bringing the racial ugliness of the Dems out into the open.

A statement by DNC leaders bragged that this was “the most diverse calendar Democrats have ever had for an open nominating contest” and the official site ranked the calendar based on the number of the 4.6 million black people, 4.2 million Latinos and 1.4 Asian Americans who live in the early window states. Sorry Asian Americans, you’ll need more votes if you want to rank.

Only 4 out of 49 of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee members backed New Hampshire for the top spot, while South Carolina scored 26 votes and Nevada took home 19 votes. Iowa, also once an early state, but deemed excessively white, wasn’t even on the table.

Democrats in New Hampshire and Iowa are discovering that diversity means no white people.

Under the new primary calendar, the racial makeup of the first 4 early window states drops from a distinct white majority to 57% or so, ensuring that minority voters play a much larger role in picking the party’s nominee. In reality, this really means that political bosses like Rep. Clyburn and the network of minority ‘voter outreach’ groups, often leftist non-profits, and powerful unions will be doing the actual picking. Much like 2024, ‘diversity’ is just a human shield for rigging the primaries by putting political machines and organizers in charge of manufacturing a bloc vote.

57% is well below the 64% of white Kamala voters. Despite all the hype and racial pandering, black voters only made up 16% of her voters and Latinos represented only 11%. But rather than try to win over white voters, the Dems are doubling down on erasing white voters and elevating black and Latino voters as being somehow superior to them purely on account of their race.

The last time Dems did this in New Hampshire, Kamala’s vote totals in New Hampshire were down by 6,000 from Biden’s totals in 2020, while Trump’s shot up 30,000. At this rate, Republicans will go back to winning New Hampshire.

This isn’t the sort of stuff that wins elections, but winning elections isn’t really the point.

The DNC carved out a primary calendar geared to promoting some candidates and suppressing others. The calendar likely kills the Buttgieg campaign dead, even before it would have died on its own, while making Kamala and AOC into viable contenders, and puts the Hamas supporters in Michigan in a powerful position to force concessions to their agenda from the candidates.

All of this is being done under the guise of promoting racial diversity, but what it does all too well is convey to voters that the Democratic Party only cares about them based on their race. The 2028 primary calendar is a document that shows exactly how the party ranks races. It’s as racist as anything that came out of Jim Crow and it’s how Dems want to pick their next president.

Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine

Delay, delay, delay, then dismiss the scandal as old news. Clinton 101.

Democrats always lie the same way, so pattern recognition becomes a kind of vaccine, except that it actually creates immunity. Once you know how they do it, they can never fool you again. Unless you’re also a Democrat, in which case you were born to be fooled, and you can just go back to sucking your thumb in a basement.

Back in the political Pleistocene, a slippery American president who was known as “Slick Willie” slogged through scandal after scandal, often in the company of his amoral and tone-deaf grifter wife. Perpetually embroiled in controversy because of their own behavior, this shameless couple developed a set of reliable techniques for the management of uncomfortable questions.

The Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberly Strassel famously described this set of techniques as “The Clinton Scandal Manual,” and the steps were predictable. First you muddy the paper trail by delaying the release of documents or misplacing the records of the scandal. This slows down the arrival of accountability, and forces your critics to engage in a long effort to untangle the threads of your poor choices.

Then, after you’ve forced your critics to prolong their attack by hiding records and muddying the waters, you count on the news media to get tired of the story. The Clintons knew that the press has attention deficit disorder, Strassel wrote, and its members will eventually want to give up on a topic and move to something fresh.

So then comes the big finish: When critics have been talking about the same scandal for a long time, because of your delaying tactics and the hidden paper trail, transition to the frustrated sigh: Why are we still talking about this old news? Isn’t it time to move on?

Delay, delay, delay / dismiss the scandal as old news.

Now, watch Slick Willie’s old manual at work, coming from the mouth of a different sleazy grifter: [X post at article link]

A set of detailed records just became available for the first time, showing us from inside Saint Anthony Fauci’s sleazy political operation what the man was thinking and saying privately as he lied to the country that he was abusing. There’s new evidence, in 2026, about the real meaning of events in 2020 and 2021. The paper trail was buried for a long time. There’s step one.

