Timothy Birdnow

It doesn't matter.

While we don't want American taxpayer funds wasted what is at issue is rebuilding Iran under the Mullahs. All we are doing is Making Iran Great Again and ultimately a lot of taxpayer money will wind up funding this anyway. Let them rebuild and they will rebuild their military capabilities. There will be no strings attached to this money and even if there is nothing will stop Iran.

After the fall of the Soviet Union the Clinton Administration was very worried about the old Soviet nuclear arsenal. So Clinton started a number of programs to keep nukes from leaving Russia. For instance, he paid to keep the old nuclear cities - the places where nuclear scientists worked to enrich uranium and make plutonium - operating. Yes, operating so the scientists wouldn't go to some Third World country and give them atomic weapons. The end result was Russia had all this nuclear material and nothing to do with it but make more bombs.

Meanwhile Clinton paid to destroy the old Soviet arsenal. The Ukrainians agreed to give up their portion of said arsenal (thus making them vulnerable to Russian attack) and so did Russia. But the agreement did nothing to prevent anyone from building a new arsenal, and Putin had all this enriched uranium at his disposal. The end result was Russia built a newer, far more advanced nuclear arsenal, larger and more modern than the U.S.

See, we gave Putin the ability to build those weapons by funding the Russians, paying them for their goo intentions.

If we give Iran money no matter the source we allow them to fund whatever they like, even if there are strings attached (because it will free up other money from other sources). Money is fungible and always has been.

I suspect Trump sees this as a kind of American version of China's Belt and Roadway policy in which we retain control of the money and can set terms. But it just won't work that with with this bunch who see everything through the prism of the 12th Imam.

Sadly our policy with Iran should have been much like Rome's policy towards Carthage. Maybe we wouldn't sow salt in the Earth but we should have tried to break the country economically. And maybe we SHOULD just break the country up; it is an empire after all, ruled by the Persians who dominate the minority races such as the Medes or Kurds or whatnot. But we are leaving Iran intact and giving her the money it needs to rebuild her weapons stockpiles. This is foolish.

I trust Trump to try to do the right thing, but I fear he just can't conceive of the kind of fanaticism he's dealing with here and he doesn't grasp that you can't make binding agreements with people like the Mullahs.

But then I've long said Trump won't solve the situation - he can't. My thinking comes from the Bible and the Bible makes it clear Iran will be a major player in the Great Tribulation and that Armageddon will include them. The King of the East doesn't march through Siberia, after all.

Trump may get the best we can do, which is a couple of decades of relative peace. But I think we should have crippled Iran economically. I hate to do that but sometimes there is no other option and a prosperous Iran is a more dangerous Iran.

And I assure you that the matter of Lebanon and Hezbollah will read it's ugly head again soon, breaching the deal and Iran will renege on the deal as soon as Israel launches a counter-attack on the Iranian proxy.

So nothing changes. It was a valiant try but in the end this region is unreformable by any but the Most High.

Posted by: Mike at June 18, 2026 08:11 PM (kLFaU)

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at June 19, 2026 04:28 PM (oflqW)

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