Randy D Gibson

I despise wars. There is no glory in the shedding of blood or in the drain of a nation’s economy. There is no glory in the fear of the children and elders, or in the destruction of historical sites and architecture.

As a moderate conservative, my preference is always for a prosperous and peaceful society. Sadly, though, we do not live in a world defined by our preferences. We live in a world defined by reality, and the reality of the Iranian regime is one that we have spent nearly five decades trying to wish away with “hope” and “diplomacy” that is never reciprocated.

The roots of this bitterness go back to 1979. When the Shah of Iran fell and the revolutionaries stormed the US Embassy, taking our citizens hostage for 444 days, they didn’t just seize a building; they declared a permanent war on the West.

Since that moment, the United States has attempted every conceivable method of deescalation. We have negotiated, signed agreements, and offered seats at the table. In return, Tehran has broken every promise made to the UN and the US, continuing their pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Their rhetoric isn’t metaphorical. When they chant “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” their leaders are stating their mission. They a despise our way of life, our freedoms, and the religious foundations of our societies. They view the Christian majority of the United States and the Jewish homeland of Israel not as sovereign nations, but as obstacles to be annihilated.

We saw the peak of “hope-based” foreign policy during the Obama years. We were told that engagement would bring them into the family of nations. Instead, we saw pallets of cash—$1.7 billion in foreign currency—delivered on a plane in the middle of the night. This wasn’t a peace offering but fuel for a fire. That cash didn’t go to the Iranian people, who are regularly slaughtered in for protesting a theocracy that denies basic freedom to women. It went to sponsoring the very terror groups that eventually stormed into Israel to kidnap women and children, taking hostages in a barbaric display that mirrors the 1979 crisis.

The fact is, you cannot treat a rogue state like a civilized partner if they refuse to act like one. It brings to mind the simple logic of the playground. Imagine a bully on a playground who despises you. Every day, he threatens to hit you. One day, you decide to give him your lunch money, hoping he’ll leave you alone. What does the bully do? He doesn’t go buy a book and become your friend. He uses that money to buy a bigger stick so he can threaten you even more effectively tomorrow.

You don’t stop a bully by paying him off, you stop him by making the cost of his aggression higher than the reward. By allowing Iran to block nuclear inspections while we handed them the financial means to fund proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah, we didn’t buy peace. We bought the October 7th massacre.

The sad reality is a rogue nation requires a peace through strength, an approach that is often missing from modern diplomacy. We must recognize the thoughts of the people we are dealing with.

Agreements require trust, and you cannot trust someone who believes your annihilation is a religious duty. Every dollar sent to Tehran is a dollar spent against us and our allies.

In the end, freedom is the goal. We should stand with the Iranian people—the women and the protesters—who want the same freedoms we enjoy.

I despise wars, but I despise the slow, cowardly retreat of a great nation even more.

If we want to avoid a longer and larger problem, we must stop feeding the bully and start restoring the deterrent that kept the world safe for generations. After going through all the fury, that result would truly be epic.

Randy D Gibson is CEO of RDG communications Group.