Then comes step two: Why are we still talking about this old news? My goodness, we’re in the middle of a DEVASTATING CYCLOSPORA OUTBREAK, there’s a huge crisis, we don’t have time to relitigate these ancient matters. Here’s the most important information on the CDC’s surveillance page for that current outbreak, by the way:

Don’t you see, we don’t have time to discuss this old thing; we’re in the middle of a huge crisis that’s killing zeroes of Americans. Meanwhile, here’s the current count from the CDC’s measles page:

Manufacturing fake crisis as a pathetic distraction, the halfwit Hassan just straight-up invents a bunch of scary nonsense: “RFK is dismantling our public health system & scientific research.” The CDC will spend billions of dollars in 2026. The NIH will spend tens of billions of dollars. Here’s how the NIH describes its own spending this year:

The NIH invests most of its nearly $48 billion budget in medical research for the American people.

Nearly 82 percent of NIH’s funding is awarded for extramural research, largely through almost 50,000 competitive grants to more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities, medical schools, and other research institutions in every state.

In addition, approximately 11 percent of the NIH’s budget supports projects conducted by nearly 6,000 scientists in its own laboratories, most of which are on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.

Merely 50,000 grants to just 300,000 researchers at only 2,500 universities: See, scientific research and our public health system are being absolutely dismantled! We don’t even have any science or health anymore! She’s making scary but empty noises to change the topic, which is her profession. Maggie Hassan gets a paycheck to prevent discussion about reality. She’s a living truth barrier, and dumber than an old sock.

Hide the records for a long time. Then, when the records are finally found, denounce the fake fact that we’re having a pointless discussion about an old topic. Clinton 101.

Here’s the other old go-to: [X post at article link]

Actually discussing the things that Fauci wrote himself, expressing his own thoughts, in a document he created in his own government office, is engaging in conspiracy theories. That phrase has become one of our clearest signals that you’re in the presence of truth, with 100 percent accuracy when it comes from the mouth of an old prostitute like Dick Durbin. Discuss anything at all but the evidence.

We’ve erected a whole cultural complex of fakery and distraction, and we’re drowning in the lies. It’s not at all hard to see how they do it, if you’re willing to see.

See also, regarding a related category of professional liar: [X post at article link]

They’re not going to stop. In the most basic sense, it’s who they are and what they do. The only answer for it is to understand them, and then to learn to hate them as much as they deserve to be hated. And then ignore their noisemaking, and keep hunting for the dark truth about Anthony Fauci.

Chris Bray, The Federalist

Egyptian officials have officially confirmed that an Iranian drone strike was responsible for damaging two US energy tankers at the port of Damietta. Following the strike, the United States carried out limited conventional air raids, opting against a broader military escalation despite warnings of a much harsher response.

Egyptian authorities officially confirmed Thursday that an explosion damaging two American energy tankers at Damietta Port was caused by an Iranian drone strike. Egyptian officials emphasized that an investigation into the incident remains underway, noting that no group has formally claimed responsibility for the operation.

The official confirmation from Cairo follows statements made by Iranian sources to The New York Times acknowledging that the attack was executed using a drone. According to those sources, the strike was intended as a signal to demonstrate Tehran’s capacity to disrupt international shipping lanes and global energy supplies if the US escalates military tension in the region. The sources did not specify whether the drone was launched directly from Iran or by a regional proxy, nor did they disclose the launch site.

Following the attack, US military forces carried out targeted air strikes against select proxy positions in the region to counter threats to maritime traffic. However, the military actions were restricted to standard conventional raids. This limited response diverged from public statements by President Donald Trump, who had promised a far stronger reaction after warning that the US would hit back hard.

---

Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial front-runner Francesca Hong is facing fresh scrutiny after a years-old social media post calling to “Abolish the Senate” resurfaced, even as her campaign now insists she never took that position.

“Abolish the Senate,” Hong, a self-described socialist, wrote in February 2021 while replying to a post from human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid. The post remained live on X as of Wednesday afternoon.

Despite the public post, a spokesperson for Hong’s campaign pushed back on the claim in comments to Fox News, arguing that Hong has never advocated eliminating the U.S. Senate.

The dispute erupted after Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany, the leading GOP candidate for Wisconsin governor, blasted Hong following Tuesday night’s Democratic primary debate.

Tiffany said Hong “has called to abolish the police, prisons, and the U.S. Senate.”

Hong’s campaign told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the Democratic state lawmaker did not remember making the 2021 post and has since clarified her position during recent media interviews.

According to the spokesperson, Hong wrote “Abolish the Senate” one day after the Senate failed to convict President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol breach. Although 57 senators voted to convict, the total fell 10 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.

The campaign said the post reflected Hong’s frustration with Trump’s acquittal rather than a lasting policy position.

“It is not her current position, and it is not something a governor has any role in. She’s running to lower costs, fund public schools, and make childcare affordable,” the spokesperson said.

The campaign also flatly denied Tiffany’s accusation.

“Rep. Hong has never called for abolishing the U.S. Senate. Tiffany cannot produce a single statement where she did, because it doesn’t exist,” the spokesperson told Fox originally.

The exchange comes as Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, leads the Democratic primary field ahead of the Aug. 11 election.

A July Marquette Law School poll found Hong with 38% support among Democratic primary voters, followed by former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes at 16% and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley at 7%. A large share of voters remained undecided.

The race to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is not seeking another term, is expected to be one of the nation’s most competitive gubernatorial contests. Evers has endorsed Crowley, while the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the general election as a “toss-up.”

We have a new Daniel in the lions’ den in Ohio. At risk is the First Amendment. What will the Supreme Court say?

Lathan Watts | July 30, 2026

The biblical account of Daniel in the lions’ den is so well known that even those with differing religious beliefs or none are likely familiar with it.  Daniel, a devout Jew exiled in Babylon, was praying in his home, which violated King Darius’s decree.  As punishment, he was cast into a den of lions, but God saved him by miraculously closing the lions’ mouths.

Thousands of years later, another Daniel finds himself at odds with his government over prayer.  The stakes are not life-threatening for this Daniel, but for religious freedom in America, they are dire.

Daniel Grand is a devout Orthodox Jew who has lived in University Heights, Ohio, a small suburb east of Cleveland, since 2019.  He bought his home to raise his family and live out his faith.  For Daniel, those things are inseparable.

Orthodox Jewish practice calls for prayer in a group of at least ten men three times every weekday and four times on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays.  On those holy days, driving is prohibited, which means Daniel must either live within walking distance of a synagogue or gather with at least ten Jewish men close to home.  A minyan — a traditional Jewish prayer quorum — is not a convenience for Daniel.  It is a religious duty.

He reached out to about a dozen friends near his neighborhood, inviting them to walk to his house the following Sabbath and pray together as a minyan.  No announcements.  No signage.  No noise.  Just a quiet gathering of men who share their faith and live close enough to walk to each other’s homes.

A neighbor saw the email and informed the city’s mayor.  The next day — before the prayer meeting could happen — the city sent Daniel a cease-and-desist order.  It accused him of operating an illegal “place of religious assembly.”  It threatened legal penalties.  And it ordered him to stop, citing zoning regulations.

What happened to Daniel had nothing to do with traffic, noise, or any legitimate zoning concern.  It had to do with the fact that University Heights decided to classify Daniel’s prayer group the same way it classifies actual synagogues and other houses of worship — as “places of religious assembly” requiring a special use permit.

Daniel tried to work with the city and began the process of filing for the permit.  The public hearing that followed was marked by overt hostility.  Some neighbors sent letters opposing the permit with statements like “I am not Jewish, and I do not want our neighborhood labeled as Jewish.”

Then came the ultimate Catch-22.  Daniel discovered that obtaining the permit the city had told him to apply for would have barred “sleeping or residential use” on any property governed by the permit.  So the only way to legally host a prayer group in his home was to stop living there.  Faced with the untenable choice between praying at home with friends or living at home, and wanting to avoid another hostile public spectacle, Daniel withdrew his permit application.

After Daniel withdrew his application, the city government’s harassment escalated.  The mayor declared publicly that the cease-and-desist order remained in full force.  The mayor turned to the community, urging Daniel’s neighbors to surveil his home and “report” any “activities consistent with those in a house of assembly.”  Police patrols drove past Daniel’s house.  The city prosecutor launched baseless housing code investigations against him.  The city withheld Daniel’s certificate of occupancy and tax abatements, resulting in substantial additional taxes.  City workers even began periodically skipping his home on trash collection days.

This was a coordinated pattern of harassment and discrimination.  Forcing Daniel to continue the permit process was a punishment.

In 2022, Daniel filed suit in federal court for violations of his First Amendment rights, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, and other federal and state laws.  But the district court dismissed his case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit agreed, saying that because Daniel had not fully completed the permit process, a court could not review his case.  Missing the constitutional forest for the procedural trees, these courts never addressed the city’s blatant violations of the First Amendment.

In February 2026, Daniel petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear his case.  He wrote that petition himself, and it garnered the support of nine amicus briefs.  Alliance Defending Freedom then came on as co-counsel, alongside Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, filing a reply brief on Daniel’s behalf, urging the high court to hear his case, Grand v. City of University Heights.  In June, the court agreed.

If the free exercise clause of the First Amendment means anything, it should mean that no American needs the government’s permission to host a prayer meeting in his home.  The result of the city’s position — that poker night with ten friends is fine, but praying requires a permit — would be laughable if the consequences were not so serious.

If government can restrict religious observance in a man’s home with no accountability, then bureaucratic tentacles have slithered into the sacred space between man and God.  In this nation, founded by pilgrims fleeing religious persecution, nothing could be more antithetical to our way of life than government officials policing private religious practice.

Though this attack on religious liberty came from a local government, the United States Supreme Court should deliver justice for Daniel on a Grand scale.

Lathan Watts is the vice president of public affairs for Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal) and its sister organization, ADF Action.  He earned his juris doctor degree from the University of Mississippi.

Iran’s rulers are not playing to win the war today—they are playing to survive long enough to fight another one tomorrow.

By Victor Davis Hanson

July 30, 2026

We are now in Stage III of the Iran War: the familiar monotony of bomb, talk, bomb.

It is now the liberal consensus that the war has failed, if not been won by Iran.

Hardly. It will likely take a decade for Iran to recover and rearm.

Russia has been sidelined in the Middle East. China is losing its influence with the Iranian theocracy. Nor is Beijing riding high; instead, it is grappling with trade, demographic, energy, and food challenges.

The Gulf states are more pro-American than they have been in decades.

Israel is stronger than ever and has humiliated an enemy that, for nearly 50 years, remained on a war footing while enjoying a population ten times larger.

But what’s next?

We could be entering the war’s final stage, marked by an effort to escalate decisively before disengaging.

We know the tired Iranian strategy by now. We might call it “theocratic rope-a-dope.” For the theocrats and their terrorist proxies, survival means outlasting Trump, waiting for the next cash-laden Democratic administration, and using “moderates” to play good cop while haggling away months.

The mullahs and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps feign indifference even as their half-century, half-trillion-dollar investments in what is now essentially a vaporized military-industrial-nuclear complex continue to be destroyed.

The war has finally revealed the full extent of Iran’s vast conventional arsenal, nuclear program, and missile and drone industry.

These munitions proved far more numerous and deadlier than experts had imagined. The regime had poured much of its GDP into conventional arms, missiles, drones, and its nuclear program in hopes of dominating the Gulf, holding Israel beneath a nuclear sword of Damocles, and eventually bringing European cities within range of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

The Islamic government shows no real concern for the attendant suffering of its own 93 million people. In the theocrats’ view, it matters little whether 1,000 civilians die as collateral damage from allied bombing or 36,000 are murdered by their own government. All that concerns these corrupt grandees is preserving their own comfort amid the rubble.

The Iranian zealots are counting on the Trump administration to withdraw, thereby avoiding a two-year-long impeachment and lawfare circus while preserving the Republican House majority. Yet doing so also requires relative calm in the Gulf, a denuclearized Iran, an open Strait of Hormuz, oil prices between $60 and $70 a barrel, and gasoline prices of roughly $2.50 to $3.00 a gallon—all conditions the theocrats believe they can control.

So what would best accomplish the Trump administration’s objectives, both militarily abroad and politically at home?

We may see another week or two of intensive strikes against Iran’s dual-use infrastructure. At some point, the United States may also seal Pickaxe Mountain and any other remaining sites suspected of storing or producing enriched uranium.

The United States has already severed many of Iran’s rail and maritime links to China, Russia, and their allies. It can reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force and convert frozen Iranian assets into a maritime insurance fund to compensate any foreign tanker damaged by Iranian attacks.

Then, by mid-August, the United States could disengage, leaving a small naval flotilla and regional air bases to coordinate Gulf and Israeli retaliation against Iranian missile and drone attacks while maintaining all sanctions and embargoes until Tehran ends its attacks on the Gulf and shipping through the Strait.

One reason, among many, that the Shah fell in January 1979 was that the Ayatollah Khomeini spent 13 years in exile in Iraq, where he built a veritable shadow theocracy. As resistance to the Shah mounted, Khomeini moved in 1978 to the more visible and media-friendly setting of Paris for four months before returning to Tehran to hijack the revolution and seize control of the country.

Iranian anti-clerical dissidents should reverse that model by establishing their own provisional government in exile, pledged to oversee a transition to consensual rule once it assumes power. Western governments should recognize it, transfer frozen Iranian assets to finance its media and outreach, help arm it, and negotiate exclusively with it while shunning all contact with the theocratic prevaricators.

Its agenda should entail a comprehensive plan to replace the theocracy with the help of seized Iranian assets and Western military and financial support.

Unlike the Obama administration’s haphazard and incoherent intervention in Libya, the United States could make any direct assistance contingent on a viable provisional government presenting a concrete plan for national unity, a realistic timetable for elections, demonstrable support within Iran, and a determination to prevail.

The Iranian people remain pro-Western.

They will likely eventually regain their determination to rid themselves of their corrupt, mass-murdering rulers once the bombing stops. Then the full extent of the damage will become clear, and the theocracy will try once again to rebuild its garrison state and subsidize Arab terrorists abroad—at the expense of an already destitute Iranian people.

Victor Davis. Hanson

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are scheming to gut the Constitution and implement full-scale communism in the United States – and they’re not being shy about it.

From July 31 to August 2, the DSA will host a “Socialists Summit” in Chicago, which the organization’s event page describes as an opportunity “to learn through political education, skills training, organizer development, general programming, and social activities.” The summit will specifically center on the DSA’s latest policy platform, which amounts to a shocking attack on capitalism, private property, the U.S. Constitution, and the entire American system.

One section of the platform, titled “A Real Democracy,” calls for abolishing the Electoral College along with the Senate, presidency, and Supreme Court. It states plainly that the executive and judiciary should be “chosen by and subordinate to Congress.”

Another section, titled “A Democratic Congress,” goes even further, calling for the replacement of the two-party system with proportional representation, ranked-choice voting in all elections, and voting rights for “all permanent U.S. residents” – which includes illegal aliens, who will be given a “pathway to citizenship” under the DSA platform.

But the real kicker comes in a section titled “economic democracy,” in which the DSA demands “public ownership of the largest corporations and essential industries to ensure democratic control and accountability to the people” – in other words, communism.

The DSA platform calls for extending voting rights to “all permanent U.S. residents,” taxpayer-funded political campaigns, abolishing the Senate, and seizing ownership of private companies.

These proposals amount to a total rejection of the system of separation of of powers and checks and balances outlined in the Constitution. The framers built these important checks into the American system of government specifically to prevent any single branch from accumulating too much authority.

But the DSA’s radical platform doesn’t stop at scrapping the Constitution. It also calls for massive economic and social upheaval, including “universal rent control,” reparations for slavery, abolishing prisons and police, and ending “patriarchal restrictions on abortion, childbirth and childraising, and gender expression and transition.”

On foreign policy, the platform demands defunding the Department of War, closing overseas military bases, and ending U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran. It also calls for legalizing all mass migration and granting amnesty to immigrants regardless of legal status.

The DSA Platform on foreign policy calls for defunding the Department of War, prosecuting Israeli leaders, ending sanctions against terrorist regimes, and abolishing ICE.

The DSA’s National Political Committee adopted the platform this summer after a months-long drafting process, according to City Journal. The provision replacing the presidency and the Supreme Court passed the committee by a razor-thin margin, while a separate amendment on abolishing police and prisons passed 16 to 8.

Program co-author Michaela Brangan offered few details about what would replace the presidency during the launch webinar, according to the Washington Examiner. “We could call it the ‘head honcho’ or whatever,” she said, comparing the office to a prime minister rather than an elected president.

Socialist commentator Emma Vigeland, speaking on the same call, compared the abolition of the Senate to Britain’s removal of hereditary peers from the House of Lords. Britain, however, retained the Lords as an appointed upper chamber and remains a bicameral system.

Reading the DSA’s description of its vision for the future of America underscores just how detached from reality its members are. It asks readers to envision a “socialist day off.” Here’s what that looks like, according to the platform:

“You have no debt. You don’t need health insurance. You don’t pay a mortgage or have a landlord, because comfortable housing is a human right. Your retirement is publicly funded. Food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation aren’t for-profit businesses; they are common goods and utilities.”

To anyone with a basic understanding of economics and the real world, that’s the stuff of childish fantasies. It might be laughable – if it weren’t becoming a mainstream position on the political left.

Five years ago, virtually no one had heard of the DSA. Now, it boasts more than 95,000 members, including the mayor of America’s largest city, Zohran Mamdani. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the highest-profile House Democrats and a potential 2028 presidential contender, has ties to the group, as does Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, DSA-backed primary candidates are winning Democrat primaries against candidates backed by the liberal establishment. At least three DSA picks, Darializa Avila Chevalier, Claire Valdez, and Melat Kiros, are on track to win U.S. House races in deep blue seats this fall. The DSA’s own news outlet, the Democratic Left, counts nearly 90 endorsed candidates running nationwide this cycle, including more than a dozen for Congress.

Inside the Democrat Party, formal resistance to this agenda has been minimal. Just 10 House Democrats and three candidates signed a “Promise to America” pledge in June, declaring, “We are capitalist, not socialist.” Set against a House Democrat caucus of more than 200 members, that amounts to a dismal level of support.

Carrying out the platform would require constitutional changes of extraordinary scope. The DSA itself calls for a new political system and a new constitution establishing a “democratic socialist republic.”

The DSA does not need current politicians in Washington to embrace its platform. It just needs to keep winning Democrat primaries and transforming the party into a vehicle to advance radical socialist-communist policies. Given that 59 percent of self-described Democrats view the DSA favorably, that strategy seems like an effective one.

As voters cast their ballots this fall, they should understand that a vote for Democrats is also a vote for the growing power of the DSA. Their radical platform remains a fringe position. But if current trends continue, it won’t be for long.

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Sarah Katherine Sisk, AMAC Newsline

Islamic Academy Acquires Richardson Baptist Church, Plans K‑12 School, Seminary, and MosqueThe campus is slated to become an Islamic education hub built around an “Islamization of Knowledge” curriculum.

A Muslim organization has purchased a Baptist church in Richardson after engaging in a lawsuit with the previous owners over a signing dispute. The organization announced plans to convert the church campus into a Muslim school, seminary, and mosque, in addition to other uses.

Salahuddin Future Academy (SAFA), the purchaser of the property, is a K-12 educational entity that states part of its mission is to “connect learning to Islamic principles by integrating the rich texts of the Quran and Hadith into every aspect of the Common Core standards” through a curriculum they describe as “Islamization of Knowledge.”

SAFA purchased the property from the Korean World Mission Baptist Church, which states on its website that it has owned the property since 1992. Some of the church’s prayers include that the people would “love Jesus more than anything else” and that the church would “[be a place] where Jesus’ disciples are made,” according to a translation from Korean.

“Our church’s mission is to live a life that brings glory to God by transforming people into God’s children and Jesus’ disciples,” according to a translation from Korean.

According to The Dallas Express, SAFA sued the Baptist church in February. The lawsuit was filed over SAFA’s claims that the church allegedly signed a contract in October of last year to sell the property for $3.8 million.

After SAFA allegedly paid $38,000 in earnest money and expected the transaction to close in May, the Korean Baptist Church stated that the pastor misunderstood what he was signing, thinking it was a listing agreement. This prompted SAFA to file the lawsuit to push the sale forward and seek more than $1 million in damages. The suit was dismissed in April without a ruling on the merits.

In conjunction with SAFA, Authentic Ilm Mission (AIM) has plans to open the Dawah Academy & Seminary on the property. Described as “America’s first national residential Dawah seminary,” the academy offers pathways ranging from an entry-level intensive to a “Bachelor’s Degree in Islamic Studies.”

“We are dedicated to cultivating knowledgeable, principled, and effective leaders who can represent Islam with wisdom, defend the truth with evidence, and carry the prophetic legacy into every sphere of modern life.”

The property will reportedly also house a mosque.

In a video posted to the AIM Facebook account, a speaker for AIM boasted that Korean World Mission Baptist Church “was a church that used to train missionaries to try to give Da’wah (evangelization) to Muslims to leave Islam, but … now we’re going to buy this place.” During this comment, the phrase “Muslim haters!!” was flashed on the screen.

The purchase of the former Baptist church property comes as concerns continue to rise over Islam’s influence in Texas.

At a recent mosque open house in Plano, a speaker announced that “Sharia is already here.” Another man, who claimed to have “lived under full force of Sharia law (in Iran)”, warned of “apostasy laws, where they’re being killed for leaving their religion in my country, Iran.”

While Islam makes up just 2 percent of the population of Texas, the state holds what some estimates claim is the fifth-largest population of Muslims in the nation and Islam is widely cited as the fastest-growing religion in the world.

Hunter Burney